Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Wybie mask from Coraline film

A year ago I made a replica Wybie mask from the film version of Coraline. While I believe the original prop was designed from a 1950's welding mask, I started with a very similarly shaped industrial face shield, with the clear plastic replaced with thick black sintra. The side crank is a replica replacement Porsche window crank.

Test fit of crank on Wybie mask

I stenciled the skull pattern on the front then painted it in, leaving the welding mask rectangle gap. The original prop was designed to look like a camera three lens turret, which I could not afford to pillage, even from the depths of ebay. I created a replica turret with more sintra, PVC fittings and paint. I wanted the crank to spin the turret, but I realized that since the original prop was from a stop motion film, it didn't have to spin, so neither did mine.

Painted Wybie Mask

With it all assembled I wired in some green ultra bright LEDs and it looked great. I made plastic lens diffusers out of some packaging plastic, sanded to turn the LED dots into glowing lights.

Finished Mask, lights on

One year I will actually wear this for Halloween. I have used it as part of the 52 Weeks of Video project, when I featured it in a short, surreal film.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

where did you find the picture to trace the skull?

Drhaggis said...

I believe I used the image from the "W" Poster, which can be found here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/moefilms/3144221550/

If you make one, post pictures and let me know!

Anonymous said...

Do the eye things move around some how.

Drhaggis said...

No, the eyes don't move. It's a static prop.

Anonymous said...

Sorry don't answere the last question what I ment to say was how do you make the eye things move around thanks for reading. If you do

Anonymous said...

I mean how would off you made the eye things work/turn
Oh and by the way I like your profile picture it's got STYLE

Drhaggis said...

The obvious way is with a series of gears to change the axis of rotation 90dec from the side crank. A beveled gear would do this. You don't have a lot of room to work with because your head is in the mask were the gears would be.

The next way would be for the camera turret front to be driven by a motor whose operation would be triggered by the side crank. This would be easier than the gears, but the motor would have to be mounted creatively inside.

This would be a fun next step for this project.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for answering my question

Angel said...

Hello, I know this is an older post, but I was wondering what brand/model of face shield you used and what your steps were to remove the clear plastic and replace it with the sintra. As well, if you wouldn't mind sharing where you purchased your sintra and other materials from, I would appreciate it. Thanks for this post. ^^

Drhaggis said...

Angel,

I used a mask similar to this http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Standard-Protective-Face-Shield-Safety-Mask-Clear-High-Impact-Polycarbonate-Lens-/370881684285?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item565a45633d

The clear shield comes off easily, and is actually something you have to put on after you get it. I used screw post rivets from a leather supply place to fasten it.

I only use a little bit of sintra a year so I get small amounts of it from a friend. I don't have a supplier for it.

Happy building!

Unknown said...

Do you make masks for others? My nephew loveees Coraline and wants to be Wyborn for Halloween.

Thanks, I know I'm extremely late on this post lol.

Unknown said...

Are you able to see out of this?

Drhaggis said...

Not even a little tiny bit. I made it as a shelf prop. When I wore it as at Halloween, I wore it up walking around, and flipped it down occasionally for pictures.

Unknown said...

Would you ever consider making one for an order? My apologies if this was asked already but I'd love to own one of these. Thank you.

Drhaggis said...

I am not prepared at this time to make these for order. I hope I gave enough info for someone to make a really good replica themselves. If I can make one, it's a fairly accessible project.