Monday, August 30, 2010

The Mask Part 3 - The Back Half

Remember earlier on I mentioned I made a big mistake with the mask that I wouldn't find out about until much later? Well it's much later now. I have a front piece 90% done, but it's useless until I can get the back done. I treat the back just like the front. Using tape and cardstock to build up the surface, then treating with resin. So far so good.


Then I try to join the front and back. Not good. I need this to be easy and quick to do, and I am not seeing any way to do that. There is a huge gap between the front and back. I try to make a cardstock filler, but I just can't work out how to join them. I've got the front holding onto my head with three velcro straps (left to right and one from the top to middle). I thought about adding velcro to the inside of the back and just letting velcro work its magic. But there is still the gap, and I have less than 20 days now.

Eventually, I decided to scrap the back from the original mask. It wasn't working. It wasn't comfortable. It wasn't going to be easy to attach. Instead, I sat down and sewed together a new back from some of the vinyl I have left from my other pieces.

I essentially made half a baseball cap and then ran two strips down from it that velcro at the tops and down the middle. It's not seamless like it should be. It's not as elegant as I would like, but I am out of time and worst yet, out of ideas. I did test to see if the vinyl would take paint and it did like a champ (I mean it's plastic, it should). I joined this piece to the front with Gorilla brand duct tape and of course this now introduce more seams and that stupid tape texture that you can't hide. CRAP!


I could use more resin over the tape. That would cover it in plastic and hide most everything, but that resin has some strong fumes that really linger. So, I did something I knew I shouldn't and switched mediums. I went with a patching flexible sealant putty typically used for countertops. It dried fast and was low odor, but new and I didn't know how to work with it. It dried rough in some parts. It didn't sand well at all, meaning it didn't sand at all. It did do the trick though and it hid most of the seams just like I wanted.

It's not perfect. It's not that close to what I had originally envisioned back in February, but it's what I've got.

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