May–Delta & Destro

 

May.  This was not a very productive month.  As far as getting Delta any closer to completion anyway.  For other projects, it was a very good month.  I began work on my version 2 of Destro’s mask, and upgraded my vacuum forming table…already.

For Delta, all that I got done was just cleaning up the wiring, lining the inside of the helmet with old Crown Royal bags, and getting the back pack started.  I have to say, that I think it actually looks pretty cool with all the bags in there.  It looks much better than just the raw foam that was visible.

This does serve four purposes.
1) It helps to seal down some of the Mache from pealing lose.
2) It covers the foam skeleton on the inside.
3) It allowed me to conceal and secure the wiring for the lights and fans.
4) It gets rid of a lot of Crown Royal bags.

I did route the wiring out the back and it will be concealed with the back pack.

The back pack is really just a board that the tanks will mount to, and the board will mount to the frame on the helmet.  I will likely permanently mount the board to the helmet, but the tanks will be removable for transport and storage.

I need to trim this a lot shorter too, but I like the layout.

Well, big daddy Delta is not going to be the only costume that goes to Atlanta…hopefully.  I am also working on an updated version of my Destro costume from last year.

While I absolutely love this costume, I did run short on time and had to leave a few things in a state of half baked.  Mainly the back of the mask being made from vinyl and kept closed with Velcro.  With everything I learned from it, I am well under way with a version 2.

Back in March, I decided to try my hand at making a vacuum forming table.  The basic idea is you take a positive mold or sculpt, heat a piece of plastic until it is just about to melt, put it over the mold, and use a vacuum to suck all the air out and form the plastic around the mold. 

The table itself was easy enough to build, except for marking and drill over 1500 1/4” holes.  I went with a side by side version instead of the top down version.  My idea was that heat rises, so a heat source under the plastic would work best.

I did line the heat side with WonderBoard, just forgot to get a picture.

I went with a toaster over as my heat source.  The one I picked up had two burners.

This lead to some heating issues.  Hot spots.  Uneven heating. Not enough heat.  All that lead to some rather interesting foil attempts at a solution.

I had to eventually break down and get a second toaster over.  I looked at other options, but this was the cheapest and all I could afford.  Maybe one day there will be a version 3 with a more professional heat source, or at least a bigger toaster oven.

I could have likely run all 4 elements off just one controller, but I thought why try to increase my risks for a fire more than I already am.

With that all done and working, I took my original mask and made a vacuum mold of it.  I want to use it as a base for a sculpt and since it is already the right size and a great starting point, why not.

Next, I filled the new plastic mold with a fun little compound Melinda and I came up with of newspapers and water run through the blender and then glue and flour added.  I baked this for quite a while under a heat lamp and outside before I felt brave enough to remove it.

                               

I didn’t get any pictures of the final product, but it is working out great as a base.  I did try to do just a quick vacuum pull of just it with a few changes made by adding clay, and well, anywhere air could pull through, it did and caused the plastic to form around it. I ended up with a lumpy mask.

I then just went and built up the rest of the features, evened out a few areas and gave the whole thing a coat with air dry clay to get a good solid working positive.

                      

I marked the eye areas with raised bits so I would know better where to cut for the eye holes later.

The pull from the clay piece turned out really well and I am on my way to a good Destro V2 mask.

This is only the front, but I will use it to build the back and will sculpt ear molds separately and put it all together.  My plan is to use rare earth magnets to hold the front and back together.  I guess that this will add the effect of also scrambling the CIA brainwave scanners as well.

The Mask - Part 4 - Paint

Time to prime all this mess and paint it. I've got less than 10 days now for Dragon*Con.

The primer goes on great. Let each coat dry for an hour and then apply another. 3 in total if I remember correctly. Primed the vinyl as well.

Nothing says "Obey Me" like a head on a pike. I turned this toward the door and asked Melinda to come outside. Scared her to death. I laughed.

Now for the silver paint. I have two kinds and I don't know what the difference is. I use the first kind and get two good coats. Next I take the new paint and hit it with a coat of it. This new paint has some sort of metal flakes in it. It almost feels like glitter paint. But why would Home Depot stock glitter paint without putting a warning on it. I only hit it with one coat of this and wait for Melinda to come home and deliver her opinion.

"Why is it sparkly?" -- Melinda
Ugh...I had turned Destro, the greatest weapons dealer in the world, into a freaking Twilight vampire. I never looked at it in the direct sun, but sure enough, there was glitter everywhere. Gold, silver, blue and purple sparkles all over my mask.

Fortunately, I had more of the first kind of paint, and it covered the sparkle paint very well...after two more coats. Now, with primer, I have 7 coats of paint. Time for two of clear coat and call it done.

At last, I have my mask complete. It is not perfect. I could work on this solid for a year or more and still see things wrong with it. I have no time left for my OCD. It is what it is, and I just hope someone thinks it's cool, because I do.

The lumps in the vinyl smooth out when it gets stretched over my head.

Oh, you might be wondering about now, how am I going to see out of the mask? I wear glasses and there is no room for them under there. Well, while I was building the features with the card stock, I built in a foam form around the eyes. Once everything was done, I took the lenses from an old pair of glasses and inserted them in the foam form just behind the front of the mask. As, Travis put it "you made a prescription mask?" Yup.

The glasses are there.

Modified dog collar for the bottom of the mask. Helps hold the neck in place. Cut off the original buckle and just added more velcro.

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.

The Mask - Part 2

Now I have this big lump of tinfoil, duct tape, and fiberglass resin. What to do now? Well, I guess I need to see and breath. Eye holes cut. Nose cut out and reformed. Oddly enough, it now looks like a wrestling mask. Crap.

I used this image of a bust that a short lived company made of Destro as my source. I then took what I had learned from PaperCrafting, and folder card stock over the mask, using it as a form, and the card stock to build up the features. The lips for the mask were a challenge. How do you make cardstock roll smoothly. You don't. Instead I took a piece of cotton rope I had for a dog leash, cut it to length and taped it in place. Instant lips. It worked pretty well. I used electrical tape to secure the cardstock, which may not have been the best idea. When I later tried to cover the card stock and tape with resin, it didn't seem to want to adhere to the electrical tape. Either they don't like each other, or my mix of resin was not right. Either way it did eventually get several coats of resin. I don't have any pictures of the resin part, because it is messy and I didn't want to accidentally screw up my camera.

After the resin had dried, I noticed there were still some rough areas that needed attention. I could keep trying to smooth it out, or bring in my dear old friend Mr. Bondo. Some bondo and sanding and its looking pretty good.

This is when I start to run out of time. I still need to fix the back, join the two halves, and paint. About now, there are maybe 20 or so days until Dragon*Con. This going to be rough.