Faux-Taxidermy Lion

 So back in August we were contacted to do a studio job... I hinted at what it was, but tried very hard to adhere to our shop NDA (non-disclosure agreement) which we stick to whenever we do studio jobs. Mostly my day-job consists of making pretty average stuff for studios. Lots of welding, soldering, machining and tailoring. But this one was special!

I'm so proud of this, I'm so excited that we've got studio ok to share pictures and details!

This was definitely one of my favorite costumes I've built, and we were fortunate enough to be working with some great people who let us kinda run away with the idea and make it excellent!

The producer gave us some images of what they wanted, and we immediately got to work brainstorming how we could bring together a taxidermy-like cowl and cloak. I whipped up a few concept sketches, we had some ideas bounced back and forth, and then as soon as we got the ok we began ordering parts from about a dozen online stores to get started!

I couldn't help myself, and posted some component photos in this blog entry. It's so hard to pour so much love and energy into secret Hollywood stuff! I have moments of weakness, hah.

Ok, on to the good stuff! Here's just my favorite pictures of the process... There are hundreds! Thanks to my wonderful partner who is so supportive of me that he jumps at every opportunity to take snapshots of the 'insides' of our projects! 

Without him, I also probably would have mucked up the ratios on at least half of the resin fiberglass and casting rubbers, so he's just the best.

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I used sculpting epoxy for details; fairly malleable and cures in about 4 hrs, can be sanded and dremeled!

Dremeling the fiberglass head for rough spots and to fit in the taxidermy replica lion eyes. 

The claws were made from a two part resin in a platinum silicone mold.

First good pull out of the pawpad mold; made out of tinted casting rubber compound onto a lycra sheet.

Painting the jawset (a heavily modified taxidermy jaw set) and then coating everything in UltraGlo.

First test to see if the 'skin' fits!

Looks pretty good for a test fit and some rough fur shaving!

We made the paws 'dimentional', in that they had a front and back, as though they were stuffed taxidermy rather than flat. This was SO difficult, but SO worth it. We inset the pawpads and sewed them into the paws from within (not appliqué via adhesive on the outside), as well as sewing in the claws from the inside and reinforcing with E6000. They had such a wonderful weight to them!

Cutting into the bolt of NFT we ordered for the project was terrifying! 

We "gently" adhered to a standard lion's size when doing the cape portion. He'd be a small lion, but he sure was a pile of fur on my sewing table! 

Husband for size reference. Two colours/lengths of NFT fibers for the mane, elbow poofs and tail, such wonderful stuff!

Hand basting the faux suede lining to the inside for that added realistic look and so-soft comfort!

Started airbrushing some 'value' to the facial fur. I got way more aggressive with the shading later on hehe.

Test fit... I wanted to keep it!

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I'm so glad I got a chance to make this fella! I love the opportunity to stretch my comfort zones and really make something out of the ordinary (for me at least). It was a whole bunch of sleepless nights, trashed patterns, mis-casted parts and paint spills, but the stress was worth it!

Oh yeah, and I added some horsehair whiskers and eye-whiskers too!

If you have questions about the construction, or where I sourced materials, feel free to ask! Thanks for reading. :)