Zira, Planet of the Apes

Jessica please take tons of pics of yourself and your two little ones in costume. I truly love your Zira and I get a kick out of your Con photos and such.

Like most guys, yes I like a hot girl photo but the truth is I'm a family man with a daughter and son who, along with my wife have no interests in sci-fi cons. They just kinda roll their eyes when I get excited about this sort of stuff. It's obvious you are involving your children with your hobby and I'm living vicariously through you. I just want to share my hobby with my family, but my family hasn't had any interests in wearing costumes with me since we gave up the SCA.:lol
 
It's just going to be me and my girlfriend (girls' day out)! I am not planning to bring the boys with me because I don't think they can sit through two movies back to back. The theater it seems, is attached to a mall. Maybe I can do some "shopping" and freak some locals.

Since it's such a tough costume to get into, I'm going to take this opportunity and videotape myself trying to play the piano. I don't read music or play the piano but I've been practicing my butt off to play this one tune. I'll post it on Facebook.
 
Well I hope you ladies have fun. And your right, two movies are a bit much for young ones. I check back for photos for sure.
 
I want to run some foam latex, as the weather is beautiful today and humidity levels are fabulously low percentage wise. I finally cracked open the literature that came with my foam latex kit to figure out how much I should mix up and it says that I should seal my molds with a paste wax and 99% alcohol. I only have 90% alcohol. Does it matter?

My husband helped me to drill some sprue holes on the negative mold. He is also going to buy me some paste wax today. Yay!
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Action shots in my garden:
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Just some random head shots I took:
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My girlfriend was not into photographing me in public. I did manage to videotape me playing the piano in full gear. I will have to figure out how to edit that and post it on YouTube. Warning though. I suck playing the piano.
 
The makeup itself is not hot. You can sweat through the foam if you needed to. The costume, however, is another story. If you can imagine the heat of a thick wig and the heavy arm coverings in addition to a scarf wrapped around your neck, two layers of dress and tall boots...you'd be comfortable for an overcast and cool day with temps running in the mid 60s.

Male chimps don't have to wear a neck scarf, so I'm sure their costume is much cooler temperature-wise.
 
Jessica you are an absolutely beautiful ape. Love the pics and I look forward to your video.

I can appreciate the heat issue. I used to fight heavy weapons in the SCA and medieval armor can be hot as well since my armor included a lot of thick leather. I also was an archer and it was much more comfortable with it's lighter armor requirements.

I had wondered about the makeup being hot and find it surprising that it's not. Again, great job once again.:thumbsup
 
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I tried foaming up some gel. Didn't work. Going to have to adjust my formula or add more refining time. Not looking forward to cleaning up the molds. I'll give it 10 more minutes before I give up and try again.
 
I tried foaming up some gel. Didn't work. Going to have to adjust my formula or add more refining time. Not looking forward to cleaning up the molds. I'll give it 10 more minutes before I give up and try again.

Its a great learning experience I'm sure, friend of mine who worked in the movie effects industry for 15 years still makes the occasional blunder!
Don't ever give up, you'll be a master of the apes very soon.
 
Fantastic make up and costume....I love it

Many years ago here in cleveland back when I was 15 or 16
there was a car show here, and one of the guests was a stunt woman
who worked on planet of the apes and she made her appearance
in full make up and costume, I only had a kodak brownie camera
I have one pic that came out of her in makeup and costume.

Then many many years later about ten, I met the same woman who was friends of the people I was staying with in Calif......
 
She came to our area many years ago too, but I had just arrived fresh off the boat from the Philippines, and didn't know any better. I have found out through the years that Paula Crist used the original molds for the foam latex. I wonder where she is at now...?
 
She used to come her to Ohio years ago for a Big Klingon
convention in Dover Ohio called the Dover Peace Conference.

Then she had a falling out with one of the dealers who did a lot
of klingon costuming, a Brian Breo or Brieo.
and she never came back to a Dover Peace Conference.

She was a fun person to be around.

The man who started the Dover Peace Conference conventions
was Joe Manning, who I believe died of heart problems last year.

My friend went to his funeral and told me there was not a dry eye any where
at his funeral and the procession was miles long......

God love you Joe....... :cry
 
Here are photos of my first foam latex run. First off, in my excitement, I forgot to use clamps, which could explain why the edges are not as thin as I expected. Also, my foam did not really "gel" so I have to adjust something. And it baked stiffer than I want, but again, I think it's not bad. I'm going to glue this foam down onto a spandex hood and see how it shapes up as a pullover. Tomorrow is another day. I must have dented her nose somehow, when I was pouring the Ultracal mold.

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The foam was beginning to break down, as you can see. The funny thing is, the gigantic holes near the nose is exactly where I need to remove the foam anyway to vent the thing. Actually, I'm looking at it again...that hole is where the sprue was drilled.
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And I think I tore the foam prying the molds apart. I'll be more careful the next time. Stinky work, this stuff. Glad to have an outdoor convection oven.

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