Wip :: Budget Predator/snowleopard Mutant Costume

[Lflank]

Thanks for the kind words

Now I have 4 thin layers of latex on both arms (totally covered), on chest, stomach and back. Sides are still without latex and now I think i test how suit looks with armour and fishnet/netting before covering those. If it looks decent I leave those without latex so that thin strech part works for ventilation.

I dont want to build suit too thick, I'm quite happy with 4 layers because I can add more shine just applying silicone oil to shine the latex in use, for example for events etc.

I made my skins out of Rambo shirts too, and used plain ole ordinary Krylon spraypaint on them. I didn't use any latex because I live in Florida and didn't want to seal the skin---heat stroke is no fun at all. The downside to that is that my skin doesn't have the shiny wet look. I just live with it.

I like your idea for the neckring--the way I made mine was to find a vinyl placemat with a ribbed look, cutting it into shape and using velcro to hold it together.

 

[kanji]

Ok, small update, nothing special but work continues slowly. I fiberglassed second gauntlet core and threw some foam and misc RC-car parts on it. Shoulder bells are done, painted and weathered and today I got fishnet suit, yay!

Countdown gauntlet right side

Countdown gauntlet left side. I'm going to make "computer" as separate part that goes on the opening on top of the gauntlet.

Blade gauntlet painted and weathered, still needs the blade part.

Shoulder bells

Shoulder bells and fishnet on test fit

 

[kanji]

Race against the clock continues. Here is where I'm now. I leave upper part as it is and get new bio after halloween and proper dreads. These are backer rods with plastidip and pvc piping pieces as dread rings. Bones are from chicken wings, bleached and sealed in clear coat.

Shoulder bells need more weathering but I'm really happy how gauntlets turned out, especially countdown gauntlet.

Gloves are cheap costumeshop skeleton gloves that I quickly modified. I want to get proper hands later and paint those P1 scheme but with some leopard spots here and there.

Shoulder bell, some weathering and I did blast mark using almost dry paint on sponge brush and stroke lines outwards from blast center

Right gauntlet, I think it needs bit more weathering and its still missing the blade part

Upper view on timer gauntlet

Left gauntlet after weathering

So happy halloween to all hunters, have fun

 

[Double H]

Dude, thats coming out to be an awesome looking pred. This is amazing work you are posting. What did you use for the dreads?

Oh, and Happy Halloween to you too

 

[jayart05]

WOW!!!!.....Lovin the color scheme the creativity....all of the above and everything not metioned. Brilliant!!

 

[Pretty Huntress]

Your suit is awesome! Keep up the good work! I really like the pattern that you chose for the skin too.

 

[mr sausage]

Nice one mate. I only just got my P1 suit ready in time for halloween, and some of my stuff was rushed*sigh* . Your ideas are very inovative , with your permisssion I'd like to copy some of your technics to fix mine up. Great work:Finns rule!

 

[kanji]

Thank you for the encouraging comments

I took my costume (or mostly what I had ready) to test run last weekend even though I first thought I'm going to save it for this weekends halloween parties. Local nightclub had their 5year bday and threw a halloween themed party so I decided to go there even tho I knew it was going to be packed.

What surprised me the most was the love and attention predator seeks.

I was mentally ready to wrestle with booze marinated bodybuilders and "real men" who think this stuff is childish and no real man wears a costume for halloween party.

First part of the evening went by quite chilled with mostly girls buzzing around and asking to be taken pictures with so I got to bust first hunt poses

More later the night progressed more and more males came around for a chat. Many gave quick friendly comments like "kick ass costume" "best of the night" etc but what most surprised me, was this gang of 4-5 heavily tattooed bodybuilder bikers that came around and they were really in to the costume. So the people who I feared I might have to deal with later were the most interested and most appreciative crowd I met

I hope to do this all again at up coming weekend and hope to get rest of the armor parts ready by then.

I was sooo fun to walk around fully packed nightclub and get room while you move around.

I hope I get some pics from that night. All went well, no dreads missing, no damage to costume, just couple small scrathes on my gauntlets but it passes from battle damage with minor touch off paint.

 

[kanji]

Haven't updated since halloween even though I've been still doing bits to my costume.

I shoot couple pics to my friend and while I had softbox and background setup, I deciced to shoot some parts with softbox lighting.

Computer Gauntlet, still missing computer part so lid is just screwed on the gauntlet

Blade gauntlet, I had to use very cheap blades that I made from pair of childrens pirate swords, just cut roughly in shape

Going to make or order proper blades that make justice to gauntlet itself

While I'm getting new bio from Hez, I decided to test different paint techniques on this old 3/4 sized bio

Overall I was happy with this paintjob, just to add more layers and blast marks

Belt and buttflap thingie, I'm going to attach side armours to the smaller flaps

Couple dread rings made from soft foam, I used similar pattern as I used on shoulderbells

Sprayed with plastidip and then painted, I'm going to add just 5 of these not to overpower look


Postman had lfet a note that they tried to deliver my bio today, so hopefully I get it tomorrow and get to work on it

 

[Double H]

Damn,this is turning into one awesome build.

Liking those blades they are remarkable. The details that are in put mine to shame. A rebuild is definantly in order for mine lol and will be using this thread as a reference. Nice idea with the dread rings, I think I will be changing mine using the technique. Awesome work my friend.

How did you get the 'lip' on the shoulder bell points?

Liking everything about this build-- dude your awesome!

 

[kanji]

How did you get the 'lip' on the shoulder bell points?

Thanks for the support
With 'lip' do you mean the pointy spiky tip on the armor parts? I did those just adding a drop of super glue on the inside of the part and pinched tip together. Glue sets really fast and it keeps the shape, just a tiny amount is needed.

I'm super stoked today, I got my new P1 bio from Hez late last night. It looks epic and almost none trim/prep work needed to finish it for painting.

As I'm in favor of all things to be rock solid and build to last, I fiberglassed bios entire inner surface with two layers of 120g/m2 fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin. I know its an overkill but now I can go to hell and back with this bio and it can handle all the abuse I can think its going to receive

 

[SMOKE]

Great build man! Very creative with the gauntlets.

 

[TokyoRose]

Never thought about using foamies for dread rings?! They look awesome. Great idea!

 

[kanji]

I've been wanting to try my hands on sculpting for quite some time now but yesterday I decided to tackle the challenge and bought 10kg (23lb) of clay. Yesterday evening I spend making simple but sturdy armature and today I started to throw some clay over the armature.

Being my first predator that I ever sculp and my first first sculpture ever in general, shapes confused me at first a bit

After hour of strugling to get anything done I decided to start adding individual parts to face and work from those, first brows, then nose, mouth etc

And here I'm at now. Symmetry issues here and there, mouth needs to be redone and lots of work ahead

First sculpting felt like I'm not going to get anything done and frustrated me, but after a while I found it quite relaxing
Textures on the sculpt are just test, so I tested different techniques, what work and what doesn't, but overall I'm quite happy with the basic shape. I popped 1/1 size bio on top of it and bio flows really well with contours of the dome/crown area. Tomorrow I try to get some eyes in there and redo mouth, strech the back of the head a bit and and... and.. well maybe everything

 

[kanji]

Small update. As I'm one of those people who aren't blessed with best patience, I wanted to make my first mask straight on the sculpt. I brushed 14-15 layers of latex until mask was 2mm (1/12") thick. If peeled of nicely and sculpt remain in shape so now its bagged in plastic bags waiting for plaster to mold it.

My first mask was bit floppy, even thought its 2mm thick it doesnt remain its shape very well so I had to foam it with upholster foam at the crown area and from the cheeks and inside the mouth region.

And like said, I don't have the best patience, I wanted to use this first pull to test my concept colour scheme and how it would look on the final mask.

So here it is. I wanted almost white mask with grays and black. On the brow area I chose P2 style pattern and same pattern is used on side of temple area. Crown got black leopspot scheme on the outer edges and same black scheme runs along back of the head. Dome area of the head got square pattern in lighter gray that is somewhat P1 inspired.

On the last pictures there is P1 bio from Hez to show mask with bio and how bio fits it.

Now I rush to make some quills and paint the mouth so I can seal the paint with clear coat

 

[hez1]

Looking good, nice job on the bio paint up.

 

[Andre de Jong]

Interresting !

So far very cool looking!!

How wil you make the legs?

 

[Double H]

Looking pretty good my friend. Did you mask hold the detail from the sculpt? Nice looking bio, good solid paint up

 

[kanji]

Did you mask hold the detail from the sculpt? Nice looking bio, good solid paint up

I made sculpt so that it had overall shape, then I did all the shapes and bumps bit over exarated that I wanted my mask to have so that those are not lost.

I'm pretty pleased with this first mask, shape is what i was after and all the major details are there.

I'm going to refine the sculpt before I make a plaster mold from it.

 

[kanji]

So far very cool looking!!

How wil you make the legs?

Thank you

I'm going to use bodybuilder full body suit for the legs. Suit has nice starting point for muscular legs, so I just cover the lower half with liquid latex and after that is done, I will cut the lower part from it. I think that if I cut the suit before laying latex, its harder to keep the legs/waist on desired shape.