The clay we used For this project was Chavant NSP soft. This softer clay does not hold a lot of detail, but allows for quick sculpting of a basic form. Because time would not allow for great detail, we went for speed. The body and head were sculpted first, and the ears, feet, and tail were added later.

We detached the legs and head from the body so they could be articulated in a later step.  The body was then segmented just below the ribcage, and hollowed out to make room for guts.

With no time to make molds, we stippled pigmented latex directly onto the sculpt.  Multiple layers were built up to provide strength.  A skin-tone latex was used for the outer skin, and a deep red latex was used for the internal cavities.  We then attached the head and legs to the body using strips of fabric and multiple layers of liquid latex for strength.  This allowed the head and legs to move freely without requiring an inner armature.

Pros-aide, a prosthetic adhesive, was used to apply layers of hair to the rat’s body.  Application of the hair started at the tail and base of the legs, working upward towards the head.  This “shingling” effect insures that the hair mimics the animal’s natural hair pattern.  The hair was then trimmed and styled to give the rat a wild look that matched the “mutant zombie apocalypse” theme of the film.

The two halves of the body were linked using elastic strands running from the head to the tail.  This allowed the rat to be “torn apart” below the ribcage and return to a normal state when released.  Latex guts were then bonded to each of the two halves using cyanoacrylate glue.  This concealed the elastic strands and provided a great effect when the rat segments are separated.  A little fake blood and you have a tasty treat any zombie would appreciate.

We painted the eyes (which were metal bearings) black and gave them a healthy shine.  Alcohol activated pigments were used to stain the nose, mouth, inner ears, eyelids, toes, and tail. 

And there you have it, one snack-sized rat ready for zombie consumption!

 

The preparation phase will differ from model to model. This example is based on the Lindberg pirate skull model, which comes in several pieces.

Much like anatomical skull models that are used for education, the Lindberg skull comes with a removable top and detailed cranial cavity. Because we are building an intact skull, we will need to glue the top portion of the skull down. Cyanoacrylate glue is ideal for this task. Lightly coat both surfaces and clamp them together for 5-10 minutes. If you do not have proper clamps for this step, you can manually press the two parts together for a few minutes.

While the top portion of the skull sets, you can glue the nasal bone in place.

When the Lindberg model is cast, a number of seam lines are formed on the surface. These lines run along the zygomatic bone (cheek bone) and along the outer edges of the jaw. Take a medium grit sandpaper or file and remove these lines, as well as any seam lines that are visible where the top of the skull was attached.

To insert the acrylic denture teeth, you will need to take a hand-held rotary tool and drill out sockets for each tooth. Even if you plan on leaving a few teeth out, drill out each socket so the jaw will appear more natural.  Make sure you wear proper eye protection while using a rotary tool.

Before gluing the teeth in place, roughen the base of each tooth with sandpaper. This will help ensure a strong bond.

You can use a cyanoacrylate glue to attach the teeth, but for this step I prefer a 5-minute epoxy. As the epoxy cures, you can adjust the alignment of the teeth to create what ever effect you desire. You may want an accurate/natural bite pattern where each tooth lines up properly, or you may want to have some teeth missing or at odd angles.

Before the epoxy fully cures you can texture the surface of any exposed epoxy by blotting it with a paper towel. This will create a more organic look by roughening the surface and embedding small fibers.

Once the epoxy has cured, you can use a grinding tool to chip and wear away the teeth for the appearance of an aged skull.  You can also drill into the teeth to create cavities. 

If you wish to have an eye in either socket, fill that socket with cotton that has been saturated with liquid latex. This will create a flexible backing for the eye, allowing you to adjust the angle and depth of the eye by adding or removing material.

Once you have the eye at the desired angle and depth, it is time to construct the eyelids.

Unroll a cotton ball, creating a long strip of cotton. Tear off two sections, each the width of the eye socket. Saturate one strip with liquid latex and apply it to the lower portion of the eye, creating the bottom lid. Using a sculpting tool, pallet knife, or popsicle stick, press each side into the corners of the eye, and sculpt the basic shape of an eyelid. Repeat this process to create the top eyelid. You can perform this step multiple times to thicken the eyelids, or to add more detail.

To create muscles, crumple up strips of tissue paper or paper towel, and saturate them with liquid latex. Place these strips where muscles would normally be located. In this picture the technique was applied to create jaw muscles. The strips were creased, folded, and sculpted with a pallet knife to create the appearance of fibrous muscle tissue. To help with this process, search the internet for anatomical charts that show muscle dimensions and locations.

A hairdryer can come in handy for any of the steps involving liquid latex, to accelerate the drying process.

To apply the latex skin, you can use a triangular cosmetic sponge.  Rip off the corners and edges on the side of the sponge you will use for application. This produces a rough pattern that will not leave behind any hard edges as you apply the latex.

To create decayed skin, stipple liquid latex over the entire skull. Once the latex is dry, rub holes in the latex with your fingers. As the edges roll up the latex will stick to its self creating thick clumps and strands. You can repeat this process multiple times to build up layers of decayed flesh.

You can add more texture by saturating irregularly shaped pieces of tissue paper and applying them to the skull.

In the example to the right, red acrylic paint was added to the latex that was used to saturate the tissue paper. This serves to break up the skull texture and color at the same time.

Placing these patches randomly around the skull helps create a more organic look, and helps break up symmetry.

To create the withered bits of flesh seen in the eye and nose cavities, stipple some liquid latex onto a large smooth surface (like a plate, sheet of glass, etc). Once it dries, rub it with your finger to create clumps and strands that you can then peel up and attach to the skull with more liquid latex.

When working with washes (in this case acrylic paint and water), start with lighter colors. For this skull I started with yellows and greens to stain the base layer.

To prevent colors from blending together, allow each wash time to dry before applying the next layer.  It also helps to lightly dab the paint on, avoiding scrubbing motions.

Next, use warmer flesh tones on the muscles, eye lids, gums, and the strands of tissue inside the eye and nose cavities.

Finish with dark browns, reds, and black, allowing the washes to settle into the wrinkles and crevasses.  When applying dark washes, you can lightly dab off the surface with a paper towel, removing paint and revealing the high points.  This helps bring out the texture, and makes finer details pop.

To break up the surface color even further, you can take a 1″ paint brush (chip brush) and trim the bristles down to about 1/4″. This creates short stiff bristles that can be used to splatter paint over the surface of the prop. Dip the bristles in paint, and run your finger towards yourself (away from the prop) over the bristles. This will flick small specks of paint all over the prop. If the speckles create too much contrast, you can lightly blot them out with a paper towel to blend them in.

Next, take finer brushes and start painting in the details. Stain the teeth and add color to cavities, paint in subtle veining, add shadows and highlights, etc.

To give surfaces like the teeth, eyes, or wounds the appearance of moisture you can lightly brush on a clear 2 part epoxy or clear acrylic nail polish.

This example shows a skull in later stages of decomposition, with very little solid tissue. With the same basic techniques you can create a wide variety of corpsed skulls, individual body parts, or entire bodies.

I hope this tutorial helps with your prop building,and please post any questions or comments below.

I look forward to seeing what you create!

When starting a new mask, we first need to know the basic dimensions of the actor’s head. Normally, a life cast of the actor would be used during this process so the final product would be a perfect fit. In this case, we constructed a simple head form based on a series of measurements of the actor’s head.

On top of this head form, we constructed a paper prototype of the mask. During this process, the prototype is trimmed and shaped to give both the desired appearance and a snug fit to the head form.

Once the prototype is finished, it is flattened and cut into templates for the various sections of the mask.  The resulting template sections are traced onto the mask material and cut out.

While this mask is intended to look like aged leather, we constructed it out of a light-weight foam material that is both easy to work with and comfortable for the actor.  This foam material is readily available in 12″x18″ sheets in a variety of colors at most hobby and crafting stores.  The material is given the appearance of aged leather with washes of acrylic paint.

After the individual pieces for the mask base have been cut out, we stitched them together.  First, the pieces were temporarily glued together using hot glue.  Once the pieces were assembled, a soldering iron was used to punch holes along the seams for stitching.  This method melts and hardens the foam where each stitch will be placed.  The hardened material functions like a grommet to add strength/tear resistance, and adds to the aged look.

Next, a heavy gauge sewing needle was used to stitch up the seams with hemp twine.  Hemp was selected for its strength, natural appearance, and ability to easily take acrylic washes for aging.

Once the base of the mask was complete, we attached the forehead and side straps.  The forehead was temporarily glued in place, and then permanently attached to the base using the soldering iron and stitching technique.

Next, we attached straps to either side of the mask with brass rivets.  The rivet holes were punctured using the soldering iron to help reinforce these connection points.

The lens bases were constructed from brass “finger pulls.” A “finger pull” is a shallow brass cup that is inserted into a door (typically closets) to aid in sliding them open and closed. The solid backing of the finger pulls was removed using a hand-held grinder, which leaves you with what is essentially an over sized brass grommet.

To create the flanges that surround each lens, we first placed the lenses on a sheet of the foam mask material. Next, we placed a large washer along the outside edge of each lens. The point of a pencil was then placed into the hole at the center of the washer, and rotated around the lens. This created a perfect circle that is just over half an inch larger than the brass lens. Each lens was then pressed firmly into the center of the circle, which marked the center region of the flange that needs to be removed.

Finally, the assembled lenses were offered up to the mask to determine spacing and position.

Once the proper location for each lens was determined, the brass portion of each lens was firmly pressed into the mask base. This process leaves a clear outline of the center hole for each lens. The outline was then carefully cut out of the mask base. With the material removed, each lens and flange was able to sit flush against the mask base. We then used the same soldering iron and stitching technique to permanently attach the lenses.

For the final construction phase, we measured and attach the straps on the back of the mask. First, a long vertical strap was attached at the top of the head using the same rivet technique from before. The base of the vertical strap was then looped back on its self so the horizontal strap could pass through it. The horizontal strap was then threaded through the vertical strap, and riveted at either end to the side straps that were attached in phase 2. Normally we would use an adjustable buckle, but this mask was form fit to an actor, so adjustment was not required.

Before moving on to painting, we added a bit of final shape to the mask. The material was softened using a hot air gun, and then shaped to provide natural curves. The forehead was curved to match the shape of the actor’s head, the beak was curved to add a bit more of an overall hook shape, and the underside of the mask was given subtle wrinkles. Be extremely careful during this phase. If you get the foam too hot, it can melt. Apply short bursts of heat and repeat the process multiple times rather than attempting to get the shape during a single heating.

Once the final shape was set, it was time to paint and weather the mask to give the appearance of aged leather. A natural sponge was used to stipple on 5 or 6 layers of diluted acrylic paint. This process slowly built up a leather texture, using reds, dark browns, light browns, and yellows. Each layer was allowed proper time to dry before the next layer was applied, otherwise the layers would blend together.

The seams of the mask were then darkened where dirt and grime would normally settle around the stitching. The hemp twine was also darkened during this process, giving it a stained and aged appearance.

The exposed edges of the mask were hit with a light sandpaper to roughen them up and expose the light base color of the foam material. This mimics natural wear from abrasion along the edges of the mask.

A wire brush was also used to lightly scuff areas of the mask surface, roughening the texture and selectively exposing the base material.

Finally, 2 programmable RGB LEDs were attached to the inside of the mask using magnets. The magnets allow the lights, (a pulsating yellow-green color), to be rotated towards the actor’s face for a dramatic effect, or rotated away from the actor’s face to allow for better visibility and a more subtle effect.