Hello there!
Predator has, for a very long time, been my dream costume/cosplay. It has been the white whale, one could say. It's been the " i'd love to do that one day, sigh, one day " costume. Well. The time has come. I have a year to get it done and have no professional or proper experience whatsoever. I am, however, crafty and can wield a sewing machine or a heat gun but can not animatronics or circuitry. My super easy and dumbed down breakdown of a plan is to:
1) get a nude morph suit, foam build up some muscle/detail, airbrush it
2) get some backer rod or rubber/plastic hose to make dreads, attach them to a hat base
3) on top of this hat base, use foam to sculpt the face mask on a molded head, cover with latex, paint (similar to this tutorial but not with such a big flat top? But this process, anyway: Foam Predator Mask ) and have the dreads poke out
4) make the helmet/faceplate, armor, wrist cuffs, etc out of foam
5) hands and feet - this im not sure on. I could potentially make them? But I feel like it would be easier to buy a premade, cheaper costume, and then gussy up the hands/feet with additional detail, paint, etc.
I would also love to have one of the masks where the mandibles move? But my problem with the premade masks (and why i dont want to use my 'buy premade and gussy it up' idea with a mask is two part:
1) i have a big head and a lot of hair. In the military? I wore the biggest size hat they made and it barely fit.
2) i dont want to have a great big mask flopping around on my head. I dont want to wear a mask and have an inch gap where you can look into the eye holes and then see my eyes behind that big gap. I dont want a mask where the pink 'inside of the mouth' part is just a flat, painted piece of latex. I want to make it fit my head and be able to spirit gum around the eyes and have it be flush against/stuck to my face. I want the inside bottom row of teeth to be where my bottom lip is and then the upper two bigger teeth to be just above my upper lip and kind of come down and hang over my lip a little. I want the pink 'inside of the mouth' part to be my mouth. I want to be able to talk and eat. Then the big opening mandibles can be prosthetic pieces on the mask that stick out of my cheeks. THUS i think i would be better off making my own mask that fits my face correctly but that means Im giving up on the goal of moving mandibles. But if i had to pick, I'd rather have an awesome mask that fits my face and looks smooth and nice rather than a premade mask that looks like crap and doesnt fit but happens to have moving mouth pieces.
So. That was a big long ramble. What do you guys think of this plan so far? I will definitely post pictures and progress as i go. I've been researching and reading tutorials and seeing what others have done, but, I wanted to introduce myself (hello, im cupkate) and pose my potential ideas for how to go about this and also get some feedback, see if anyone has suggestions or warnings haha. I will definitely be posting updates and progress as I go but, like i said, havent started yet and i have a year to do it
Thanks!
Predator has, for a very long time, been my dream costume/cosplay. It has been the white whale, one could say. It's been the " i'd love to do that one day, sigh, one day " costume. Well. The time has come. I have a year to get it done and have no professional or proper experience whatsoever. I am, however, crafty and can wield a sewing machine or a heat gun but can not animatronics or circuitry. My super easy and dumbed down breakdown of a plan is to:
1) get a nude morph suit, foam build up some muscle/detail, airbrush it
2) get some backer rod or rubber/plastic hose to make dreads, attach them to a hat base
3) on top of this hat base, use foam to sculpt the face mask on a molded head, cover with latex, paint (similar to this tutorial but not with such a big flat top? But this process, anyway: Foam Predator Mask ) and have the dreads poke out
4) make the helmet/faceplate, armor, wrist cuffs, etc out of foam
5) hands and feet - this im not sure on. I could potentially make them? But I feel like it would be easier to buy a premade, cheaper costume, and then gussy up the hands/feet with additional detail, paint, etc.
I would also love to have one of the masks where the mandibles move? But my problem with the premade masks (and why i dont want to use my 'buy premade and gussy it up' idea with a mask is two part:
1) i have a big head and a lot of hair. In the military? I wore the biggest size hat they made and it barely fit.
2) i dont want to have a great big mask flopping around on my head. I dont want to wear a mask and have an inch gap where you can look into the eye holes and then see my eyes behind that big gap. I dont want a mask where the pink 'inside of the mouth' part is just a flat, painted piece of latex. I want to make it fit my head and be able to spirit gum around the eyes and have it be flush against/stuck to my face. I want the inside bottom row of teeth to be where my bottom lip is and then the upper two bigger teeth to be just above my upper lip and kind of come down and hang over my lip a little. I want the pink 'inside of the mouth' part to be my mouth. I want to be able to talk and eat. Then the big opening mandibles can be prosthetic pieces on the mask that stick out of my cheeks. THUS i think i would be better off making my own mask that fits my face correctly but that means Im giving up on the goal of moving mandibles. But if i had to pick, I'd rather have an awesome mask that fits my face and looks smooth and nice rather than a premade mask that looks like crap and doesnt fit but happens to have moving mouth pieces.
So. That was a big long ramble. What do you guys think of this plan so far? I will definitely post pictures and progress as i go. I've been researching and reading tutorials and seeing what others have done, but, I wanted to introduce myself (hello, im cupkate) and pose my potential ideas for how to go about this and also get some feedback, see if anyone has suggestions or warnings haha. I will definitely be posting updates and progress as I go but, like i said, havent started yet and i have a year to do it
Thanks!