Imaya Report post Posted October 20, 2014 Ok, I will order some practice leather too (it's a good price where I am getting the leather piece). Other than a bowl, what else are good practice projects for molding and shaping? Maybe a simple face mask? What else? There won't be any tooling for the mask, but I will go ahead and make the simple cloth armbands out of leather for practice as well, mostly for the paint practice. They will need a little simple tooling. No shaping on them, however. The initial shipping charge is ghastly, so I am throwing in rawhide as a backup. At the least, I am going to cut some lacing from it to use in the armbands. I would make a sheath too, but the party I am going to most definitely won't allow even fake weapons. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Imaya Report post Posted October 30, 2014 Got everything in from Zack White... looks great! I am about to finish what I hope is the final foam prototype, and have a question about 'pinning' the leather in place. With the foam, I am able to glue and pin in place before I sew. But the leather will be too thick to pin, and I am not sure if any glue is safe to put in the oven. I need a way to hold everything in place while I sew, and it is too awkward to clip into place. I would only be able to clip on the ends, but need to steady stuff in the middle too. So... how do I stabilize the leather in place so I can line it up and sew it correctly? Is rubber cement or hot glue ok, even though it will go into the oven? The practice leather is pretty thick, all between 4 to 8 or 10 oz... trying to figure out what to make for practice. Nothing I can think of involves molding. I did get one piece (maybe a 5oz piece or so?) big enough for a regular face mask... maybe just make a simple mask molded to my face? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Imaya Report post Posted October 31, 2014 Yay! Everything went smoothly on the test mask (other than the fact it was a fugly and hastily put together design to begin with ). Cut it out, learned some things about cutting. I made a test mask with much more cutting detail than the plague mask so I could practice. Baked it and molded it. I was nervous the first 3 or 4 times out of the oven it didn't hold shape, but then it started to begin to stiffen, and near the end, I could do a lot more molding that held! Yay! The plague doctor mask is much bigger and bulkier, so I imagine it will take much longer to bake. Only really need to mold some curve into the beak, the rest of the mask holds its shape nicely on it's own per the foam demos. I did some minor freehand tooling on the test, none is needed on the plague one. Taking the plunge, cutting out the mask and will work on the stitching for the next couple of hours. Wish me luck (I'm still a bit nervous...) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
electrathon Report post Posted October 31, 2014 post pics... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Imaya Report post Posted November 2, 2014 I am happy how it turned out! The party was a disaster of a night, but the mask was great. It needs some tweaks, but I was in a hurry and didn't have time to adjust. It needs some of the sides around the face trimmed (it is long ends by the straps stick out awkwardly), and the goggles need some more cutting down on the plastic and to be glued in so they stay in place. For a first mask, I am pretty pleased. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
