Payday Halloween Mask
For Halloween this year, in place of buying the same generic costumes my friend and I decided to try our hand at making completely masks. Since we’ve both been playing Payday as of late, we figured it would be fun to model two of the 4 main character masks, Dallas and wolf! I’ve included a picture of both final products below, but this will focus on the wolf mask I made.
After looking through several different options for a starting base, we decided to use plaster to mould the contours of our face. We looked at using a foam mould but read about other just applying plaster sheets directly on to different parts of their bodies to create other pieces of costumes so we said why not just apply it directly to our faces! I caution people from doing this as it turns out, if you are in the least bit claustrophobic it is uncomfortable.
After looking through several different options for a starting base, we decided to use plaster to mould the contours of our face. We looked at using a foam mould but read about other just applying plaster sheets directly on to different parts of their bodies to create other pieces of costumes so we said why not just apply it directly to our faces! I caution people from doing this as it turns out, if you are in the least bit claustrophobic it is uncomfortable.
Before proceeding, I shaved my face and applied a generous amount of Vaseline to ease the removal of the mould after it had hardened, and wrapped the top of my head in saran wrap to sop my hair from getting stuck in it. I had my friend apply layer after layer of the plaster sheets (don’t recommend attempting this by yourself) leaving only the bottom of my nose untouched so I could breathe through the panic! After it had finished hardening, I removed the mould from my face then proceeded to build it up the contours to match the style I was going for. Once I got the contours down I jumped over into painting. I didn’t bother priming or sanding the mask as I liked how rough it looked and the material itself was fairly absorbent so I wasn’t overly concerned. I painted to match the look of the character and then moved into trying to sort out how to get it to stay on my Face.
Before proceeding, I shaved my face and applied a generous amount of Vaseline to ease the removal of the mould after it had hardened, and wrapped the top of my head in saran wrap to sop my hair from getting stuck in it. I had my friend apply layer after layer of the plaster sheets (don’t recommend attempting this by yourself) leaving only the bottom of my nose untouched so I could breathe through the panic! After it had finished hardening, I removed the mould from my face then proceeded to build it up the contours to match the style I was going for. Once I got the contours down I jumped over into painting. I didn’t bother priming or sanding the mask as I liked how rough it looked and the material itself was fairly absorbent so I wasn’t overly concerned. I painted to match the look of the character and then moved into trying to sort out how to get it to stay on my Face.
After a lot of searching, I wound up buying a set of gardening knee pads from the dollar store, cutting the elastic band and super gluing each cut side to the interior of the mask (with the kneed pad acting as support on the back of my head). Something to note, In order to make the fit a bit more confortable I recommend adding rubber padding to various pressure points on the inside of the mask and ahead of super gluing in the bands to the strap, sand down the contact points (huge mistake on my part not doing it as after wearing the mask for about an hour I had a pretty bad pressure headache!)
After a lot of searching, I wound up buying a set of gardening knee pads from the dollar store, cutting the elastic band and super gluing each cut side to the interior of the mask (with the kneed pad acting as support on the back of my head). Something to note, In order to make the fit a bit more confortable I recommend adding rubber padding to various pressure points on the inside of the mask and ahead of super gluing in the bands to the strap, sand down the contact points (huge mistake on my part not doing it as after wearing the mask for about an hour I had a pretty bad pressure headache!)
And that’s it! Here is a picture of my friends and I in costume (note how the majority of effort went into the mask). We had a great time going to various stores and driving around town just messing around. The project itself wasn’t overly complicated so I may be using this method of costume making going forward!
And that’s it! Here is a picture of my friends and I in costume (note how the majority of effort went into the mask). We had a great time going to various stores and driving around town just messing around. The project itself wasn’t overly complicated so I may be using this method of costume making going forward!
