Predator 1:1 Display Wip

Don't know how accurate this is for the fanny pack, but I picked it up on Ebay tonight for $10. I'll trim off the ragged edge, darken it up a bit with dye and switch out the closure to a simple brown or black snap.


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After a van rental was coordinated, I rushed up to Columbus to collect my Predator. 2 hrs up and 2 hrs back. I'm whipped, but the Predator is finally home.
 
Two steps forward, one step back . . .

When I got everything home and put the head on the newly painted body, I learned that the head doesn't match the body. Not at all. Two completely different color schemes. Two completely different styles.

You can look at the head by itself and it looks good. You can look at the body by itself and it looks good. Put them together and they look wrong. I was hoping to save myself a lot of time and effort by coordinating most of the project, but it looks like I'll have to break down and do some airbrushing. I will work on the head a bit to cut some of the gloss and darken up the brown areas. On the body I'll try to lighten up the creamy / yellow and add some gloss. I think I'm also going to have to lighten the armor a bit. The camera flash makes the body and armor look a lot lighter than it does in person.

Tomorrrow, I plan to spend the day getting the faux rock formation modified and get the Ped standing again.

The fanny pack came today and it looks great! I need to switch out the decorative brass brass button and add something more plain and then weather / darken it up. Hard to tell from the pics if the real pouch is square or rectangular, but this is close enough for me since I don't have good reference. Anyone have any ideas on what interesting pocket sized equipment I could put in there just for fun?
 
I am very excited to see the finished product. Please post many angles and close ups as I think I will use this for references on my costume build. This is the best 1:1 full Pred I have found on here in my opinion. just a quick off the subject comment, Are you married, cause If you are can you tell me how you talked your wife into letting you do that work in the kitchen...I am banished to my garage for my work!!

It looks FANTASTIC!
 
Sounds like you should be able to match the head and body without too mich problems. Armor changes with different lighting, the darker seems more natural and blends with your display. I think the pouch contains eyes for a snack
 
Pred2012, the kitchen shots were at Bob's house from when he was doing the finish work, and he is recently single. I have a workshop attached to the house, but today I'll be working with the big ole boulder stuff out in the driveway or back yard.

I'm married and pretty lucky to have a wife who indulges me in a lot of things. She's allowing this, when completed to go into the family room. WIth the rock base, it's going to be huge. There are some stipulations she's put on my doing that, but not unreasonable. What's funny is that there are certain things I am NOT allowed to display. I was really surprised that she gave the green light last year for a full Pred, but right now she will not allow me to get a fully chromed Terminator bust. Why not? Because she says it's too creepy. I just shake my head, thinking, "And the Predator isn't creepy?" I would think she would have let me get a Terminator bust and would have said no to the Pred. No figuring out women. I was also not allowed get a Zuni doll replica from "Trilogy of Terror," and when we got married I had to get rid of my Jeepers Creepers bust completed by the guy who did the creature FX because she thought The Creeper was always staring at her.

I agree Seahunter, it shouldn't be too hard to pull the two paint variations together. I just really don't want to mess up the quills on the head and plucking them all out and then replacing them seems like a lot to do. Thinking I'll do what hair stylists do and put little bits of aluminimum foil around each and pluck them off later. I can insert the dreads into a bag and tape off around the crown edge.

The real armor definitely looks different under different light, but it is darker still in person than it is in the pics. Looks like gunmetal. Like Vader armor. Even at it's darkest it should only lighter . . .

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There seem to have been a couple of variations on the real suits. One with the greenish algae streaks like above, which is what I'm wanting, and then the lighter still version with dirty aluminum with lots of rust.

What I'll probably do with mine is hit it tape it off, hit it lightly with some aluminum to lighten it up, then go back in with an airbrush to put some of the detail back in. Will probably use a combination of airbrush and sponge to put those bracking green streaks in.

Joe did a great job, and the feet and hands are pretty much perfect, but there are all sorts of things that I just want my way, and I come from a background of trying to accurately replicate props and costumes, an many people do their own interpretation on things. It will all be good, though.

Pics of rock base work later today :)
 
Glad to hear Slave1! My gf is allowing me to indulge by getting a Pred suit and letting me display it when not wearing it either ;) Seems like we have some pretty kick @ss significant others.

Btw, where did you find that fanny pack? I need to get one as well :)
 
Taking a break from the sun and heat. Cutting up the fake boulder isn't as easy as predicted. I thought, "How hard could it be, it's just rigid foam."

Wrong! It has this thick plastic skin that's like trying to cut up a side of beef with a utility knife. I have a great saw with aggressive cutting ability, but I worked up quite a sweat removing the top two rocks. No jokes about getting my rocks off, please!

It's a good thing that the boulder is so tough, though. That means it's going to hold up under all the weight I'll be putting on it.

Sutter, I got the fanny pack off of Ebay. There were several different things for all different price ranges, but this looked the closest to me. Just needs to be darkened and dirtied a bit and was only $10. Shoot me a PM and LMK if you can't find anything suitable and I'll shoot you the auction link and you can ask the seller if they can make another to your specs.

Back to work. Have to use a jigsaw to contour the wooden base to the contour of the faux boulder.
 
I would have thought the Predator would be more creepy than the terminator, but either way, you are a lucky man to have an understanding wife! Kudos to you and to her! Still cant wait to see the entire mount! The base looks pretty sweet !
 
Yeah, I thought the Pred would be more creepy to her, glass eyes and whatnot. I can't figure it out.

Very tired after working on this sucker all day and I didn't even get to the messy part. I did clear coat the body parts since Joe said he hadn't done that. Have to admit I was very disappointed when I got the body out into the sunlight and saw the amount of overspray there was from the armor. There are places where the gunmetal bleeds off the armor half an inch or more into the body around the groin, thigh and shoulder areas. Isn't that noticeable since it goes into the black, but it sure shows up in natural daylight, and how the heck does that happen?

Will post a couple of progress pics of the modified base after movie night.

In the meantime, ordered one of these during one of my breaks today:

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Ok, here's a somewhat out of focus pic showing the color differences and style differences between the head and the body:

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The skull bando was just a stand in to see how it would look and isn't the final version of course. And that's just a piece of netting I had that I stuck on, again to get an idea how it will look.

Cutting through the rock.

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And trimming the board to fit the top. This was a test fit, and it was trimmed a good bit more.



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I trimmed up the ankles and Dremeled the holes bigger so the feet fit back correctly on the posts. The lower body is now anchored to the board, and since it's such a pain to get it on and off, I'm thinking this time it's permanent.

Sunday afternoon will be the messy part. Mixing up rigid foam and sealing up the cut areas. There are also some damaged areas on the rock from wherever it as stored and it's retaining water and some mildew in there. I'll dig out those areas and reseal with rigid foam there also.
 
you know what, follow this thread is just like follow a hotest TV series, can't wait to see the next episode..everyone is look forward to see the season finale!!!!

truelly a master piece, and will be a museum-level display. i hope i will have a chance to see it by my bare eye and take a picture with this in future!! kudos to you,sir~
 
That's a big compliment, DragonShadow. Thanks!

Here are some more pics of the progress.

Carving away the rock to accomodate his foot. Next step will be to seal up the cavity and make it look natural with expanding foam.

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A couple more of him all together, sporting his new paintjob. Again, I'm going to have to do some major tweaking to the colors all around. It actually looks better in natural sunlight.

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Temporary tie-downs included.

I already know I'm going to have to do some adjustments. The way the hands fit aren't how I want them, and there are some adjustments to the sculpt I want to make also, but since I'm doing some repaint anyway, that's okay.
 
Holy **** balls that looks freaking incredible!!! How long did it take you to get it outside? Two person job, or can you do it on your own? **** I'm impressed as hell...that looks ******* awesome!!!! Crikey Batman!!!!! Holy mother trucking **** balls!!!

Be proud of that sumbitch Shelby...its killer...KILLER!!!!!!!!!!!11111oneoneone!!!!1
 
Thanks, Jason! And thanks for putting me on the path with the head! I think that was June of las yr, so it's only taken me a year to get this far. Well, 8 yrs really, because I got the Morris display way back then, and I've still incorporated the leg fronts, minus the feet.

I had to have it outside to work on, anyway for test fitting, etc.. Today was the first time I had all the parts together though.

The bad thing is I had to bring it in last night to protect from rain, morning dew, bird droppings. Then I had to take it back out today. And I'll have to lug back in tonight. It can be a one man job, but it would be better with two. The boulder base itself weighs quite a bit. The legs with steel support running up them are no picnic, though, especially now the lower half is permanently on the base.

I still have so far to go. Even when this is done, I'm still going to have to accurize the back pack and cannon.

Oh, and near as I can figure, this comes in at around 9 feet with the base. My family room ceiling is 10 feet.

Also, this afternoon when I was carving out foam for a place for the expanding foam to go on the base, I found a lot of water inside the walls. The rock has some areas where the plastic coating doesn't cover all the way and someone must have left it out in the rain. I've been trying to blot the moisture out with paper towels and pull out any mildewy foam I find. I've been letting it air dry in the sun for the last couple of hours before I start adding the new rigid foam. I don't know how it would react with water, but I doubt it would be good.
 
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