Hi im gonna start a Tramer to Myers project soon and was looking for some tips from you guys.
Is a regular hair color spray best for dyeing the hair ?
Can i use rubber spray paint or acrylic spray paint from a can on the mask ? I`ve read that regular spray paint is not the best even when its probably film accurate.
How do you process the hair before gluing it to the mask ? When looking on Nick`s Tramer video on Youtube ,its looks like the hair already glued together in a line before adding layers on the sculpt.
I used root touch up spray to get the ‘dark brown over blonde’ look. A bit overpriced, but it’s odorless, very easy to use and looks the business (also smears with a bit of rubbing alcohol if you need some grime). Medium brown/auburn worked well. I suspect more than a few Kirks originally had brown hair with blond on top (but not all). Getting white hair to the initial blond/brown was a case of simmering it in a pot using powdered dye (google how to dye wool for tips).
Acrylic paint mixed with liquid latex is a good start (though you’ll need to experiment with the mix to avoid cracking. Try it out on a thick rubber glove first). The mask in H1 was probably sprayed with Taxidermy Fish/Bass Belly White (used to paint dead animals). It’s more flexible than other types.
Make sure it’s not ‘Kid’ mohair. Too soft, fine and curly.
Cut some hair, spread it out and brush a line of rubber cement (or other suitable glue) over the cut end. Then leave it to dry for a minute. Makes it easier to cut a clean edge and apply without it going everywhere.
I’ve only tried rubber cement so far, and it works great and is easy to rip off if you stuff it up.
My TOTS Elrod and HII repaint+rehairs:
The Elrod has kid mohair, the HII crepe wool. Something in between the two would be ideal.
Just sponges, makeup pads (to soak a little excess off and flatten) and paintbrushes for the marks.
Painted the masks completely flesh first (getting the color right takes a bit of trial and error),
then added white coats mixed with matte medium (to make them translucent) to build up the wear pattern.
Unfortunately my mix makes the coat less flexible than the TOTS stock, and more prone to cracking. I haven’t quite hit on the best combo yet.
Having a head that can barely cram into an Elrod doesn’t help.
I’ve since bought a cheapish airbrush kit. So that’ll be the next skill to work on.
It should be ‘tops’ - basically the hair combed into one long continuous piece, rolled up into a ball usually. (Google images ‘wool tops’ for examples).
You need to spread the hair out with your fingers a little bit so it isn’t too thick at any point otherwise the dye wont soak all the way through.
Try soaking the hair beforehand in water with a small cup of vinegar added.
Don’t dunk the hair in hot or cold water. Let it heat up and cool down slowly.
Don’t have the water boiling, just simmering. There should be a little bit of steam but not a bubbling surface.
Don’t try to dye too much in the pot at once. You need to be able to stir it and turn it over gently.
Afterwards you can rinse it in diluted hair conditioner to soften it a touch and improve the smell.
It might feel a little bit stiffer after dyeing but otherwise should not have changed appearance much (apart from the color, obviously).
I haven’t done this enough times to tell… but about 200g of hair should be plenty for one head, going by ‘crepe wool’ coarseness. Finer hairs will have more volume per gram.
The original TOTS HII had adult camel. The newer ones have baby. I’ve seen both hair types and wasn’t too keen on either. I’m not sure it’s worth the extra cost. You don’t have to dye it, sure - but it’s a bit stiff and coarse.
I’d look into the price of crepe wool first - it can be found pre-dyed in brown/blond shades. It’s also comparatively easy to prepare and it has many of the qualities of the actual Hero’s hair.
Having seen some adult/baby camel, yak belly hair, kid mohair, crepe wool and two or other three breeds of wool of varying thickness up close: I think Don Post 75 Kirks had some kind of sheep crepe wool. Sheep wool is the cheapest and most readily available animal fibre, so why wouldn’t a mask company use it?
I’ve bought from them - my HII is actually wearing that exact product. It works well.
It is indeed curly, but you can wet it and let it hang for a few hours and then dry it to get a bit more length and lose the curls.
Hard to judge how much though… they sell it in 12" units, but it’s tightly bound so just looking at it is hard to tell. I think I ordered like 4-6 x 12" pieces and had some left over. I’d say message them and ask how much would make up around 150 grams. That’s probably just enough to cover it.
Works out cheaper for me to get it from a local supplier (who sell it in smaller lots) and dye it.
I use a ‘Wheat’ colored acid dye (hence the cooking part). But brown is fine. Don Post 75 Kirk hair seems to come in several shades…
I chose it specifically because of these properties:
Staple Length: 7 - 15 Inches
Micron Average: 33.5 - 45
This is close to that crepe wool in texture.
The Merino will be too soft and fine. Norwegian will be better, but I’m not sure about that staple length being long enough. It might be a bit on the fine/short side.
See the fuzzy halo on these right side pics? I strongly suspect you need 35 micron+ thickness and 5"+ staple length to get this wiry effect.
