GiantGinger
New Member
I'm wanting to build a great ape vegeta build and I've been mulling over ideas for the mask. I'm living in Australia and the convention is around 700km (435 miles) away from where I live. So my primary concerns are heat, transportation and what I'm going to do for the fur.
With regards to transportation I'll likely be flying and don't want to have to take additional luggage. I want the mask to be somewhat flexible to reduce the risk of damage and I need to find a balance between flexibility and it's ability to hold it's shape while it's being worn. I'm thinking for the rear of the mask under the fur to have a skeleton made of some sort of foam or plastic. I currently have 7mm eva foam from a camping roll and eva foam floor mats. The camping roll would give enough flexibility but I don't think it would hold it's shape well without reinforcement. Whereas I think the floor mats would hold their shape well but may be too rigid. My current plan is to try out the floor mats and see how it goes. The best thing for the mask would be to have it in a hard container to protect it from damage but if I could somehow avoid that it'd give me more freedom with packing.
For the fur I was planning on using latch hooking to a mesh that is shaped to fit the skeleton of the mask. What I'm stuck on is what material to use for the fur itself. I want to minimize cost, weight and to not have it just be a tangled mess when I arrive. The options I was thinking of were brushed out yarn, sewing thread or harvesting hair from wigs. With the yarn it should be lightweight and cheap but time consuming and potentially get matted or tangled in transit. With the sewing thread I feel like it wouldn't hold it's shape well and would look more Raggedy Ann than great ape. With the wig hair it would be the most expensive of the options but I feel like it would look the best and be less work than brushing out all the yarn. I want to avoid faux fur fabric to help mitigate the heat of wearing a full face mask.
With the heat I was planning to have the mouth of the mask open for vision and ventilation and vents behind each ear where they're less likely to be seen. I was also thinking of having a small fan in the mouth to push some air over my face. If that isn't enough I could put exhaust fans at the vents on the ears or try to push some air out through the fur with fans.
My best option is likely just experimentation at this stage but I was hoping to see if I could get insight from other people's experience to reduce any wasted time, effort and materials.
With regards to transportation I'll likely be flying and don't want to have to take additional luggage. I want the mask to be somewhat flexible to reduce the risk of damage and I need to find a balance between flexibility and it's ability to hold it's shape while it's being worn. I'm thinking for the rear of the mask under the fur to have a skeleton made of some sort of foam or plastic. I currently have 7mm eva foam from a camping roll and eva foam floor mats. The camping roll would give enough flexibility but I don't think it would hold it's shape well without reinforcement. Whereas I think the floor mats would hold their shape well but may be too rigid. My current plan is to try out the floor mats and see how it goes. The best thing for the mask would be to have it in a hard container to protect it from damage but if I could somehow avoid that it'd give me more freedom with packing.
For the fur I was planning on using latch hooking to a mesh that is shaped to fit the skeleton of the mask. What I'm stuck on is what material to use for the fur itself. I want to minimize cost, weight and to not have it just be a tangled mess when I arrive. The options I was thinking of were brushed out yarn, sewing thread or harvesting hair from wigs. With the yarn it should be lightweight and cheap but time consuming and potentially get matted or tangled in transit. With the sewing thread I feel like it wouldn't hold it's shape well and would look more Raggedy Ann than great ape. With the wig hair it would be the most expensive of the options but I feel like it would look the best and be less work than brushing out all the yarn. I want to avoid faux fur fabric to help mitigate the heat of wearing a full face mask.
With the heat I was planning to have the mouth of the mask open for vision and ventilation and vents behind each ear where they're less likely to be seen. I was also thinking of having a small fan in the mouth to push some air over my face. If that isn't enough I could put exhaust fans at the vents on the ears or try to push some air out through the fur with fans.
My best option is likely just experimentation at this stage but I was hoping to see if I could get insight from other people's experience to reduce any wasted time, effort and materials.
