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Kuma from Afro Samurai
Check out my other Cosplay!
Kuma from Afro Samurai
Brainstorming!
It took me a while to decide on what I wanted my next cosplay to be. I wanted to make something fun for my girlfriend to wear to Dragon Con this year. I wanted it to be something really cool and fairly easy to wear around. So, I decided to make a Deadmau5 head. I did the ol' google image search to get some inspiration for an original design. One particular pic I found, I thought looked really cool; the Deadmau5 Hellraiser from his Halloween set back in 2013 where the lighting made the head look pink. So, I decided to play off of the pink Pinhead look and I am happy to say that I think it turned out looking pretty epic! :)
Research/Design
After looking around online for a bit, I was able to find a
few different tutorials to go off of during the build. One in particular looked
especially professional and well made. Much of the build follows the Deadmau5
head tutorial created by Intrica on Instructables.com with a changes and
touches that I made to suite my project designs. I will going over my process,
but I very highly recommend you check out the original tutorial I used as it is
very well done and a great resource!
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-your-own-Deadmau5-mouse-head-helmet/?ALLSTEPS
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-your-own-Deadmau5-mouse-head-helmet/?ALLSTEPS
The Build
Materials:
14” acrylic lamp post globe with 5.5” neckless opening – Amazon or www.superiorlighting.com
6” white acrylic lamp globe – Amazon or www.superiorlighting.com
4’x8’ Dow blue extruded polystyrene Styrofoam sheet 1/2” thickness - Lowes
12” fully threaded rods 10/24” diameter (4pcs) - Lowes
4/16 x 1” fender washers (4pcs) - Lowes
10/24” wing nuts - Lowes
Adjustable hard hat - Amazon
LED’s for eyes – http://lighthouseleds.com/3mm-9v-pre-wired-led-pink-ultra-bright-10-000-mcd.html
El Wire for ears and mouth - Amazon
Hot glue gun and glue sticks - Amazon and Amazon
Liquid Nails for foam adhesive and applicator gun
Dremel with bits for cutting, sanding, and drilling
Scissors
Single-edge razor blades
Metal Mesh Food Cover Dome - Amazon
Nylon tights or sheer chiffon for mouth
Electrical or duct tape
Battery connectors - Amazon
Poster board
Sharpie marker
Safety Glasses
Protective Gloves
Wire cutters
Rubbing Alcohol
Black Spray Paint
Light Pink Spray Paint
Neon Pink Spray Paint
White Primer
White Plasti-dip
Marking the Globe
Poster board
Sharpie marker
Safety Glasses
Protective Gloves
Wire cutters
Rubbing Alcohol
Black Spray Paint
Light Pink Spray Paint
Neon Pink Spray Paint
White Primer
White Plasti-dip
Marking the Globe
The first thing you’ll need to do is to mark up the globe so
you can cut out the mouth and know where to place the eyes and ears. Getting
the layout right is crucial to ensuring that the final design looks good, so be
sure to measure everything at least twice before you make any cuts.
Start off by measuring 19.25 inches from the opening at
several places to find the mid-point. Note *the “nipple” found on the top of
the globe is not a good indicator of the mid-point as it can be off center by ½
inch or more*
Next, draw 2 vertical lines that will divide the globe into quadrants. After both lines are drawn completely around the globe, measure from the center point down 11” on all 4 lines to locate the equator midline of your globe.
Next, draw 2 vertical lines that will divide the globe into quadrants. After both lines are drawn completely around the globe, measure from the center point down 11” on all 4 lines to locate the equator midline of your globe.
Cutting out the Mouth
The mouth opening will rise slightly above the equator line
in the center. Mark a dot 5/8” above the equator on the front center line to
determine the high point on the mouth. Measure 6 ½” down from this dot to find
the lowest point of the bottom lip and mark this point. Now place a dot on the
equator line ½” in front of the side line on each side, this will be the outer
edges of the mouth. Use your dremel to cut out the mouth. You’ll want to sand
down the edges once you are done cutting.
Be sure to wear safety glasses and a mask over your mouth when cutting. Be gentle when handling the globe after the mouth has been cut out because the structural integrity is weakened and can cause cracking at the corners of the mouth. I suggest installing the lip as soon as possible to help stabilize the structure of the globe to try and prevent any cracking. I actually had some cracking issues I had to patch up using epoxy... Trust me, it's better to avoid that problem if possible.
Building up
the Lip
To create the offset from the mouth you will need to cut out
¾ “ x 28” strips from the foam board. You’ll need to put a slight bend in the
strips to make them fit inside of the globe and to better hold its shape
against the globe. Once shaped, glue the lips inside of the mouth one at a
time, cutting off any excess (make sure you leave at least 1” on either side of
the mouth)
Cutting out
the Eyes & Eye Placement
Mark out two 5.25” circles on the 6” white globe. Use your
dremel to cut out the eyes. Same as the mouth, you’ll want to sand down the
edges once you are done cutting. If you made any marks with a sharpie, you can remove them using rubbing alcohol.
Fabricating & Placing the Ears
I went with an oval design for the ears. You can google the PDF to stencil the ears onto your foam board using a sharpie. Once you have stenciled the design onto the foam, use a razor blade to cut out the shape. You should have a total of 4 ears cutout. Next, you will need to cut out small channels for the threaded rods to sit in. This is easily done by using a razor blade at a 45 degree angle to cut a "V" shape channel in the foam. Next, use a hot glue gun on low temp to glue the rods into place. Low temperature glue guns will keep the hot glue from melting the foam. Once the rods have been glued in place, use liquid nails to glue two of the cut-outs together. Once done, you should have 2 ears.
I went with an oval design for the ears. You can google the PDF to stencil the ears onto your foam board using a sharpie. Once you have stenciled the design onto the foam, use a razor blade to cut out the shape. You should have a total of 4 ears cutout. Next, you will need to cut out small channels for the threaded rods to sit in. This is easily done by using a razor blade at a 45 degree angle to cut a "V" shape channel in the foam. Next, use a hot glue gun on low temp to glue the rods into place. Low temperature glue guns will keep the hot glue from melting the foam. Once the rods have been glued in place, use liquid nails to glue two of the cut-outs together. Once done, you should have 2 ears.
At this point, I used the reference picture to sculpt the cracks and missing chunks in the ears. Once sculpted, use some fine grit sand paper to smooth everything down to be ready for priming and painting.
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| Test fitting the ears |
Once the ears are fully sculpted and sanded, you can go ahead
and use plasti-dip to prep the piece for painting later. The Plasti-dip will
prevent the paint from eating away at the foam when you go to paint. Plasti-dip
works best spraying 2-4 light layers and then 1 final heavier layer.
Next, you’ll want to mark out where you will need to drill the holes for the
threaded rods. The ear holes should be made 1” back from the midline with a 5”
gap in-between the two ears. When drilling the holes, make the holes slightly
larger so that the threaded rod doesn’t crack the acrylic globe when shifting
around during use. Also, use a dremel rather than a drill. I found that the higher speed of the dremel helped prevent cracking.
Paint time! After your prime the ears, they'll be ready for painting. For my Deadmau5, I sprayed the piece with light pink and then followed up with neon pink for the cuts, cracks, and missing chunks.
Finish the paint job using a couple coats of spray clear finisher "flat".
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| Primed & Painted & Finished |
Installing the LEDs
I used both pink and purple LED’s for the eyes and pink El wire
to line the mouth. (links to where I got them in the materials list) I used 10 LEDs of each color for each eye.
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| LEDs wired and mounted |
The El wire came “ready to go” with a battery pack and switch
already wired up, so all I had to do was attach some velro to the battery pack and position it inside of the globe, and then line the mouth with the El Wire. I used a small amount of hot glue to outline the mouth 3 times with it.
The LEDs came had to be sodered together prior to installation. Basically, you sodder all of the positive terminals together and then sodder all of the negative terminals together so that when connected to the battery pack, all of the LEDs light up. I bought some switches and 9v battery clips online so that I could easily connect everything and mount it all inside of the head.
This tutorial video provides a pretty good example on how to soder the wiring for your LED’s. https://youtu.be/TJJ4Mg8fymY
The LEDs came had to be sodered together prior to installation. Basically, you sodder all of the positive terminals together and then sodder all of the negative terminals together so that when connected to the battery pack, all of the LEDs light up. I bought some switches and 9v battery clips online so that I could easily connect everything and mount it all inside of the head.
This tutorial video provides a pretty good example on how to soder the wiring for your LED’s. https://youtu.be/TJJ4Mg8fymY
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| LED without wax paper |
Once the LEDs are wired, you'll need to use some wax paper or tracing paper to help diffuse the light to give it a smoother overall glow. I used 2 layers of wax paper for mine.
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| LEDs with wax paper to disperse the light |
Installing
the Hard Hat
To make sure that the Deadmau5 head sits comfortably and
doesn’t slide all over the place, you are going to want to
install a hard hat inside of the head.
First, you may want to cut out knotches on either side of the hard hat so that you can easily access the screws that hold the ears in place.
Next, you'll want to prep the surface of the helmet and the inside surface of the globe to allow for maximum bonding when glue is applied. Use rough grit sand paper on both surfaces and drill a bunch of small holes in the top of the hard hat. This will allow the hot glue to better adhere when you go to glue the helmet to the inside of the globe. Use a very generous amount of hot glue to make sure that the hard hat doesn’t come loose and hold it in place long enough to let it set.
First, you may want to cut out knotches on either side of the hard hat so that you can easily access the screws that hold the ears in place.
Next, you'll want to prep the surface of the helmet and the inside surface of the globe to allow for maximum bonding when glue is applied. Use rough grit sand paper on both surfaces and drill a bunch of small holes in the top of the hard hat. This will allow the hot glue to better adhere when you go to glue the helmet to the inside of the globe. Use a very generous amount of hot glue to make sure that the hard hat doesn’t come loose and hold it in place long enough to let it set.
Fabricating
the Mesh Mouth Cover
Cut out the edges of the mesh food cover and take off the
handle. Next, place the mesh inside of the globe so that you can use a sharpie
and use the mouth as a stencil. NOTE *You may have a gap in-between the mesh
and the edges of the mouth, but no worries! Just leave equal spacing on each
side and we will cover up the gap when we go to attach the mouth to the globe* You’ll
want to mark an additional 1” on either side to leave room for the mesh to
adhere to the lip.
Once you have the mesh stenciled, use wire cutters or sturdy kitchen sheers to cut along your stencil. To allow for better visibility through the mesh and to make the mesh blend in better, you’ll want to spray paint the mesh black.
Next, stretch the nylon tights over the mesh and use hot glue on the backside to keep it adhered. Make sure you leave the sides unglued so you can stretch it out to cover up any gap you may have at the corners of the mouth.
The mouth is now ready to be attached to the lip. Use the low heat setting on the glue gun to adhere he mouth to the lips.
If you did have gaps at the edges of the mouth, now is the time where you can cover them up. Once you have the top and bottom of the mouth secured to the lip, you can stretch the sides of the nylon to cover up the gaps and glue them to the inside of the globe.
Once you have the mesh stenciled, use wire cutters or sturdy kitchen sheers to cut along your stencil. To allow for better visibility through the mesh and to make the mesh blend in better, you’ll want to spray paint the mesh black.
Next, stretch the nylon tights over the mesh and use hot glue on the backside to keep it adhered. Make sure you leave the sides unglued so you can stretch it out to cover up any gap you may have at the corners of the mouth.
The mouth is now ready to be attached to the lip. Use the low heat setting on the glue gun to adhere he mouth to the lips.
If you did have gaps at the edges of the mouth, now is the time where you can cover them up. Once you have the top and bottom of the mouth secured to the lip, you can stretch the sides of the nylon to cover up the gaps and glue them to the inside of the globe.
Priming and
Painting the Head
At the home stretch! Now that you have the structure of the helmet finished, you get to paint it :D
First thing you’ll want to do is to prime the globe with some white spray primer. Once primed, you can then paint the ears and head to your design.
At the home stretch! Now that you have the structure of the helmet finished, you get to paint it :D
First thing you’ll want to do is to prime the globe with some white spray primer. Once primed, you can then paint the ears and head to your design.
The original hellraiser is a black and grey color scheme, but
I decided to go with something a bit more eye catching and went with a pink and
neon pink color scheme.
After everything is painted, you’ll need to finish it off
with a layer or two of flat clear coat spray.
From mau5head to Pinhead
To finish off the Hellraiser design, you have to create the signature “pinhead” look using nails. You’ll want to follow the lines you painted on to drill holes where the lines intersect. You want the holes to be ever so slighty larger than the diameter of the nails you’ll be using. (This will prevent them from cracking the globe if they get jostled during wear) Next, you simply have to set the nails into place using hot glue or any other fast setting adhesive from the inside of the globe to keep the outside looking clean and free of glue globs. Be generous with the hot glue on the inside of the globe and consider rough sanding the small area around each hole to ensure a strong adhesion with the globe and the nails.
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