After looking at my bank statement yesterday, it really lit a fire under my ass and got me to work straight away on this thing. Spent the whole day yesterday painting it/cleaning the thing and this is where it stands. WARNING: I ain't no painter. Some of the acrylics got a little too lumpy for my liking.
I'm setting a goal for myself of 3-4 days to have this thing finished. The horns and eyes are all I really have to work on next; I don't think wiring to have them light up will be all too much of a problem. Gonna get this thing knocked out as fast as I can and get an interest going on to sell some casts both finished and unfinished to help save my ass from the financial quicksand I'm in. :lol
Bam. Horns attached with rattling action (thanks to a random assortment of beans).
All's left for me to do is the eyes and I'm rethinking the process I'm going with. See, I want a layered effect to my eyes to give an eerie sense of depth to them, but waiting and rotocasting the resin (each layer needing a full 24 hours to cure) is just unfeasible. I'm thinking I might have to go with vac-forming, which would mean I'd have to build that, too, as well as getting the plastic for that.
Oh, yes, I do. Unfortunately, I don't have the budget to get what I want (Smoot-On Crystal Clear 202) so I went back on my word and went with what was available at the hobby shops.
Yeah. Don't do that. Again, you get what you pay for.
The test casting was not up to par with my expectations so I scrapped the idea and went shopping today. I'm going to make a simple, DIY vac-former and see if I can't get some plastic sheets from the plastics company here.
So much for my original plan to get this done in four days (long story full of excuses aside) but this is where that week pretty much went towards.
The box next to the mask is my slapped-together vacuum former and, boy, did that take longer than what it should have for what it is. For most people, it takes an afternoon to get one up and running; for me, it takes three days. Besides me having no proper woodworking tools and even less woodworking skill, there was a lot of mistakes that had to be rectified for the box to become usable.
Once it was finished, I went and bought from a nearby plastics supply company, a 4'x8' sheet of .02 PETG and ended up going through three feet of plastic before I got a good pull for my eyes (which were formed with the "eye pucks" I casted and my oven). I paint the insides of the eyes so they had the smooth surface as seen in everything, and that's pretty much where I am now. I've gotta figure out how to set up the lights and all tomorrow and, if I'm motivated enough, maybe put straps on it.
Was the difference from solid painted eyes to to eyes made from a clear material worth the trouble? Is the material difference very noticable in person?
Was the difference from solid painted eyes to to eyes made from a clear material worth the trouble? Is the material difference very noticable in person?
As for your question, to the former, I can't really say as I fudged that up too much at the beginning to follow through to painting it. However, if you're asking that I heat some plastic, pull it once, and get nicely formed eyes is better than pouring a layer of resin; slush it around until it cures; painting a single layer and repeating the process; then the answer is an unequivocal "yes".
As for the difference in material being noticeable: I can't really say because I'm partially biased; I can't distance myself from the knowledge of how it was made and what it was made of. In terms of the mask overall, I think its texture and "feel" fits well with the scheme of the mask as well as lending a bug-like quality to the thing, what with the eyes being so protruding and round.
I thought about that route to go when I briefly thought about having the eyes not light up but, as it is, I don't mind the work if it leads to something really cool.
Gonna be completing this build in a the next couple days and I can't wait to show you folks. I got the eyes to light up (a massive achievement on my part as I've no real wiring experience) and all's left is some additional weathering and some straps.
There is, actually, one made of wood that's quite popular on the internet and (not to knock it and the maker) I wasn't too crazy about the texture the wood gave (it might have been made to 'look' like wood). It looked...too much, if you get my meaning.