Skeletor-Masters of The Universe
Aloha everybody!
Here is my entry for the 2020 Costume Contest. Skeletor started out with our family CEO (my 8 year-old son) telling me he wanted to be the character for Halloween. Since there are no conventions for us to make a costume in a hurried manner, my family had ample amounts of time to dedicate to the project. Or so we thought...
Skeletor's skull- I purchased the most "realistic" skull from Walmart to make a pattern from. I then proceeded to cover the form with tin foil and duct tape to make patterns with registration marks. I then traced the patterns onto paper to scan into Krita to make reliable patterns from and tweak the form to suit my needs. Using Krita also allowed me to size the helmet for my son. Once that was done, I printed the patterns onto cardstock and cut them out, notching the registration marks with a pattern notcher.
I transferred the patterns onto 6 mm eva foam to cut heat form and glue together to make a helmet. I fabricated teeth from thermoplastic and added foam clay to the helmet to add texture and details (also to hide my seam line sins). I then used a Surform (thanks to Ted Haines videos) to blend in the seams (it also had a nice benefit of adding pits into the foam that were veeerrry bone-like). I sanded the helmet with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth the foam out and I applied 3 coats of Creature Cast Rigid and sanded between each coat. I then applied two coats of Rapid Fill and Fine Finish to smooth out the helmet even more.
Once that was finished, I moved onto painting the skull with Liquitex paints and black washing it for aging.
Once the skull was finished I moved onto the breastplate construction which went nearly the same as above, the belt, the furry greaves and feet made from old Crocs, and airbrushing the bodysuit with muscles (another Stan Winston tutorial featuring Dutch Bihary
). My wife sewed the furry underwear and his hood.
The staff was made from a Target ram's skull with a working plasma ball inserted to cast spells and ram horns (stock ones were too small) fabricated from eva foam detailed with foam clay. We made his school's socially distant Halloween Parade where he even scared some teenagers....lol!
Here is my entry for the 2020 Costume Contest. Skeletor started out with our family CEO (my 8 year-old son) telling me he wanted to be the character for Halloween. Since there are no conventions for us to make a costume in a hurried manner, my family had ample amounts of time to dedicate to the project. Or so we thought...
Skeletor's skull- I purchased the most "realistic" skull from Walmart to make a pattern from. I then proceeded to cover the form with tin foil and duct tape to make patterns with registration marks. I then traced the patterns onto paper to scan into Krita to make reliable patterns from and tweak the form to suit my needs. Using Krita also allowed me to size the helmet for my son. Once that was done, I printed the patterns onto cardstock and cut them out, notching the registration marks with a pattern notcher.
I transferred the patterns onto 6 mm eva foam to cut heat form and glue together to make a helmet. I fabricated teeth from thermoplastic and added foam clay to the helmet to add texture and details (also to hide my seam line sins). I then used a Surform (thanks to Ted Haines videos) to blend in the seams (it also had a nice benefit of adding pits into the foam that were veeerrry bone-like). I sanded the helmet with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth the foam out and I applied 3 coats of Creature Cast Rigid and sanded between each coat. I then applied two coats of Rapid Fill and Fine Finish to smooth out the helmet even more.
Once that was finished, I moved onto painting the skull with Liquitex paints and black washing it for aging.
Once the skull was finished I moved onto the breastplate construction which went nearly the same as above, the belt, the furry greaves and feet made from old Crocs, and airbrushing the bodysuit with muscles (another Stan Winston tutorial featuring Dutch Bihary
). My wife sewed the furry underwear and his hood.The staff was made from a Target ram's skull with a working plasma ball inserted to cast spells and ram horns (stock ones were too small) fabricated from eva foam detailed with foam clay. We made his school's socially distant Halloween Parade where he even scared some teenagers....lol!
2