Gratuitous Part VIII Photo

 

Just a photo of my part 8 keeper mask for no reason. He's been collecting dust for a while. This is on a BDS blank cast directly off the primary movie mask. 

I did find that its important to over-cut the eyes to get the correct dimensions because the vac'd masks are pulled directly over a mold of the movie mask, which shrinks the eye cuts in the blank roughly by the thickness of the plastic, which is about 3 mm. Doesn't sound like a lot, but when you cut them larger than the shape in the plastic they really look more accurate.

Part 8 Mask: Final Version

I don't think there's anything I can do to make this more accurate at this point. Mask on the left is the movie mask; mask on the right is a cast off the movie mask pulled in clear PETG by Beyond Disgusting Studios. The detail in the pull is impeccable and you can see the faint impression of the original mask--including the chevrons, the larger scratches, and the subtle warping around the sides--in BDS's pulls. Because of the thickness of the plastic, you have to cut the eyes slightly larger than how they appear in the pull. But aside from some possible roundness in the chin, the blanks are impeccable.

The straps are from Fiberglassmasks.com and I'm very happy with them. Important to note though, there are no commercially available straps that are hand-stitched like the movie mask's were--mask makers tend to use rivets instead of stitching.

I can't remember every detail, but I believe the movie mask was spray painted silver on the back and the front, then painted over with two slightly different shades of yellow (a sort of naples yellow, followed by a straw yellow). Slash marks were then scraped in, revealing the silver paint beneath, and in the biggest scrapes, the silver on the back side through the clear blank. This is one of the toughest masks to reproduce accurately (second only to the part 3 and 4 masks) due to the unusually high level of detailing by the Vancouver FX team, but I've got it close enough to satisfy me. Weathering is with black acrylics washes. Final coat is Krylon satin clear.

Part 8 Mask Revisions

After getting my copy of Mario Kirner's F13 prop book, I made some changes to my part 8 mask. It seemed like no matter how much I expanded them, the eye cuts were just never big enough. I think now I finally got them.

Added more scratches as well-- little tiny dings appear across the whole movie mask. It had at least four or five layers of weathering textures that gave it an authentically battle-damaged look, although its hard to see in most photos.

Still have to clear coat this but other than that its basically done. Compare the eye cuts with the movie mask below. Did I get them right?

Part 8 Mask

Clear PETG blank (molded straight off the movie mask) by Beyond Disgusting Studios. Straps by JDF Studios. All artwork by me. Click any image to enlarge.