Substantial Help Needed

[GinoPalma]

  I need help figuring out what to do about these several problems.  I do not want to spend to much money fixing them and I would like to make them look a lot better.  I am willing to put a good amount of effort into fixing them. 

 Here's what the problems are:​

 ​

     Last halloween I decided I wanted to be a predator for holloween.  I went for a more P1 look, but with my own taste.  I didn't want to really go as far as most people on this site do but I still wanted people to acknowledge that it was a predator (you can see where this is going).  The suit part I used a latexed mr. Incredibles suit, latex, black, and tan spray paint.  I barely had enough bags, pillow cases, and bags filled with leaves to stuff it with.  I got a cool yet inaccurate wrinkle effect that looked good but was not near what a predator skin should look like.  It was only around the ankles, wrist, pelvis, stomach, and the side of the torso.  I also did a pretty cool looking paint job but it looked like more of a blur of the predators skin and I did it in literally 5 minutes around dusk.  The red fabric is still showing through many small areas of the entire skin and near some of the wrinkled areas is a huge fabric/black pattern.  Another thing is that I made a bio helmet out of cardboard and spackle that is not near what I wanted.  Again, it looked kind of cool but not what I was looking for.  I was going for the closest looking thing to a P1 bio mask.  As for the dreadlocks, they looked as if they were going to be good though were incomplete.  I got 3/8" foam backer rod (caulk saver) spray painted black and glued onto an old hat.  I made "craft and fun" ass wristblades (which were actually really cool).  I wore boots.  Now one problem with the costume itself was that the velcro closed opening coming undone.  Finally I wanted to add armor but I didn't know what easily available material that I could use or how I could get it to work.

  What I need answered -

1. How can I fix up the skin to look like a predator skin
2. Why did that happen to my suit
3. How could I apply a piece of fabric to the "i" on the chest so that I could put latex over it
4. How much latex do I need to buy to complete this project
5. How can I make an inexpensive P1 bio helmet that would look just (near) as good as many of the ones on this site
6. What are some better options to mount the dreadlocks to
7. What is a better (and cheap) way to make dreadlocks (preferably with foam backer rod)
8. Should I make a tape dummy to put in the suit while latexing and should I fill up the dummy
9. How can I cover up my neck
10. Is their a way can I do a realistic paint job without going out and buying a bunch of tools and equipment
11. What is the minimum requirment of things I need to do a good, realistic paint job
12. Could I machine some of the parts out of plastic (I may be getting a scroll saw at some point and could buy some plastic off of mccmaster-carr)
13. What the hell should I do for the eyes on the predator mask and still have it look like in the movies
14. How can I fix the velcro part to get it to keep shut
15. What's the easiest way to make the plasmacaster
16. Is the suit tight because of the wrinkles
17. Is their any way to make the suit less tight
18. How can I make realistic looking gloves


      I hope I can gain a lot of information about this because I have gained little information from all of the research I have done.  I hope some of you can answer some of these questions and help me out with this.  Any general information that could help is much appreciated as well.  I am willing to spend a lot of time working on this and the more information I know, the better.  Thank you for reading all of this and I can't wait to get started.

(hooray first post)

 

[backbone]

Hey, welcome to the lair!

You should introduce yourself here:
http://www.thehunterslair.com/topic/20822-new-members-introduce-yourselves-here/page-128#entry376136
I'm sure some more people would jump in after they get to know you a little. We have so much information around here that could help you. I you researched around here you could probably find your answers. I started off in a similar fashion, I know how hard it is to find an exact answer to stuff, especially with google lol. It takes some time. Here's a couple of threads that could help:
http://www.thehunterslair.com/topic/26675-my-full-complete-p1-costume-tutorial-how-to-from-start-to-finish/page-3#entry373643

http://www.thehunterslair.com/topic/10457-point-all-of-the-noobs-here/

I hope those help a little. I'll just answer the things I know for ya

2. Latex has a shrinkage of around 10% depending on the maker and such. The areas where the cloth was loose was wrinkled because the cloth doesn't shrink, but the latex does around it, kind of like a curtain on a curtain rod. The rod doesn't move with the curtain. I hope that makes sense?
3. If the latex that already on is kinda thin it's just going to shrink more and probably make the wrinkles worse if you apply more. That's my guess.
4. It takes about a gallon or so for a complete mr.i suit conversion.
5. There are many ways to go about the bio cheaply. You could go the papercraft route. You could use a paintball mask and apply great stuff expanding rigid foam to it, then carve it unto shape and use spackling to smooth it over. its a little time consuming and depending on your budget you could sculpt mould and cast your own in resin for decently cheap. I spent about 80$ so far and did my own. I was locally able to get all my materials from Walmart, the dollar store and hobby lobby. I made a good one awhile back by getting the basic shape from cardboard and coating it in hot glue to get the basic cuves, then using some wood filler to smooth out some rough areas. After that I used a couple of roll of the white paper tape to cover it up. Then some bondo and I painted its held up for a couple of years. I have delt it serious abuse and it hasn't broken.
6. If your only using the bio face, some great stuff rigid expanding foam around the back of the head ontop of what you are mounting the bio to would make a good base. Just carve it into shape and paint it black. Cut some holes the size of the dreads and glue them in. Hope that made a little sense.
7. Take the backer rod and hold it over the stove burner at the end, but watch out the heat may just melt the foam off. If you just heat it a little the foam will start to shape. Then just roll it on the counter to make the taper. If you have a nearby Home Depot or lowes you can buy plasti dip. It's a rubber spray you can apply to the backer rod. It comes in black so you can paint them and it can flex without just cracking off like spray paint.
8. YES a duct tape dummy is a very useful thing. It helps with making a costume that fits you well. To fill that sucker you could use some more of that magic great stuff foam. Fill it in layers from the ankle up. Off you try to fill it all at once it won't cure in the middle. Fill a little and wait till it is cured to do another layer.
9. You can either buy a neck ring from one of the many talented artists here, or a price of cloth would do just fine. You could also make your own neck ring with a little creativity.
10. The better the tool the better the job. You
Could buy a buch of different brushes and hand paint it. I would recommend buying an airbrush for the skin though. Unless you want to hand paint it, there is no wrong way! As long as you seal it. Oh and spray paint and latex aren't the best mix. It will crack off and peel. The best way I have seen is mixing acrylic and latex to make a good flexible paint and then sealing it with a flexible sealant.
11. I Already kinda explained that lol
12. You indeed could. I have seen some great armor made out of craft foam sheets. Cut it out from templates and glue it together. Seal it with Elmer's glue and then paint. Then viola cheap light armor!
13. If you mean for the bio then some screen sandwiched between clear plastic and a tinted lense underneath is a good cheap way.
14. I hate Velcro, a good fix is to remove the Velcro an sow in a zipper.
15. Tough one, cardboard tube and a couple of soda bottle bottoms with craft foam layers makes a good one.
16. Kinda, it's the latex shrinkage that does that.
18. Buy some cheap monster gloves online and repaint them.

I answered most of your questions there I hope. I'm no pro but that's just some stuff I have picked up on from here on the lair. Oh yah, welcome to the madness!

~Henry~

 

[GinoPalma]

     Well thank you this did help out a lot.  You answered many questions and gave a lot of helpful information.   I'll keep all of that in mind when working on this.

 

[backbone]

No problem, happy to help


~Henry~