Make Your Own Psycho Mask! ( in Progress )

Note: I will be uploading more information as i go and can, at the moment I'm behind on this instructable but i am working on it as much as i can in my free time! Please be patient and enjoy!

Welcome!

Have you ever wanted to own your very own Psycho mask! but don't want to travel to the game world or pay out 200 plus dollars for a hand made one! Well now you can make your own at what ever budget you want and boast about how you made it all by your self!

I've really wanted my own psycho mask and have looked online at the many you can buy from Esty and eBay but they are so damn expensive so i was like, daaaamn, ill make one! so i did.

First i made a Pepakura Mask, which ended horribly. lopsided and ugly. If you think making a mask from scratch might be too hard then by all means try pepakura, it isn't too hard and the program shows you what to do pretty much. But be warned! it takes a loooong time....

Back to topic! Custom made Psycho mask!

Hopefully my Instructable is helpful enough for someone to make their very own mask! Feel free to comment on anything and i'll hopefully reply on a decent time! And if anyone does make their own, let me know!

Have fun!

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Borderlands or any related Stuff. All items in this tutorial are a spin off.

Step 1: Materials and Such!

Materials, materials and materials...

Materials for the mask:

Cheap Paper Full Face Mask
Air Drying Clay
Bolt like Objects ( Wooden Dowel or Bolts! )
Painters Tape
60mm Plumbing Cap ( or Whatever size you want really )
Eva Foam Sheets ( mine were about 1 or 2 mm thick )
Fiberglass Hardener or Glue ( I used fiberglass hardener )
Body filler ( use blade putty or anything )
Straps ( haven't gotten that far yet! )

Electrical Components:

60mm Cheap Computer Fan ( same size as the the plumbing cap inner diameter )
LEDS ( i got 6 3mm Blue ones )
Wire
Switch's
Battery Packs

Note: A computer fan will usually run from a 9 volt battery while LEDS will run from a Triple A.

Paints:

Acrylics ( if you want some texture )
Spray paints
- Primer
  - Primer Filler
  - or Regular
- Off White, Cream, Ivory or something of that sort ( I used Ivory )
- Red ( plain or deep, don't matter )
- Brown ( optional, if you want leather related parts )
- Chrome or Silver ( Chrome, it's amazingly beautiful )
- Black

Tools:

Dremel
Hot Glue Gun
Knife or Scapel and Scissors
Cutting Mat
Newspaper ( For painting on )
Paintbrushes
- Big for fiberglass hardener or acrylics
- Small for details
Drill ( Optional )
- With a hole cutting piece about the same diameter as the plumbing cap
Beer or Refreshments ( my choice is ciders )

If i have forgotten anything that i mention in future steps please let me know!

Pricing will depend on where you get your items from or if you can borrow paint from friends always helps! Examples of cheapness:

PC Fan = $1 eBay
Mask = $3.99 Cheapy Asian Shop
Some Spray Paints, Borrowed.
Fiberglass Hardener from previous projects.

Step 2: Design

Designing your mask.

Because this is a custom mask, you can have it however you want!

Of cause you'll want it to resemble the game mask, but you'll want your own twist on it! to make it your own.

The design of the mask is quite face fitting with the well defined cheeks, forehead and eyebrows. And of cause don't forget the mouth!

So the process i did was to mark out where my mouth piece was going and to cut it out, as well as pencil on where i wanted the forehead to finish, as it only goes halfway.

Next is to pencil on where you'll want the raised cheek and eyebrows to be. So everything in the penciled area will be filled with Clay in the next step.

Drawing on the 'Straps' or whatever you want to call them will come after building up the mask!

Too the next steeeep!

Step 3: Cutting and Building Up

This step will include adding clay to the mask and cutting it to shape!

And possibly hardening your mask too!

Cutting:

Tools you'll need:

Scissors
Scalpel
Hot glue gun

Equipment:

Plumbing Piece
Mask!

Forehead:

Firstly, i'd cut the forehead down to the length you want, I made mine about mid forehead, this is what i think would be the most accurate to the games.

Mouth:

After cutting down your Forehead to the right length, next would be to cut out the mouth so the plumbing piece can fit into it. Keep in mind, you don't want to force the the piece into the mask, so it'll take a bit of shaving with the scalpel so it'll fit. Make sure its Center!!!!

Once the piece fits into the mask, you can whip out that hot glue gun! Make sure the plumbing piece is positioned however you want or even trim it down if you don't want the whole length and you'll pretty much just want to go around the whole edge of where the piece and mask meet with the glue gun. Don't worry about mess, the clay will hide it all.

Eyes:

If the eyes on your mask don't look like the games, like mine didn't, then you'll have to make a few small trimmings to make them more shaped. The shape your aiming for is almost tear drop shaped and 'Falling' outwards, so its narrower in the center and fatter on the side. This helps visibility from the mask.

Note: You can either harden your mask now or later, but now would be more advisably. All depending on how solid your mask is. If your mask has a bit of flex in it that may cause problems, so better harden it up!
If you have decided to harden your mask, fiberglass Resin is what i used and worked great. I only used a layer on the inside of the mask which gave it a lot of support.

After you have your mouth glued in, forehead cut and maybe even hardened, we can focus on adding some features to your mask.

Building up:

Tools:

Gloves ( Optional )
Small Container of Water

Equipment:

Air Drying Clay

Eyes:

So for building up your mask you'll basically need to fill in the area that you marked earlier with the clay. You can decide to wear gloves or not, doesn't really matter, but break off a a smallish chunk of your clay and and mold it into a rough inch long sausage and place it onto a eyebrow. You'll want to slowly mold and build up one eyebrow to the shape that you want and have it sweep around the outer side of the eye. Once your happy with this you can do the same to the other eyebrow.

Mouth and Cheek Bone:

Once both eyebrows are shaped to the way you like, the Cheek and Mouth surrounding areas would be next. You can do it any way you want, but i just had it so the eyes swept around and flowed down past the mouth to the jaw. You can vary you thickness or have it so its a solid thickness along that stretch, or have it get thicker at the jaw. Mine Stayed roughly the same thickness.

Nose:

The nose. I went for keeping it Human, but flattened it out by adding clay to the sides, making it wider and not so pointed, But if your wanting the indented game look, then i'd probably do something like this.

I'd Firstly start by widening the nose on the mask to make it less pointy, like i did but then i'd add some more clay onto top of it and make it sweep down towards the mouth to give it a gap. If that doesn't work, remove the extra clay, then let it dry, Once dry glue on some card to give you the support and then clay over the top of that.

Forehead:

The forehead is relatively simple, just have the area above the eyebrows smooth off to almost flush with the top of the mask, or not have it like i did! Even easier!

Note:

To help smooth out any major lumps or areas of your clay, just dip your finger into some water and rub it where needed, the water will soften the clay enough for it to be more malleable.
Also, if the clay is getting a bit to 'brittle' then add water!
Smooth out the edges as best as you can on to the mask, this will make it a bit easier when it comes to sanding the mask.

Drying:

So the clay takes about 24 hours to dry, a long but totally worth it wait.

DO NOT try blowing it with hot air! it bubbles and cracks more!

Step 4: Filling Up the Clay

After letting the clay dry for what seems like forever, especially if its a cold day or two. Your ready for filling up those cracks which are bound to happen!

Tools:

Body Filler or Blade Putty

I Highly recommend Blade Putty.

This step is easy, Fill in any cracks with your filler and smooth off the edges where the clay has shrunk and any other unsightly things that you don't want!

You can apply the filler with your finger or piece of card. I personally used my finger which if you do probably wear gloves. less mess.

Now let it dry!

Once dry it'll be best if you give it a light sanding to smooth out any lumps and to see if you need any more filler. Repeat until your happy with the face!

Step 5: Adding Details!

Details, Now that your mask has its face features all smoothed out, its ready for adding the straps and "bolts".

Tools:

Scalpel
Ruler

Materials:

EVA Foam Sheet
Bolt Items ( my case, Wooden dowel )

The Straps:

For the straps to go over the face that make the arches you'll need a few strips of EVA Foam or something similar. Eva foam flexes really nicely for this and is super cheap.