Garrus Mask Neck Building

Sarrah Wilkinson - 7/16/2013

This is one of a series of blogs about how I made my Garrus costume. View everything related to this cosplay here!

In the last blog, Painting My Garrus Mask, we covered the painting process. This blog will go over how I created the musculature, skin, and scales on the neck in a flexible and believable manner.

Garrus neck sketches

First off, I apologize that I got so into what I was doing that I completely forgot to take pictures for a little while here! Hopefully the drawing above should make what I did clear. The top two drawings show the first layer of the neck, the black spandex you've seen in previous blog posts. The second set of drawings show the vertical pieces of foam I attached on either side to imitate neck muscles. I was planning to build up foam on the back of the neck as well, as you can see in the drawing, but that turned out to be unnecessary.

Garrus neck work in progress Garrus neck skin tests

Here's the point that I realized I REALLY should stop and get some pictures! The foam neck muscles were attached directly to the inner spandex layer, and then I created a skin to cover it over.

After a lot of fussing around with different materials, I decided the best way to keep the neck nice and flexible, as well as breathable, was to make the skin out of cotton spandex as well. To get the effect of skin, I tried a few experiments. The most successful was the lower-right portion of the second picture. I sponged a couple of layers of latex directly onto the fabric, being careful to leave gaps in between where the spandex could retain its stretch properties. I then used acrylic paint to color the skin, again applied with a sponge.

Garrus neck work in progress

On the other side, I wanted to make sure and put a lot of detail work into those scars he is so proud of! The technique is almost identical to the left side of his neck, except here I strategically added folds and wrinkles, securing them in place to the fabric underneath with little dots of hot glue. The paint job was also similar, latex and acrylic paint, but here I took care to accentuate the highlights and shadows to make his scars stand out.

Garrus neck scales in their molds Garrus neck scales

I regret I didn't get pictures of the sculptures I made for his neck scales, but I think you've seen enough of my other sculpting and molding processes to know the gist of it by now. In the photos above, you can see the first latex scales I cast pinned in place. I soon decided that, because the neck scales needed to be able to stand up to a lot of flexing, I would recast them in grey-tinted latex instead.

Garrus neck work in progress

Here, the lower scales have been painted and partially attached to the neck. While test fitting, the scales are just tied on at a few points with thread. Once I'm sure I have the placement correct, I sew the entire top edge on and secure it with hot glue. The sides are left loose for placement of the smaller scales.

Garrus neck work in progress Garrus neck work in progress

I've now attached the rest of the smaller neck scales. I cast them from molds I made quite a while ago, for this guy! Shh - our little secret. :)

In these pictures, I've just pinned the top two large scales in place. In the final build, I decided the second-to-top scale would be attached to the neck, but the topmost scale would be attached directly to the mask. The velcro attaching the top portion of the mask to the bottom is partially hidden under it.

Garrus neck work in progress Garrus neck work in progress

Once the small scales were positioned and painted up, I attached down the sides of each of the larger neck scales. The bottom part of each scale is left loose, which allows the scales to overlap each other as I move my head around.

Garrus mask - Neck test fit Garrus mask - Neck test fit Garrus mask - Neck test fit

I'm wearing the mask in these pictures... and also taking the photos. In case you're wondering about the awkward angles! This is just to test out the maneuverability of the neck, especially those scales on the back. Nice and flexible!

That little white "tab" is the velcro. I didn't bother cutting it down because I would shortly be replacing it with black velcro, to better disguise it under the neck plate.

Garrus neck work in progress Garrus neck work in progress

Overall, I was very pleased with the neck, except for one flaw. The area beneath my chin didn't look right, and wasn't as flexible as I needed it to be to move comfortably. I cut out a portion of the exterior neck skin and replaced it. The first picture shows the replacement piece, and it has been painted up to match in the second photo.

Garrus mask - Neck test fit Garrus mask - Neck test fit Garrus mask - Neck test fit

Garrus mask - Neck test fit Garrus mask - Neck test fit

There we go! Nice and flexible. I felt it was extremely important that the neck look and move believably, else what was the point of all that work moving the position of the face away from my own human head underneath? In doing the neck this way, I was able to come up with a few new ideas that I can use for other projects as well!

Note that the eyes in these last few photos are STILL not the final eyes I used for Garrus! The final mask post, Getting Garrus' Eyes Right, focuses (heh) entirely on the eyes, and how many iterations they went through before they finally looked right!


Categories: Costuming
Tags: acrylic, cosplay, costume, foam, Garrus, mask, Mass Effect, neck, painting, scales, turian, Vakarian
Live Date: 7/16/2013 | Last Modified: 7/16/2013