The Sandman - Complete! (Helm Pt.12)

After a morning of furious painting, starting with a white primer layer, followed bu successive layers of airbrushing, I rushed out the paint job on both the spine and the mask itself in a few hours, and it's not exactly what I would have liked, but it's damn good for the time frame.

Post mortem fixes are at the bottom, but let's get to it first!


We attended the masquerade ball in style, and got a lot of comments and pictures on the costumes and how recognisable we were as a theme.

Enjoy the pics, and the fruit of all that labour! I already have planned improvements for the second version, when I no longer have a deadline, and can spend a lot more time researching making it functional, but I wore it for a lot of the night, and it was amazing.

As you can see, my two friends were Delirium and Death. I actually crafted the Ankh to attach to the choker for Death, and she did a fantastic job on nailing not only the rest of the outfit, but also the attitude.

As for Delirium, I gave here the Nemo balloon idea, the fishnets and corset, and she went on with the crazy attitude that had people running away in case she touched them and sent them off to crazy town.

The whole night was amazing, and seeing the pictures afterwards I can only imagine how surreal it must have been for those around us. The last two shots here are fantastic, the first shows the side detail in all its glory, and how it fits with the whole outfit as we slink through the crowd, like The Endless would, practically unseen.


The final shot was right at the very end of the night, and we clearly had some wear and tear apparent, but held up well. All in all, a vast success!

Things that fell short:

1) My Sclera contact lenses didn't arrive on time, so I had to make do with normal black costume lenses, seems like a shame in the pics, but the flashes were illuminating the interior, in the normally dull environment, I'm sure it looked authentic.
2) I started out the project with the idea that I would make a robe, form fitting, with led strips in the interior of the hem, which would make it look like flames. I had to dump that, because I know nothing about tailoring (yet!) and it would probably have taken me away from the mask
3) The eye sockets needed more work, and that's mainly because I positioned it incorrectly in my rush, you can see my eyes sat low, which made it hard to go up and down stairs! Next time, the eyes will be closer to he brow.
4) Colouring was rushed, I'd love the opportunity to do it again at a slower pace.
5) The Dreamstone, in my attempt to make it look diffuse, came out a bit less like a gem, and not 'sharp' enough for my liking, I wanted more of a 'hard cut gem' look. It also came out just a touch too big.
6) I would like the spine to be a bit more flexible next time, while maintaining its shape, not flapping all over the place. It was rigid for the night, which also didn't help going down stairs.

and finally...

7) I need a photoshoot just for the helm!

Cya for the next iteration!