My Predator Build! A trail & Error

[Xeno Purge]

Hi there I thought I would start a blog of sorts for my attempt at a predator build. Im in for the long haul and realize I have a lot of trail and error ahead of me. But what doesn't kill us only make us stronger, Right? Or in this case better. I will be posting pictures of each step i take. Starting with the skin. Any advice along the way or tips when i get to certain bits would be much appreciated. Im Jake by the way, i hope to prove myself to myself and to you. I hopefully will become a regular on here although i have read PredatrHuntr post on this site. But i lov a turning tide.

My first Question would be Is there a set of rules to follow when making a predator, as in styles and colour schemes. I want to take ideas I have seen from a few places and try and merge into one?

So I start with my black Nasty body. Made this in legs chest and arm pieces. I managed to get a Spider man suit from a fancy dress shop for £30 . Ex hire - still in good nick though. The Black nasty I got for £4 a roll and five rolls.

Tomorrow i make my own space in my dads Man shed. He wasnt keen at first but i talked him round (Yes im 33 and i stay with my dad at weekends, not sure MOD will appreciate me trying this in the block). I am going to try and fill the black nasty suit with expanding foam. wil post a picture tomorrow!

 

[predtrooper]

Looking forward to watching this mate.hope it all goes to plan

 

[Xeno Purge]

Looking forward to watching this mate.hope it all goes to plan

Ha I hope so to but im going to take the ups with the downs!

 

[DMTDeadpool]

Welcome to the hunting grounds. Nice start to a long process lol

The only limits you have are your imagination, buddy. If you want ideas though, the movies have a few variants in paint colours, the comics have a huge array of predator styles to chose from, I got all 4 omnibus collections for £10 each from Amazon. well worth a read for any predator fan, or if you looking for weapon/bio/skin/armour ideas.

You can also look at the markings on reptiles for inspiration too.

 

[Xeno Purge]

Thanks Deadpool! Comics ordered!

So today I attached my arms to my body, and filled out the chest. Filled some with expanding foam but it needs air to cure so its a bit spongey in some places. But it has a week to cure while i go to work so hopefully when i return it will be set. The chest piece doesnt really need it as i braced the front and back with some ply that i found in my dads shed! It a treasure trove in there!

So I have ordered my clay, with the tought of sculpting the face while im away in the week, the only problem i can see with is will be the three hour drive from stafford back home (dont want to damage it). But this will be a later worry as i have to mess the skin up first!

My Latex should be here on Wednesday. so hopefully I can start then, also can anyone answer me this, am i better incorporating the shoulder armour into the skin and paint up at the end, or attaching it as a separate fixing?

Any one know of the best place to buy a compressor & airbrush? Also what inks to use?

 

[BATIMAN]

eBay is full of compressors brother , take your pick
I got this one , does the job pretty well

Alex

 

[Xeno Purge]

eBay is full of compressors brother , take your pick
I got this one , does the job pretty well



Alex

That thing is a Beast!!

im looking at this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AIR-COMPR...637?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item51b9eb1a55

 

[BATIMAN]

Looks like it would do what you need,
I tried a few different airbrush compressors and they worked fine , but heat up fast ( 2 did)
and you can use that for other projects too


Alex

 

[DMTDeadpool]

You can go either way with the armour. But detachable armour has the advantage of easy replacement or upgrade in the future. If you incorporate the armour into your suit, you are kinda stuck with that or make an entire new suit/ fix up areas that were covered.

For the clay. When you are not working on it give it a spray with a hand sprayer, like the ones you get for cleaning and gardening, fill that with water and spray your sculpt before covering it with a plastic bag (cover the entire piece for prolonged periods of not sculpting, even the bottom) for transportation... I don't really recommend excessive movement. 1. depending on the armature you are building on, your sculpt can get rather heavy. 2. You can avoid 98% of all accidental damage to your piece by simply not moving it.

If it is just over the weekends that you will not be working on it, put it someplace safe and cover it, will be fine for a couple days during which time you can focus on other parts. give it a decent spray of water first though. I lost months worth of work by not keeping my last sculpt moist and it became solid For the armature, you can use polystyrene heads, the kind you see modeling sunglasses and hats... Gives you a nice human head shape to work from, for making eye holes and the like. You should cover them in something like plastikote or at the very very least some primer, to give the clay a better stick.

For the inks, search online for airbrush inks. and don't forget the latex adhesive for the ink too, it prevents the dry ink from cracking on latex.

What else.... Oh! decide early on what mouth you are doing... Open, closed or, if you want to later make the mouth open and close, through some contraption, do the mouth half open. unless you want the messed up outward bend to the skin between the mandibles, watch AVP 1 and at the end when Scar is with the woman, lexy I think her name was... Check out his mouth after he first opens it, the mouth closed wrong and... you will see it when you watch the movie... well yeah, that's what they did wrong. Obviously sculpted the mouth open and the latex couldn't contract enough to look perfect, like every other predator.

 

[Xeno Purge]

You can go either way with the armour...........

You have now become a god in my eyes. Thanks for the time you put into the response.

So im going to go with a half/half with the mouth. Just in case. There is a pottery place near me so I might pop into them and see what they would suggest aswell.

I will get on to those other products you said aswell. I have the heads already coming. Plus I'm on a hunt for a full size manniquin.

Went a bit crazy last night buying accessories for it. think it was from reading another thread on here think it was the celtic pred. But that made me wanna do it.

So I now have lots of bits heading my way. skulls and steam punk stuff mainly.

I'll post pictures of what if got and what I might use them for, plus the other bits I have bought.

I'll find out if it's the right latex then

 

[Xeno Purge]

So these are the bits that I have picked up so far. My dads shed is a treasure trove of tools and gear which is nice. I'm currently looking for a workbench/ drawer system.

Well these are the bits I bought

So thats the tool bits I'm still missing the latex adhesive, brushes, sealer etc. But brushes is all I need to make the suit base. Although I might get some ink to mix with latex to give a base colour.

 

[Xeno Purge]

That last post was effort to post !

Right these are the accessories parts plus some foam I got



Now for the fun stuff that will hopefully set mine apart some how.

buffalo horn I think. It's buffalo something. What do you think I could use these for - I do know

cheeky skull

resin skull £6 I think

random but cool but where will this go? I'm looking forward to figuring this out.

few horns

two of these - beaver pelts

quite cool for something and the steam punk stuff.
and motion sensor, moving camera.

So posting this here I think I have to separate ideas I want to go for.
A steam punk pred and a naturist pred.

 

[DMTDeadpool]

Sweet, so now, if I ever meet Gozer the Gazarian, and it asks me if I am a god... I can say... well Caboose thinks so...

How are you making your armour pieces? pep and resin, foam or sculpting and casting?

Check out clothing stores, If you don't mind a bit of damage (usually easily repaired), you could end up saving a mannequin from the dump and yourself some money. Or maybe get one for cheap if there are no freebies going.

http://www.smdesigns.co.uk/product/show/5092-illustration-flexi-adhesion
good adhesive for latex painting, you will find the inks there too.

 

[Xeno Purge]

Haha its Jake by the way

I'm going with foam or sculpting I think, ill see when I get there.

That link is what I have been looking for with regards to that adhesion how far will that go? in regards to the suit? I'm 6ft3 225 pounds in old money. Plus the extra bluk I add in "muscle". So im asking how many 120ml will I need for one suit.

 

[predtrooper]

Im lovin some of the accessories youv bought and like the steampunk idea. Do you have a final design or are you just seeing how it evolves

 

[DMTDeadpool]

Ryan on this end, Brother.

Pepping the files is easier than sculpting. Alternately you can work with Pep first, get some sizes down so you can sculpt away without fear of the thing not fitting when you are done. But is your build, you go whatever road you desire.

How much adhesive depend on the range of colours you are going for. Get a few bottles, say 3. you don't need much, and you can order more if you need to. When you get to the last bottle, judge by what you have used, and what still remains to be done and make a guess as to how much you would need thereafter.

For big colours, (loads of coverage) premixing the ink and adhesive is highly recommended. Blend your colours for a more natural transition, so get a couple shades of the colours you are working with.

 

[Xeno Purge]

Im lovin some of the accessories youv bought and like the steampunk idea. Do you have a final design or are you just seeing how it evolves

Tbh it's going to be more learning, so I guess it will be a see how it goes. Trail and error until I get something I'm happy with.
I don't think the steam punk will work with the horns etc. But there might be a way. I do have some rough "images" in my head but they are a long way off. I might buy a pad and try and capture the ideas, or maybe print off a picture of a bio and draw it onto them. To keep the ideas until I get there.

Just missed out on some antlope antlers have a look at them - was thinking I could make some sort or spear put of them

 

[Xeno Purge]

Ryan on this end, Brother.

Pepping the files is easier than sculpting. Alternately yt.....

I looked at pepping and it seemed more difficult. But I as im away in the week it might meet I can do it then. I'll print some off this weekend and give it ago.

 

[predtrooper]

Just wondering, where did you see that motion sensor camera it looks like an interesting idea ?

 

[Raalkuun]

you might want to add some more padded muscle to your spider suit the 1 pic you show looks kinda light weight t me. just my opinion, each hunter suit is his own labor of love and hate.