Anyway, you may be asking- how did I make this mask? You may consider this a tutorial if you wish, but please note that I am by no means a professional, and there are many things I would change in the designing and making process.
You will need:
Plastic mask (more on specifics in step 1)
Fine and coarse grit sandpaper
Hot glue
Upholstery foam (0.5-1 inch thick, no thicker)
Thick elastic (1.5-2 inch thick)
Wood filler
Black and white acrylic paint
Black semi-transparent fabric
Black opaque stretchy fabric (T-shirt style- I used an actual t-shirt)
Before you start work on the mask, sew yourself a simple balaclava using the T-shirt fabric. This will be to wear underneath the mask. There are plenty of tutorials online, but I (stupidly) decided to make one using no tutorial. The first attempt failed, and the final attempt broke at comic con.
Anyway, here is the main method!
1: Grab yourself a plastic mask.
You know those white plastic masks they sell at most craft stores, mostly used for children's craft? These:
(Image cred to Hobbycraft, this is the actual mask I used)
Buy one of those, and take off any elastic on it. This will be your base. Proceed to sand the mask down using fine sandpaper so hot glue will stick better to its surface. I actually used paper mache instead of doing this, but adding paper mache just makes the mask more bulky. Draw on the cracks in Gaster's skull, and cut them out using a penknife. BE CAUTIOUS DURING THIS STEP; I nearly cut off my finger with a penknife once. Make sure you sand down any rough edges to avoid getting cut. If you do manage to wound yourself, run the wound under cold water to get rid of any plastic dust before taking any more action. It's probably a good idea to wear a dust mask and do the sanding in a well ventilated area.
2: Glue on upholstery foam and carve it.
Begin gluing on the upholstery foam, and create a "hood" for the back of the head. This cannot cover the entire head- the final mask will not be flexible. Try on the mask at intervals throughout the gluing process. Once you have covered the entire mask in foam, begin to carve into the foam to make the mask look like Gaster's skull.
Mine looked something like this, however I would've styled the eyes differently and gone for a somewhat smoother look. Make sure you streamline as much as you can with this. Glue some elastic onto the back of the mask, at the inside, so it stays on your head.
3: Wood filler and sanding.
Now you've got the main structure of the mask, it's time to make this skull look more like a skull and not a weird blue foam blob. I used plaster bandages before this step, but this is NOT A GOOD IDEA. You cannot sand down plaster bandages, and you can see the bandage texture if you do not apply them well.
Apply the wood filler all over the mask, making sure you fill in any gaps- though the ex royal scientist's skull is indeed cracked, we do not need excessive amounts of cracks and gaps in our mask.
Once this stage is complete, sand down the wood filler, making it as smooth as you possibly can. The end result may look something like this:
3: Painting, gluing fabric, and more painting
Finally, paint the entire mask white, and wait for it to dry. Once dry, paint the insides of the cracks black, to give a nice, 3D effect. Paint about halfway up the cracks black. It's more realistic.
Once everything is dry, glue the semi-transparent black fabric to the inside of the mask, and paint on pupils with the same paint you used for the exterior. Then, your mask is complete! The end result will be an awesome W.D Gaster mask.
Now, you can scare your friends:
(Jake English is @greyapis on Tumblr)
Read comics in the middle of the con whilst looking like a professional scientist:
And look awesome as heck.
Go forth and be W.D Gaster, my dudes.
Anyway, hope you have a wonderful day! Stay safe, don't fall into your creation, and have fun.
This is Echo Hall, aka Regrettiforgetti, signing off once again.
