Skeleton Crew : first live action Shistavenan ?
- Thread starter pm07
- Start date
...for the glory!
CadetTK2386
Sr Member
You did an absolutely amazing job on your modifications!
I would love to read or see more about the mods you did and your process, as I'm sure many others would as well.
Some serious mods! Wicked job
pburgess
Active Member
Thanks so much, folks! Wish I’d taken more pictures/notes of the process, but it started out as just a goofing-around thing before morphing into a more thorough cosplay project. I’d bought the werewolf mask intending to turn it into a slightly-less-awful werewolf for funsies…then a couple days later the photos from D23 Expo showing Brutus started popping up, I was smitten, and project made a turn.
As a Brutus-in-a-hurry approach I suppose it’s not too bad, but it took a ton of effort, peculiar crafting skills, and tools/materials that I luckily already had around from prior projects; will summarize in subsequent posts. The base mask is pretty flimsy and I don’t expect it’ll last. If one has patience I think you’ll be much better served holding out for Dougie Fett’s silicone mask, or a budget option if an officially-licensed latex mask comes along from one of the prominent vendors. (An aside, Dougie Fett, checking in on your other work, your prices are bonkers good for fully-haired silicone! I’ll be in touch if I stick with this character.)
If one does use the Ani-Motion mask approach, it could be even better than my attempt. Before I got all picky about the project, a major criteria was “using up materials I already have around takes precedence over accuracy.” I’ll try to point those out in these posts.
Oh! A third interim option as well: California Costumes also makes a bear (google for "ani-motion grizzly bear") — unfortunately only available as a more costly full costume, not the mask alone — the teeth and eyes on this are somewhat already on-model for Brutus and could save many steps if willing to compromise on shape; snoot’s too long and has that bear lip thing going on. I have no idea though if this mask has snarly details under the forehead fur, or if it just goes smooth there…werewolf is the sure thing, and it’s cheap, best start there.
As a Brutus-in-a-hurry approach I suppose it’s not too bad, but it took a ton of effort, peculiar crafting skills, and tools/materials that I luckily already had around from prior projects; will summarize in subsequent posts. The base mask is pretty flimsy and I don’t expect it’ll last. If one has patience I think you’ll be much better served holding out for Dougie Fett’s silicone mask, or a budget option if an officially-licensed latex mask comes along from one of the prominent vendors. (An aside, Dougie Fett, checking in on your other work, your prices are bonkers good for fully-haired silicone! I’ll be in touch if I stick with this character.)
If one does use the Ani-Motion mask approach, it could be even better than my attempt. Before I got all picky about the project, a major criteria was “using up materials I already have around takes precedence over accuracy.” I’ll try to point those out in these posts.
Oh! A third interim option as well: California Costumes also makes a bear (google for "ani-motion grizzly bear") — unfortunately only available as a more costly full costume, not the mask alone — the teeth and eyes on this are somewhat already on-model for Brutus and could save many steps if willing to compromise on shape; snoot’s too long and has that bear lip thing going on. I have no idea though if this mask has snarly details under the forehead fur, or if it just goes smooth there…werewolf is the sure thing, and it’s cheap, best start there.
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GreyGuard38
Active Member
Watching Brutus on the show, I felt they could have done a little better job moving his lips when he's speaking, either practical or CGI.
If he spoke with the lips as shown, it would have been pretty garbled.
I know, being picky.
If he spoke with the lips as shown, it would have been pretty garbled.
I know, being picky.
pburgess
Active Member
Big pubby dog. Nothing else matters.Watching Brutus on the show, I felt they could have done a little better job moving his lips when he's speaking, either practical or CGI.
If he spoke with the lips as shown, it would have been pretty garbled.
I know, being picky.
Dangit I can’t not picture him doing Scooby Doo voice now.
“Rut’s uh litter of runts rooing immy rarport?”
It’s canon.
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pburgess
Active Member
Well shoot, this is the earliest in-progress pic that I took, and it’s already well underway here. Will do my best to recall all the steps that got it to this stage…
- Hair cowl was removed. Did this carefully with a seam ripper in case I needed that material (was still at the “make a better werewolf” stage, not yet Brutus); blade would be fine if just tossing it. Be careful about cutting into the foam skin though.
- Skin was very carefully peeled off the plastic under-shell. Blade in some areas, or just ripping with fingers slowly and cautiously in others. The glue used here is not hot-melt adhesive, so the isopropyl removal trick won’t work. It has to be cut/peeled. Ugh.
- HERE IS THE THING THAT IS GOING TO COME UP AGAIN AND AGAIN WITH THE SKIN: don’t know what this is made from but nothing on Earth wants to stick to it. Lots of trial and error was involved for adhesives and paints, will just jump right to the “what worked in the end” materials rather than breaking down the process.
- Minor rips in the skin were repaired…some from the rough handling, but some they just come this way from the store. THE GLUE THAT WORKED: Loctite Vinyl, Fabric & Plastic Flexible Adhesive. The foam skin just laughed at anything else, even Barge. This particular Loctite glue is toxic AF, please work outdoors.
- Ears were cut off mask (scissors, bare snap-off blade, hot knife), new ones were fashioned from 5mm EVA foam (4mm probably sufficient, but 5mm was on-hand), formed with a heat gun, edges sanded, and glued on using the same accursed Loctite vinyl adhesive.
- Opened up nostrils a bit with hot knife (burning foam, outdoors and/or respirator, you know the drill).
- Skin was set aside and work done on the under-skull. It’s very rickety and goes off-the-rails easily…when it all goes back together later the hinge mechanism is inaccessible, so I really didn’t want this popping apart in the field. Think I used some blobs of epoxy putty to keep certain bits in their tracks, and lubricated with some lithium grease to pivot more easily. Also made more durable/comfortable head straps using wider elastic and Velcro®.
- A DECISION™ had to be made about the eyes. Stock mask is a “use your own eyes” type. Wasn’t opposed to keeping that using contact lenses & makeup…but the mask, probably optimized for younger folks’ heads, didn’t fit my giant man noggin well, and the eyes would have been very deeply recessed. Acrylic cabochons (domes) then, with “tear duct” vision.
- 1.25" acrylic cabochons were on-hand, so that’s what was used, but 1" would be better — the smaller size would be more on-model, and would allow a crucial extra bit of tear duct space for seeing (vision is terrible w/my mask with the bigger eyes / smaller ducts).
- Eyes were tacked in place on the skull with hot glue, then gradually shored up using epoxy putty (e.g. Magic Sculp or Apoxie Sculpt). Once cured, hot glue was removed (w/isopropyl) and more epoxy putty used in its place. No hot glue anywhere in this costume, a guy’s gotta have his principles.
pburgess
Active Member
Remembering a couple things missing in my prior post:
- The eyes weren’t just plopped in with epoxy putty. Because I didn’t have the eyes finished (intending for LEDs and stuff), but also that I’m impatient, they were temporarily held from the back with hot glue, then the eyelids sculpted over the front (epoxy putty). A thin layer of latex brushed over the cabochons keeps them from permanently sticking. The eyelids thus are a load-bearing element that holds the eyes…I really really don’t recommend this, it was fiddly work, was just being undisciplined. Woulda been so much easier if I had the eyes finished first and could just putty them in from behind. BTW, if feeling indulgent, Fourth Seal Studios could make perfect replica eyes, though will set you back about $100/pair.
- Masking tape was laid down across the mask’s original teeth, the foam skin temporarily set in place, and then the outline of the mouth traced onto the tape. This would help for planning the teeth…
- Jaw was temporarily hot-glued shut. This can be peeled off later using isopropyl.
- The Ani-motion mask has a big mouth, bigger than actual Brutus. Can’t modify the foam, so I just scaled up all the teeth to proportionally fit the mouth. Raaaah. Each tooth was drawn out on the masking tape to provide a reference size/shape for sculpting.
- The mask’s original teeth were removed with a Dremel cut-off wheel, and the tape template fitted in that space, held from behind by more tape.
- Teeth were individually sculpted from translucent Sculpey. My toaster oven is garbage and just ruins Sculpey, so each tooth was formed around the tip of a toothpick for handling, and cured using a heat gun.
- Finished teeth were removed from toothpicks, sanded a bit for a nice finish, and scored at the base using an X-Acto® to provide some grip.
- Each tooth was positioned and held in place first with UV-curing resin, then with Tamiya Light-Curing Putty. That’s some weird stuff that most folks won’t have around…so gap-filling CA and 5-minute epoxy might work just as well, maybe even hot glue if careful. Doesn’t require a super beefy bond, as gums will later be sculpted over this and provide most of the hold. UV-curing resin is fantastic stuff, highly recommend (I always have terrible luck with CA) — rather than those tiny Bondic pens though, you can get a whole starter kit with a big squeeze bottle of resin (enough for years), a UV LED flashlight, and UV-protective glasses for like $15.
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pburgess
Active Member
Once teeth were securely in place, jaw was unglued (isopropyl) and gums were sculpted around them…
The surface layer is Magic Sculp with a squirt of red acrylic paint. I like this stuff…long working time, can smooth the surface with a bit of water. Think I worked in 3 or 4 sections. BUT. Downside to epoxy putty is that it’s really dense and would weigh down a snoot like that, so…
There’s an initial filler layer underneath, using Smooth-On Free Form Air, another 2-part epoxy putty that’s much lighter. I can’t stand working with this stuff, it’s weird and sticky, but it was on-hand and paid for so that’s what used (it was in the garage among other things destined for the next hazmat drop-off). But hey, some folks love this stuff as their main sculpting medium and buy the giant gallon buckets, so YMMV. If you’ve got the knack then it’d be great on its own for the gums, no top layer needed, I just can’t cope.
The surface layer is Magic Sculp with a squirt of red acrylic paint. I like this stuff…long working time, can smooth the surface with a bit of water. Think I worked in 3 or 4 sections. BUT. Downside to epoxy putty is that it’s really dense and would weigh down a snoot like that, so…
There’s an initial filler layer underneath, using Smooth-On Free Form Air, another 2-part epoxy putty that’s much lighter. I can’t stand working with this stuff, it’s weird and sticky, but it was on-hand and paid for so that’s what used (it was in the garage among other things destined for the next hazmat drop-off). But hey, some folks love this stuff as their main sculpting medium and buy the giant gallon buckets, so YMMV. If you’ve got the knack then it’d be great on its own for the gums, no top layer needed, I just can’t cope.
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pburgess
Active Member
PAINT. Don’t have many process photos, sry.
GUMS and EYELIDS are painted with acrylics. Regular cheap craft store stuff.
TEETH: a few drops of brown acrylic mixed into DecoArt Americana DuraClear Varnish…great stuff, I keep it around in gloss, satin and matte for different tasks. Cheap, sticks well to a lot of things, and slightly flexible when dry. Anyway, with a little acrylic color mixed in, it works like a viscous wash…I just brushed it uniformly on the teeth and let gravity do the work for that nasty dogbreath gradient (top and bottom were done in separate passes, so I could turn it upside-down for the top teeth). Gums also got a varnish coat.
SKIN took trial and error, because nothing wants to stick to that weird foam; acrylic paint just peels right off. 50/50 mix of fresh rubber cement and craft acrylic was the winner among materials on-hand:
This will RUIN paint brushes, but stippling with pieces of upholstery-type foam works well enough…toss out and tear off a new one as they clog up.
Laid down a dark overall base coat and then stippled a couple warm gray layers over this. Not that different from the mask’s original color scheme, but less sloppy. Even the glue/paint mix isn’t perfect, peels up a little in places, but was “okay enough.” Maybe PAX paint would work better.
GUMS and EYELIDS are painted with acrylics. Regular cheap craft store stuff.
TEETH: a few drops of brown acrylic mixed into DecoArt Americana DuraClear Varnish…great stuff, I keep it around in gloss, satin and matte for different tasks. Cheap, sticks well to a lot of things, and slightly flexible when dry. Anyway, with a little acrylic color mixed in, it works like a viscous wash…I just brushed it uniformly on the teeth and let gravity do the work for that nasty dogbreath gradient (top and bottom were done in separate passes, so I could turn it upside-down for the top teeth). Gums also got a varnish coat.
SKIN took trial and error, because nothing wants to stick to that weird foam; acrylic paint just peels right off. 50/50 mix of fresh rubber cement and craft acrylic was the winner among materials on-hand:
This will RUIN paint brushes, but stippling with pieces of upholstery-type foam works well enough…toss out and tear off a new one as they clog up.
Laid down a dark overall base coat and then stippled a couple warm gray layers over this. Not that different from the mask’s original color scheme, but less sloppy. Even the glue/paint mix isn’t perfect, peels up a little in places, but was “okay enough.” Maybe PAX paint would work better.
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pburgess
Active Member
Well dang, no photos of the process for the eyes. Text summary then:
“Woof woof! Hello, I’m Rags!”
UPDATE: Found some eye print process stuff. As described above.
Scaled down to keep attachment sizes manageable…don’t actually try using these.
Left image is the overall “what diameter to match the acrylic lens?” test. With that established, right image is then “which pupil size works when there’s lens distortion?” Different photo print systems might require different scales, so I’m not mentioning specific values to use.
Document dimensions are about 4.25x6.25", 360 DPI. In order to produce edge-to-edge 4x6" prints with no visible border, what they do is print at some slightly larger size (couldn’t tell you exactly what, but I’m using +1/4"), and then the machine trims away a bit. Because there’s a small amount of mechanical slop in this process, you can’t be precisely certain where the cut will occur…so keep a healthy margin between the edges of the document and anything you need to use.
- Rather thank inkjet, 4x6" Walgreens photo prints were used (my printer is used so infrequently, always a surprise dried-out cartridge). It’s walking distance and I pass that way for groceries all the time anyway.
- Not knowing the precise bleed & scale they require, a scattershot approach was used: with a document about 2% bigger than 4x6", and at 360 DPI, made a set of circles scaled from 97% to 103% (in 1% increments) of the cabochon diameter. Upload to their photo site and get a confirmation email when ready (like an hour or so).
- With a scale (outer circle size, with some bleed) established, a second pass was made to determine a good pupil size to accommodate the distortion of the cabochon. Rather than do a third pass of prints, designed the final pupil (radial gradient, yellow-red-black) on this doc and made copies at different sizes, ordered multiple prints of this, and just picked out the size on the page that worked.
- Glued the cabochon to the photo print using 5-min epoxy (aforementioned UV resin is cool but just peels away from acrylic), waited for it to cure, then trimmed away the rest of the print.
- Dremeled an indentation near the edge of each cabochon and epoxied a red LED into this pocket.
- With the pupil at the back of the eye, it has a slight “follow” effect:
“Woof woof! Hello, I’m Rags!”
UPDATE: Found some eye print process stuff. As described above.
Scaled down to keep attachment sizes manageable…don’t actually try using these.
Left image is the overall “what diameter to match the acrylic lens?” test. With that established, right image is then “which pupil size works when there’s lens distortion?” Different photo print systems might require different scales, so I’m not mentioning specific values to use.
Document dimensions are about 4.25x6.25", 360 DPI. In order to produce edge-to-edge 4x6" prints with no visible border, what they do is print at some slightly larger size (couldn’t tell you exactly what, but I’m using +1/4"), and then the machine trims away a bit. Because there’s a small amount of mechanical slop in this process, you can’t be precisely certain where the cut will occur…so keep a healthy margin between the edges of the document and anything you need to use.
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pburgess
Active Member
Last of these ginormous spammy posts for now. Thanks for your patience!
HAIR was done similarly to latex masks: brush a thin layer of glue over a small area, press a handful of hair into this, brush more glue on top. Trick was finding the right glue to stick to the impossible-to-stick-to skin. Testing on EVA first:
Barge cement (red/yellow can) was the most robust of these. Thinned about 1:1 with the corresponding Barge solvent, so it lays down in really thin, transparent layers.
Hair was generic knock-off Kanekalon…I’d cut off little sections like 4–6 inches long and do the glue thing. Photos from D23 Expo looked like he had black hair…but with the show’s lighting and color grading, it should be more a ruddy brown. Oops, oh well, was already done by then.
Here’s with hair applied and not yet trimmed:
(the black speckles aren’t in RL, that was a joke pic I’d sent someone about Brutus fleas)
Here’s with hair trimmed, using both regular scissors and thinning shears, and some white streaks added (acrylic paint):
I way over-haired the ears and will do further trimming there. Also there’s still the back of the head to do: planning on using the latch-hook technique that some of the wookiee costume-builders use, just with shorter hair.
HAIR was done similarly to latex masks: brush a thin layer of glue over a small area, press a handful of hair into this, brush more glue on top. Trick was finding the right glue to stick to the impossible-to-stick-to skin. Testing on EVA first:
Barge cement (red/yellow can) was the most robust of these. Thinned about 1:1 with the corresponding Barge solvent, so it lays down in really thin, transparent layers.
Hair was generic knock-off Kanekalon…I’d cut off little sections like 4–6 inches long and do the glue thing. Photos from D23 Expo looked like he had black hair…but with the show’s lighting and color grading, it should be more a ruddy brown. Oops, oh well, was already done by then.
Here’s with hair applied and not yet trimmed:
(the black speckles aren’t in RL, that was a joke pic I’d sent someone about Brutus fleas)
Here’s with hair trimmed, using both regular scissors and thinning shears, and some white streaks added (acrylic paint):
I way over-haired the ears and will do further trimming there. Also there’s still the back of the head to do: planning on using the latch-hook technique that some of the wookiee costume-builders use, just with shorter hair.
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pburgess
Active Member
Oh! Epilogue, one more spammy post: the HANDS.
Zagone Studios “Retro Style Monster Gloves,” same paint technique as the face (acrylic + rubber cement), same varnish on the nails, same hair technique as above (just a lot less of it). Not sure if Brutus even has hand fuzz but seemed like it’d tie things together.
Notice whenever there’s Barge cement it’s outside. Stuff’s nasty. Take care of yourself!
Zagone Studios “Retro Style Monster Gloves,” same paint technique as the face (acrylic + rubber cement), same varnish on the nails, same hair technique as above (just a lot less of it). Not sure if Brutus even has hand fuzz but seemed like it’d tie things together.
Notice whenever there’s Barge cement it’s outside. Stuff’s nasty. Take care of yourself!
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GreyGuard38
Active Member
That's a lotta work with amazing results! Bravo!
Do you happen to work for a production crew? If not, you could, imo.
Do you happen to work for a production crew? If not, you could, imo.
pburgess
Active Member
I don’t, but thank you very much! Just a cosplay nerd. 1980’s-Star-Wars-kid me dreamt of doing that kind of stuff so maybe there’s a little extra love in this one.
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