Head Failure #1.

I'm a more active poster right now on the Replica Prop Forum, as I have created a work in progress thread to keep track of things. You can find that here.

We had several ideas of how to make the head, and after we went through some fear about a fiberglass head being too heavy, we decided we'd try a latex box. First we made a box out of cardboard, covered everything in plastic wrap and filled it with water. When we did that, we realized the cost of the latex for the mold would be way too much. I'm not experienced enough for slush casting or anything fancy either, so once we figured out how much latex would cost us we decided we'd try fiberglass anyway.

 We also took pinboard/pushboard (not sure of the name; very thin wood like stuff from Home Depot) and tried making boxes but even that tight around the clay head was still way too much latex. 

 So with that decided on, we decided to try fiberglass. So we wrapped the clay piece in plastic wrap for the first step.

 Then we took pins and went through the fleece and clay to hold it in place.

 Then we took our resin (I believe we used boat/fiberglass resin) and paintbrushes and brushed it on over the entire thing.

 We ended up having to bring it inside the house in the bathroom with a heater on because it was pretty cold out for Florida that week. It was sometime in February, and it took ages to cure for the first few days while we did this.

 Overall, this made a very sturdy, strong piece. It really felt like it was going to work well for us.

 The plastic wrap stuck to it and created this texture on the inside, but also kept the clay piece from getting too sticky and gross (although it still did get sticky and gross).

Then we did the same for the head. We did one half, one half, and then the inside of the mouth.

 We reinforced the inside of the bottom jaw as well so it would support the hinges properly. We just used fiberglass matting. We kind of built this one to go to the moon, which is part of the problem we ended up having with it.

 Then we installed the hinges (as ordered by DVC, but we ended up using them for patterns instead as they weren't strong enough for this head--they're intended for plastic/resin, not a heavy head like this one).

 Then with some lining up, marking and such, we put the three pieces of the head together.

 Then we used this two part super strong adhesive to put the pieces together. You just pour the little black powder down, then the liquid over it and it dries instantly. It worked very well.

 Annnnnd then we reinforced the inside of it with more fiberglass matting to make it even stronger.

 In the gaps where it didn't line up I used model magic to fill it in. One of the most important parts of this head to me was that the mouth shut all the day--I don't like to see dinosaurs where their teeth are always showing.

 And then I put Model Magic on the outside of the head for a scale effect, which worked pretty well but hot glue wasn't the right adhesive for it.

 Then we thought of the idea to use the cement tubes--this one we found at Home Depot, Sak-rete was the brand for it, and put it on my shoulders. This idea didn't work, but it was a good idea anyway. I'm really determined to try and get this dinosaur on the top of my head without needing something to rest on my shoulders.

 And then here I was painting it over the scales (at the time I was afraid the white would show through the spandex but that wouldn't an issue). You can also see the surfboard cloth we have hanging out the back that was used to attach the piece to the concrete tube. It's not actually a tube made of concrete by the way, but one used for pouring concrete and getting that cylinder shape.

 And here's what it looked like "finished."

 

 There's the tongue I sculpted inside the mouth.

And unfortunately, this head weighed far too much for it to work. Total, it weighs 9.5 pounds. By the time we figured this out, we had about a week and a half left I want to say to MegaCon. We were still grasping at straws for it to be completed in time, so we started on Mark II nearly immediately afterward. This head is still outside in our greenhouse, and we're thinking it might be turned into a speaker box or a lamp or something. No clue, but if you're for some reason interested in taking it off our hands then you can contact me by leaving a comment below. :)