Been meaning to post this here for a while but have been crazy busy.
I did this a few months back for Brandon, who sent me a screen used Ugnaught mask from Empire Strikes Back that had deteriorated badly. It's a foam latex piece that had been stored (gulp) stuffed with newspaper since 1979. That meant 26 years of having the moisture sucked out of the piece by acidic paper. The result was that many of the thinner areas of the foam had turned to dust, and some would literally crumble between your fingers. Further, it had been stored somewhat "flattened" and developed a (now permanent) fold across the back of the head to boot. Add to that severe discoloration and some very matted hair and it was a sight.
Before I start, I want to say that I'm still fairly new to this degree of restoration, and carefully considered options before working on this. Brandon and I shared quite a few "philosophical" discussions about the pros and cons to restoring a peice as well as how far we wanted to try to take this. In the end, we decided that these sorts of choices need to be made on a piece by piece basis and, in this case, a pretty drastic restoration was not only warranted, but just about needed to save the piece from turning to dust and ending up in the trash bin. He felt that as-is, the piece had little value because it was barely recognizable.
This Ugnaught in particular, had very few reference photos to work from. This means that some of my work is "best guess" based on the few photos we have of him, mixed with information from clear photos and first hand observation of other Ugnaughts used in the film.
We decided to restore the piece and I set about recreating the missing and severely dry areas. I used as much as I possibly could save from the original, including much of the back of the head, the face below the brow and the sides of the head. I patched and repaired the face, lips and nose (stabilizing rather than rebuilding) and recreated the chin and forehead. I patched the gaps left from the crumbling areas of the head, and repainted the piece, attempting to match the few areas that remained with color (much of his color had turned a dark grey-ish beige due to the foam turning dark brown and crunchy.)
Most of the hair was salvaged from the original and carefully combed through by me before re-applying it to the restored head and cheeks. What couldn't be saved was matched by me and replaced.
All in all, this was an intensive project and one that required quite a bit of time and effort. Brandon and I are both pleased with the results.
I suppose that's where I'll leave off for now. Please post any questions or comments.
Pics in the next post, including a reference shot and before, during and after photos.
Tom
I did this a few months back for Brandon, who sent me a screen used Ugnaught mask from Empire Strikes Back that had deteriorated badly. It's a foam latex piece that had been stored (gulp) stuffed with newspaper since 1979. That meant 26 years of having the moisture sucked out of the piece by acidic paper. The result was that many of the thinner areas of the foam had turned to dust, and some would literally crumble between your fingers. Further, it had been stored somewhat "flattened" and developed a (now permanent) fold across the back of the head to boot. Add to that severe discoloration and some very matted hair and it was a sight.
Before I start, I want to say that I'm still fairly new to this degree of restoration, and carefully considered options before working on this. Brandon and I shared quite a few "philosophical" discussions about the pros and cons to restoring a peice as well as how far we wanted to try to take this. In the end, we decided that these sorts of choices need to be made on a piece by piece basis and, in this case, a pretty drastic restoration was not only warranted, but just about needed to save the piece from turning to dust and ending up in the trash bin. He felt that as-is, the piece had little value because it was barely recognizable.
This Ugnaught in particular, had very few reference photos to work from. This means that some of my work is "best guess" based on the few photos we have of him, mixed with information from clear photos and first hand observation of other Ugnaughts used in the film.
We decided to restore the piece and I set about recreating the missing and severely dry areas. I used as much as I possibly could save from the original, including much of the back of the head, the face below the brow and the sides of the head. I patched and repaired the face, lips and nose (stabilizing rather than rebuilding) and recreated the chin and forehead. I patched the gaps left from the crumbling areas of the head, and repainted the piece, attempting to match the few areas that remained with color (much of his color had turned a dark grey-ish beige due to the foam turning dark brown and crunchy.)
Most of the hair was salvaged from the original and carefully combed through by me before re-applying it to the restored head and cheeks. What couldn't be saved was matched by me and replaced.
All in all, this was an intensive project and one that required quite a bit of time and effort. Brandon and I are both pleased with the results.
I suppose that's where I'll leave off for now. Please post any questions or comments.
Pics in the next post, including a reference shot and before, during and after photos.
Tom