An upcoming murder-themed party + anime convention spurred me to revamp Sinn’s Godot mask so he can cosplay in style. New on left, old on right. The old one was done in 2012… 14 years ago!! I am happy to see that my prop-making abilities have improved since then.
Old mask was built from scratch from the ground up. I didn’t have any premade diagrams to follow, so I did a lot of trial and error to come up with a shape, much of which involved taping paper to Sinn’s face. Made the main portion with craft foam + thermoplastic molded over the heat of my electric stove burners. For the visor, I used red-tinted gift wrap plastic which ended up needing to be triple-layered and was hard for Sinn to see through. A real labor of love.
Mask 2.0 was 3D printed (big thanks to ImpyCosplay) then buried in sandable primer and sanded until the layer lines went away. The few trouble spots got the Milliput treatment and then… more sanding. I really dislike sanding and wish it didn’t produce such pretty results.
I actually used the exact same can of silver spray paint that I had bought for the original mask! Learned that you can un-clog a stopped-up spray paint nozzle by taking the nozzle off a can of WD-40, putting the clogged nozzle onto it, then giving it a few sprays. Or you can note that the nozzle stems are not totally compatible, mash the clogged nozzle on top anyway, and accidentally jet WD-40 into your own face, which is the route I decided to take.
I still used craft foam, but this time for the black portion. Sinn reports that it’s much more comfortable. And this time, I knew the right search terms to use and got a pack of cheap photography color gels (not actually gel – they’re colored plastic sheets that are used to tint light sources) to use for the visor. Much thicker plastic that didn’t crinkle or need to be doubled up. Plus I can use all the leftovers to level up my Halloween decor lighting game.
Learned a ton from this upgrade. I’m not the biggest into cosplay but it’s still so fun to see these fantasy props take shape in real life. Now to re-style the cosplay wig…
