How to round out facetted paper build

[andyopayne]

I've made a few costumes in the past, but I'm trying something new this time and I have a few questions.

I'm working on a fairly large mask of Mario (from Mario Bros). In the past, I've made things out of EVA foam and it's gone pretty well. This time, I found a template for a Mario mask (from DT Workshop) that uses folded card-stock. However, because it's paper and because I eventually want to paint it, I need to stiffen it up some and make it so that the moisture from the paint won't seep into the paper.

I watched a different YouTube video from Sean's Crafts which shows adding fiber glass/resin to a paper mask to stiffen it up. This looks like it would be a good option for what I'm trying to do. My question deals with what to do after I've applied the fiber glass and resin to the mask.

In Sean's video, he adds wood putty and sands everything down until it's round and smooth. I was thinking of doing the same, however my model is much bigger and also more facetted... which means, I'm likely going to need more putty and/or filler in order to round out the mask.

This poses two problems: 1) wood putty tends to be brittle and I'm concerned that larger sections of it could break off and ruin the look and 2) with the added weight of the fiber glass and then putty I'm concerned that the mask will become too heavy to wear for any decent amount of time (did I mention that I'm making this for my kids to wear at Halloween).

To rectify the "brittleness" of the wood putty, I've considered using something more durable like Bondo... but I'm concerned that this will make things even heavier. I've used Foam Clay in the past which is really light ,but I've had some mixed results with it. In some of the parts that I've made with Foam Clay, the parts tended to wrinkle after it dried for a few days. I really don't want the entire mask to become wrinkly, so I'm hesitant to go down that road. Plus, I don't know how well Foam Clay would adhere to the fiber glass mask.

Does anyone have any recommendations for something I could use to "round out" the facetted mask that I'm building? Here's a picture of the "hat" of the mask for reference.

 

[TerranCmdr]

That's definitely quite the dilemma. I'd almost say lean into the polygonal look as if you meant it that way.

 

[TazMan2000]

That is some serious faceting. You'd be better off trying to get a better mask. Perhaps a 3D printed one.

TazMan2000

 

[rjsosongco]

That model is going to be a pain to round out. You'd have to fill way past each edge of the model in order to have enough material to round it out smoothly. In general, the more facets on a model the easier it is to smooth out, but the model you have is so low res that you'd be in for a ton of work just to end up with mountains of filler.

If you have more positive experience with EVA foam, I would go with that.

1. If you have a 3d printer, find a fairly smooth model of Mario to 3d print. If not, you can also but a Mario toy, there might still be toys from the movie in stores. Get it as big as you can to make your life easier.
2. Cover that physical print/toy in masking tape, draw out seams and registration marks, and cut and peel it off so each piece of the pattern is as flat as possible.
3. Photograph or scan the pieces alongside a ruler so you have an idea of scale.
4. Enlarge the scanned template to the size you need, then print.
5. Trace onto foam, glue together, etc etc.

You'll get a smoother and definitely lighter head going that route.