Hey guys and gals, this is my first post on this forum and as a big fan of the Halloween Series, I bought a TOTS 78’ mask for this past Halloween, I love the look of it of course as it is stock but, the hair specifically (at least for me) leaves a lot to be desired. I’m not too sure what I’m doing within a rehaul process for the mask so I haven’t done anything to it yet, any tips and tricks, or even pointers would help a lot! Below are photos of my mask, pls help…
Hey there, welcome to the forum! As for how to start, it really depends on what you want out of the mask! First thing I would do is remove the hair (at least the front hairline, if you want to use the stock hair.) Some of the paint might start to peel off in this process, but depending on what you want to do paint wise, this can be a good thing!
If you want to get the most detail out of the mask and plan on fully repainting it, I would start trying to peel some of the paint off (at least off of the front) after removing the front-most section of hair, which should mostly come off in one strip. The paint should come off easily in some sections, however if it starts to become too difficult, or if it starts trying to take sections of the mask itself off with it, I’d break out a dremmel tool and use a felt tip to remove the paint that way. (I wouldn’t try to remove stock paint if you don’t have a dremmel to help in the later sections.)
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If you want further instructions on this stuff, I’ll be glad to help once you figure out what you want to try and do with the mask paint wise! If you don’t want to peel off the latex paint, you can also use laquer thinner on the mask and break down the protective coat on the mask so that you can paint over the prexisting paint without worrying about it cracking! You’ll want to use latex paint for that, and I can give you some tips and tricks on where to purchase some, or how to make some yourself!
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Thank you so much for the tips and advice! I’ll definitely keep these in mind as far as starting the rehaul, only real issue is I don’t have much of any supplies to actually do the rehaul, and as far as it goes I am interested in painting the mask and adding a few more details to give it a little more depth and detail as it had in the film. I recently bought some hair spray and attempted to “fix” the hair as I’d seen in the forum after reading that it’s recommended (Photos attached but it looks like a lions mane..) I’m not sure I did an all so amazing job as I am going for the hair on this Myers Shot (photo attached). Any tips on where specifically to start? I am also going to be wearing this mask occasionally as a Halloween costume I don’t know if this is something that would matter towards this process.
One thing you could definitely do to improve the hair some is pull up the front hair line, fold it over on the awkward seam on the front, and reglue it. It will improve the mask a good deal! Also, in terms of paint, I would still recommend using a paint thinner or NAPTHA on the outer part of the mask to help break it up some so that you can apply some paint after. Be sure to do this in a well ventilated environment or outside, and use some eye protection and a rebreather or painting mask if you own one! Be sure to rinse off the thinner or NAPTHA maybe five to ten minutes after application (note that I don’t usually use this method, and I’m not positive about how long you should leave the thinner on the mask. I typically use a dremmel, but yanno, that’s more expensive and time consuming.) After that, I would recommend using latex mask paint, which I can tell you how to make! After that, you can use a wash or two on the mask to bring out some details. Please tell me if you decide to use any of these methods, and I can help talk you through some of them!
Just a note, I am not overly familiar with using NAPTHA or any kind of paint thinner, and I would do some research on it before trying to use it. I’d definitely watch some of Nick Mulpagano’s stuff on mask rehauling and see how he uses it! Again, I’m much more familiar with the dremmel, so just exercise caution.