How to make a Dragon Skull

I have to do a Dragon body paint next month and I wanted a nice interesting Headpiece. having very little money I thought I would make one.

here's how i made mine. It would probably be possible to make this into a mask too.

Step 1 The design and materials

I found this excellent illustration by McGibs and thought I would try and turn the two dimensional image into a 3 dimensional object.

I used standard A4 card stock (180 gsm)
A printer and computer
Glass-fibre layup resin
Masking tape
Isopon P38 (Bondo)
Sharp knives and scissors
A Dremel
Paint

Comments

[marshon]

For those of our colonial brethrin who are confused about the resin and filler used here. Go onto your respective ebay sites. For the liquid resin try searching for

glassfiber resin - returned about 170 results in the US - it's a liquid

For the paste filler try searching for

auto body filler - returned LOADS of responses - it's a paste or putty

Both are generally polyester resin based and may even use the same hardener. In the UK the hardener is a red paste allowing a visual check on the colur to ensure an even mix.

Isopon and Bondo are brand names.

[sweetnienna]

Thank you for these informations
Very useful ! ^_^

your project is simply awesome
hope you do some more of them :D

[Wolfess]

Would using sheets of colored card stock prove any sort of problem for this? I know it's going to be painted, but I'm looking at the materials I've got now and just wanted to be sure before I jump into this.

Your panting job is phenomenal, by the way.

[poofrabbit]

Wow I found this looking at a recently posted instructable and this came up in a related search and I'm so glad it did! This is FANTASTIC! I'm brainstorming now how I can create my own before Halloween. Well done!!

[hvargas]

how much did this cost to make?

[marshon]

Oh, I don't think I've ever tried to calculate it.

Two sheets of A4 card - pennies
Half a cup of resin - Less than a pound
Glue - Less than a pound
Bondo / P38 filler - less than 5 pounds
Lagging - 1 pound
Paint - pennies

Materials = 8 pounds

Electric? - 2 pounds

My labour - 6 hours @ £35.00 per hour = £210.00

Total cost to make = £220.00

[Defy13]

I can get the resin no problem as for the bondo... there is bondo "light" bodyfiller for $10 or "gold" for 17... Will there be any difference in the quality?
Also will an x-acto knife (box cutter) be fine?

[marshon]

As to the Bondo, I have no idea of the differences since I don't use Bondo here in the UK. You'll have to try them and see, but I doubt that there would be much in it if it's marketed as car body filler it should work.

An X-Acto scalpel should do fine, and I'd keep a box cutter handy as well. It will all depend on your skill with a knife, however so make sure that they are SHARP, it's actually less dangerous.

[doomsdayltd]

hell, u can use sugru works just as good :D

[Defy13]

Thanks for the reply. Just wondering but how long did it take you to finish and what would you suggest I use to wear it? Mount it on a hat like you or a headband or?

[kryzantema]

Hi! I've been eyeballing this for a while now, since I've had giant ideas about making a similar headdress. Excited to stumble onto your work-- the bondo and resin over paper idea is pretty clever.

A few questions, though: my original scheme was to have an animal skull over top, with feathers and fake dreadlocks sewn in the back, which means it'd probably wind up getting fairly heavy back there. How do you have the baseball cap adhered to the skull, and (at an estimate) would it hold up to more weight? And stay on? My biggest frustration thus far is just getting a substantial enough base going, as I've never done a project like this before. Hrmm. I also had a few strange ideas involving the headband from a welding hood, making a plaster mold with a skull (potentially nightmarish) and filling with "great stuff" foam, rigging wire from a coathanger and chicken wire.... blah blah. Sigh.

[marshon]

A baseball cap can hold a fair amount of weight. Try using hot melt glue to stick stuff to it. I made a Giger inspired headdress usihg this method. Alternatively check out my Armour Mask 'ible. It shows you how to make a simple dome of card for the head support. Pretty similar to a welding mask frame.

[T-Hawke]

Simply Awesome. I admire your dedication to work this all out with cardstock. I was wondering if you could do something like this with ShapeLock ? More expensive I am sure for the quantity needed but may give a stronger foundation .

Sorry just thinking out loud. Great Job! Love the Paint Job. Bet when the feathers are on, it will even look better.

If you haven't heard of ShapeLock, I included a link below.

www.Jameco.com

Search for ShapeLock.

Also: ShapeLock.com - look at the "Uses" section.

[marshon]

Thanks for the link, and no Shapelock wouldn't work for this method. The resin actually SOAKS into the cardboard and the body filler goes off rock hard so it can be sanded to shape later.

Just as an example, 500 gms at $25 bucks is way more expensive than using auto resin / filler. Being in the UK I don't use any brand name products in my work so I couldn't say if the Shapelock would bind correctly to the resin anyway.

[Don,t try this at home]

This is awesome can you tell me the length with and hight of this im gonna try to make it out of wood then metal and i need to know how big of a block of wood to get.

[TekoMuto]

beautiful :3

[D00M99]

Where did the very front hole come from?

[marshon]

Er? From the original image, I just drilled it through.

[D00M99]

I see.

[D00M99]

Could you elaborate on where you folded and stuff?

[marshon]

I cut and folded using the lines between the scales. Trial and error method.

[D00M99]

What's that piece that goes across the bottom of the skull? What's it for?

[marshon]

It's a piece of tape to hold the shape until the resin has set. Then I removed it.

[minininja24]

sick! that is sooooo cool!

[sarcosis_machina]

wonderful project. I just have a few questions relating to this instructable.

1. what were the size ratios that you used when you resized the image in the GIMP editing program? further, how did you calculate the measurements for the skull pattern?

2. in place of card stock like you mentioned, would white posterboard work? if poasterboard wouldn't work, what'd be a better material to use?

[marshon]

1. Trial and error, I set the size to print on A4 at the biggest that would all fit on the page. I did measure my own head and then related it to the face on the original drawing.

2. Nope posterboard would be too thick to get the bending and shaping right. I used thin card so that I could get it into shape easily. Once the resin goes on it becomes very strong and stable ready for the other operations.

[Jon316]

For very little things you use to make fantastic art awesome

[marshon]

Thank you.

[chrisalis]

That is just way cool. And just in time for Halloween (if you're into that) Great instructable.

[marshon]

Thanks

[neckrochylde9]

super cool!

[marshon]

Thank you.

[Jon316]

Are you planing to make the lower jaw to

[marshon]

No, have a look through the other comments on this 'ible and the reasons are given.

[FrozenIce]

what is GIMP is it like phoam board???

[marshon]

No it's an image manipulation program similar to photoshop

[michaelgohjs]

huhu i am the 16000th viewer

[cowscankill]

So awesome. Inspires me to use some of my sheet metal.

[marshon]

A metal Dragon Skull? wow! That really would be cool.

[cowscankill]

Hmm... maybe not... because my mom hates dragons.
But a cow skull... that would look awesome and would be a great addition to my CCK metal armor :D