I’m sure this has been discussed on here a lot. Can someone tell me how they painted the original Captain Kirk masks used in the movie? I know Tommy Lee Wallace said they spray painted it but that can’t be true since it would harden and crack. Did they use latex paint with an airbrush? There had to be white overspray in the hair as well, so I’m guessing they used a brown paint to go back over the hair to darken it?
Thanks guys
Not entirely sure what paint he used, but TLW did it a bit sloppily, leaving a considerable amount of the Kirk flesh colored paint exposed that just seemed to wear away the more the cast and crew handled the mask, suggesting they used a cheap paint quality. I’ve used spray paints like this for quick painting things (not for masks), and they were almost always the cheapest kind of spray paint. Looking back at how the paint laid on the mask, I’d be almost confident in saying TLW sprayed from in a downward angle, perhaps to avoid getting paint in the hair. The exposed bottoms of the cheeks and the way the skin is exposed on the neck suggests a downward angle to me. And yes, they did mist the hair black, although it created more of a medium brown color on the Kirk hair.
Funny how they purchased and modified the mask with the crudest and cheapest of means and now people pay hundreds for replicas. Just sayin…
Things were cheap in the 70’s. What with a recession and all. Carpenter also didn’t have the means to spend a lot of money on the movie. It was an indy film, after all. Kirk masks were cheap because they didn’t sell that many in 1975 and they weren’t a “vintage” product yet. They were like the “Clinton” mask of the 90s. Just something that was an option for a Halloween mask. They were certainly nothing special at the time.
I wonder if there are Star Trek collectors that have 75 kirks in their huge collections
I’m sure there are. In fact, I believe a number of collectors on here have gotten their original DP Kirks from Trekkies.
After he spray painted it and they decided to use it, they had Don Post Studios make them a few more.
I thought that was for H4. In H1, TLW did all 3 masks himself.
Nope.
And we don’t even know for certain whether it was him or Don Post Studios who painted the actual Hero mask.
About the hair, I heard that they sprayed the hair more black for the nighttime scenes. Which makes me wonder why really…
A message from Rob and Cathy Tharp regarding the paint used at the time of the creation of the original Michael Myers masks:
“We didn’t use latex paint back then, it was rubber cement paint, so that was what was used on all of the production Kirks. And also what Bill used when he modified the Kirks for them to use in the film. We believe it had been spray painted with lacquer paint (spray can) on the set. Lacquer paint does harden and crack if it is put on too thick. When they sent one back to us for repair, it was dirty, and the paint was cracking. It looked like they sprayed a few layers on, probably to cover up the dirt.”
Rob and Cathy Tharp are former Don Post Studios employees/artists, Cathy being the former head of the Don Post Studios Paint Department in the late 1970’s.
I wonder this almost every day 
I’d just buy a Kirk mask and make it exactly how they did it on set. It turned out pretty good actually.
I currently have 6 of them.
What are you doing with more than one everlasting gobstopper? Lol can we see pics?
[throws bomb] I think there is good evidence that the hero mask was painted and haired by DPS, and to me that weathering looks like it was added by artists at DPS, not due to handling on set.
Nobody gave a shit about the mask on set of both films, Castle would even have it in his pocket or sitting beside him at lunch, when Warlock would pull it off, he’d grab it by the hair then pinch the nose
That’s true, and apparently that’s how the nose got the dark spot in H2. The black paint in the hair would rub onto dick warlock’s fingers when he took the mask off, then pinching the nose afterwards rubbed the paint onto the nose.
Yup, he’d typically grab the nose, but he’d pull on the hair, the black marks on the forehead could have been him sticking his thumb under the left eye then his other 4 fingers of his hand imprinting the marks that you see as a pointed arrow or “T” in my opinion
Ah, I never thought of that, that’s true.