I was building a dummy frame for a pirate today. I was using chickenwire to give him a chest. When I put the pirate shirt on him, I realized I had a problem. The shirt had kind of a V-neck that clearly exposed the underlying chickenwire.
After giving it a little thought, I decided to try putting some "skin" over the chickenwire by using papier mache (sometimes spelled paper mache) and strips of paper. A quick search of the internet revealed that papier mache consists of nothing more than 2 parts water to 1 part flour. It also said that you could add salt to help prevent mold if you live in a high-humidity area.
Since I only needed to cover a fairly small area on the chest of the figure, I figured I only needed a very small batch, so I mixed up a quarter cup of flour and enough water to make it runny, which for me was less than the half cup I had read about. I also added about a teaspoon of salt. I have no idea if this was too much, too little, or just right. Only time will tell, I guess.
It turned out that I did not really make enough of the papier mache. I went through it pretty quickly. I probably should have doubled everything for what I was doing, but I made due with the amount I made. We'll see how it comes out.
After letting it sit for several hours, it was still pretty wet, so I let it sit while I worked on other things. After about 30 hours, it felt dry, but since I had other things I could work on, I gave it another 24 hours. I base-coated it with black airbrush paint. Then, I mixed up some flesh-tone paint and airbrushed that on. It's nothing spectacular. I wouldn't want to make a whole naked body using this method, but for a little patch around the upper chest, it will do the job, particularly when, in this case, it will mostly be covered by the beard of the mask.
Page last modified 10/26/2009