Chris Walas's Build-Up Gorilla Bash !...Part 4....Into the "JAWS "of the Ape !!!

Hiya Gang !
Are you ready for more !!!
I hope you are because we're jumping in at full speed !

This time Chris Walas continues his battle with the mouth of the beast.
We continue from part 3 :
To fill in the roof of the mouth, I cut a piece of thin polyfoam and cut darts to help form the shape:

                          

All glued together it should do fine:

It's trimmed to fit, then coated with the cotton/urethane process. I then used the same technique to cover all the unfinished areas of the mouth interior, leaving the edge of the tongue and upper palate.

Now that the majority of mouth interior is done, I use two pieces of canvas to attach the upper and lower jaw. These are simply contact cemented at the back of the jaw, leaving a good half inch at the hinge point clear. Sorry, didn't get a photo of this.

Now because it's not a rigid mask, I added a bit of batting and cotton to the sides at the back to avoid forward/backward movement of the jaw:

Back tot he mouth interior, a section of T-shirt material was painted the coral color and glued to attach upper and lower mouth sections together. You can see I've already started painting the rest of the mouth:

A quick airbrush pass to suggest and darken the back of the mouth:

So now we've got the basic face and mouth done and the jaw hinged. On to the tried and true highly technical jaw return mechanism… rubber bands. There are any number of ways to do jaws and hinges, but for our cheapo suit, we're going with rubber bands like Janos Prohaska and Bob Burns had in their suits.
Make four "S" hooks like this:

I'm using ponytail rubber bands, but you can make adjustments to use most office rubber bands. It's important to pick a standard size as you will want to replace them as needed.
The upper hooks are placed under the cheekbone and glued in place. I latex over mine for extra strength.

The placement of the lower hook depends on your rubber bands. Test the rubber band by hooking it in the upper hook and stretching it over the lower jaw until you feel you have the proper tension. Then mark that spot for your lower hooks:
Your rubber band will probably be stretch near it's 50% point:

If you find you need more tension, you can add a second rubber band or use a larger rubber band doubled over:

Now I want you to see one of the hidden dangers of Latex build-up. Notice in this next shot that the lips no longer touch when the mouth is shut. Latex shrinks as it dries and you may find some distortion over large areas. I may leave the lips this way or I may fix it by adding more build-up to the lips. Not sure yet. Here's a shot of me wearing the as yet un-rubberbanded mask to give you a sense of size:

Meanwhile, I'm moving ahead on the actual suit. Here's the old T-shirt and sweatpants I'm using to make the under suit. I like to have the hands attached to the forearms . I think the elbow connection is less noticeable than the wrist. If you want to attach hands at the wrist, use a long sleeve shirt!

Next time we'll start on the fur for the head and maybe more.

There you have it folks !

The amount of detail Chris is achieving with this build-up is beyond belief !

This mask already surpasses what I was expecting !

So tune in again next time folks, when things start to " get hairy" !