Tusken Raider Mask Build

Here is a sort of tutorial for building the “Godzilla” version of the Tusken Raider mask. Thanks Adam!!!  This by no means is a rehash or in lieu of the instructions that come with it, just my experience.  Adam did a great job putting those together.  The biggest thing you need in this kit is patience or just lucky artistic skill (which some have, I don’t).  I have put up the rough build procedure in pictures here.

The kit comes in with everything you’ll need except for glue.  I would HIGHLY suggest you stay within his guidelines, I had to shop a couple of places to find Barge Cement, but I actually used this more than anything else.  Get two tubes instead of one, you will need them.  This was my first time with GOOP, but it lives up to it’s package, it rocks.  Note in the instructions that there is a certain adhesive for certain materials, follow the basics at least, I’ll tell you where I deviated.  My mask had faint indentations for nose cutout and the tusks.  So I made sure I found them and marked them up, the same as the horns.  These can be hard to find, bring it out into some good sunlight, and you’ll see them.  First step is to fasten the head pieces on with the provided screws.  Just like the instructions say, just drill then fasten.  I can’t stress enough, practice the pieces going on a ton of times so you’ll get how they go, like the the spacing on the eyes is so important with that little cowhide strip.  I did, and I am glad I did, I’m sure some people breeze through it and then kick themselves.  Careful with GOOPing the eyes so you don’t get any on the aluminum.  You did get the aluminum pieces for the tooth right?  It’s more expensive, but it’s worth it.  That might be the easiest part, where the resin / foil trick might be the hardest.

The hardest part for me was the lambskin mouthpiece.  I scoured the internet looking for many people folding techniques and basically everyone said they just did it.  Me?  I must have practiced folding this thing for about 6 hours.  One way, then the next, visualizing it.  I think it kind of accepted the folds and then I went for it.  I’m glad I did it this way, I knew how to pull each piece to get the folds just right.  The mask on the left was a test fit (YUCK), see how the folds don’t really look right?  They are big and sloppy.  The mask on the right is the finished and glued mouthpiece. See how small and defined they are?  This is why you must practice.    Make sure you cut the cheek pieces (shown at right) large enough.  I have to recut pieces and glue them onto the existing cheeks because they were a little small. The cowhide covers it and the wrapping hides it. No harm no foul.  I would also suggest that you take your time when applying the cowhide.  Test, restest, cut off small pieces, then glue CAREFULLY.  Big globs of glue will ruin this part.  Do enough, glue, clamp, then let dry for a day.  This is where is takes patience not to keep going.  Do one a night.  Feel good about the result.

I deviated from the instructions at this point.  The wrapping.  Adam suggests always using epoxy.  I used barge cement.  The whole wrapping job.  Just as he suggests wrap the first ones tight and go for coverage, then the next couple of layers will go for coolness.  This part is a little tedious, particularly the smelling the cement, and having to do SO many wrappings, which might seem at first odd when you start form one side then have to do double coverage, it might seem a bit predictable and too symmetrical, but that’s what the last layers are for.

This is a view of the tight wrap.  It was hard to get that triangle without making it look too much like double / triple wrapping.

Finishing up:

Do the suggested metal brush (scary, I know), but it adds the nice roughed up look.  Experiment with the weathering on a small piece of scrap first.  I ended up doing some greenish yellow, then after dry, beat it up with the brush.  NICE!  I’ve seem some people put hardware cloth behind the eye sockets, don’t know about mine, but it’s an easy modification.