Keesar's Mask

The Mask:

{Click on any image to see full sized}

I used a little sturdier design for the mask, made from a single piece of plastic mesh and joined at the rear to form a tube. To do the top part of the head I cut strips into the upper part of the of the mesh tube and joined them at a central point at the top.

kmask4.jpg (53346 bytes)

After getting the placement of the servo's figured out, I began to shape the face, in order to keep the mask as cool as possible I decided to use mesh instead of the traditional foam to make the complex curves and angles of the forehead and cheeks. It's a little like doing Origami, the key to getting mesh to the shape you want is to figure out how to cut and bend the plastic. somehow or another, I managed to get all the pieces of the face on the first try!

Here you see the frame of the mask before the fur was applied with everything attached, the nose and jaw were purchased from a Taxidermy supply company. To attach the jaw and have it move freely I used two snap connectors, once snapped together they act as a hinge. These pictures also show the final placement of the eye servo's

Not much fur to this mask, since most of it will be covered in Keesar's mane.

And here you see the face all furred out. The lips are made of leather sewn in such a way so you can't see any thread. You can also see one of the eyelids, these were made out of a plastic cat toy ball, cut to fit, with shaved fur glued to the thing for a final touch. this is bolted to a connector that came with the servo's, I had to heat and bend the connector to get the proper angle so the eyelid would line up correctly.