The Morbius Build Diary Part VIII: The FUR of Morbius!
Hey Gang,
So onward to part VIII of the build. After completing the the terrific paint job and getting a foothold on the fur it seemed the next natural step would be to finish ALL of the fur application, plus add the neck wires, do the stitching and if there was time try and get a start on the eyestalks. Tales of plumbing supplies, wires, hair clippers abound with the FUR of Morbius!
More Pics and info
Before adding any fur it was decided to create a nice flap to hide the back zipper. This was done with more of the 3/4" Foam barged neatly into place.
Back Zipper
Adding back foam to cover the zipper
So with that prepped to take on some fur, we broke out the rest of the fun fur I got. The first thing tackled was a repeat of the day before by applying another ring of fur to the other arm. Then a nice long strip was spray glued to the new foam back to create the flowing mane of back hair on Morbius.
More fun with fun fur
Spray glue still our other best friend
Covering foam with fur
With that looking good, the claw was next. Paul drew a nice pattern on the claw to determine placement, cut the fur to match and applied it with more spray glue. Once applied to both side it REALLY came to life! The claw was then temporarily attached with a few straps and snaps to complete the effect.
Prepping the claw for adding on the fun fur
The furry CLAW of morbius
For the rest of the fur we spent a couple hour prepping up several sections of fur. First cutting the remaining yard of fur into 5-6" widths and the taping them down with blue painter's tape fur-side up.
Painter's tape - a new best friend
Prepping LOTS of fur
This was double taped to hold the fur in place ready for shearing later. We prepped at least 10 of these sections to be used all over the rest of the body.
Clipping the back of the fur with shears
The next step was to take each taped section and slowl,, careully cut it with some electric hair clippers slowly shearing away the back fabric with as close of a shave as we could muster.
Slow and steady wins the race
Once this was done these could be flipped, sprayed with glue and applied anywhere on the body by slowly peeling the painter's tape off leaving a nice natural looking hair growth coming from the monster's latex body.
Peeling it back so only the hairs will glue on.
Applying this fur with spray glue over the first arm.
So we first applied this to the arms to take the curse off the rather unnatural looking straight edge of the first fur applications.
Adding top fur to the back neck
Then we stopped to finish off the back. Small sections were cut and carefully spray glued on the upper back neck slowly leading all the way to the top base for the dome. Finally a little strip of velcro was added underneath to close the top portion above the zipper to hide the join completely.
Adding very top finishing fur with peel back technique
The very top was added with the painter's tape peel-back technique.
Adding velcro so the very top will close shut
Applying fur to the back calf
Essentially using more of the pre-taped and peel-back method we went around and applied this to alll the major areas - back knees, back calves, and front shins.
Applying fur to the back knees
Applying the fur to the front shins
Finally we got to the fine tune detailing. Cutting down the pre-taped section of fur and lightly spray gluing little areas on the chest and neck to add the odd looking wisps of hair that grow out of several spots. We went over our reference material and carefully hit little areas for extra fur flair. These little extra hairs were really making all the difference in the look of the monster. The devil as always is in the details.
Applying the wisps of neck hair
With the fur finally done, we turned to the stitching. Paul had a couple of great bits of thread that were tough and thick but needed painting so they would read as a silver tone. This was easily done with some spray paint.
Painting the thick 'stitch' twine silver
Next this silverized twine was hand stitched over all of the pre-corded sections of the costume which gave a nice road map to where it went without having to go crazy again on the reference photos.
Hand Stitching on the twine over the pre-corded sections
In about 10 minutes the stitching was complete on the chest, waist and legs. Another detail - finished!
Stitching added to the leg sections as well
Next we approached prepping the eyestalks for the dome. Now originally we'd bought a couple of cheap 99 cent store margarita glasses and some flower pots with the intent of cutting them down and assembling them into the eyestalks with the hep of some red halogen outdoor flood light bulbs and some extra PVC sprinkler pipe Paul had laying around.
Red halogen lights
99 cent store Margarita Glasses and Flower pots- what we almost used for the eyestalks...
This plan didn't quite work. But we did try valiantly to fidget these into place. We started by determining the ideal length for the eyestalks was 6" so we cut the PVC pipe to this and cleane dout the edges with the dremel.
Sawing the 6 inch lengths of PVC pipe
Sanding down the edges with the dremel
Then using the dremel again the Margarita glasses were cut down to only use their top portions to hold the bulbs.
Cutting the plastic glasses
Then we realized the only way to make them fit properly would be to physically cut the light bulbs down a bit- losing the base that goes into the socket normally. Not that the lights ever turned on in the show, so we didn't feel we were losing much here. Again the dremel took care of this problem.
Testing the fit!
Cutting down the bulbs
So close yet so far
Upon re-testing the fit- it was CLOSE...but just not quite there. After much deliberation, we decided to ditch the plastic glasses and attach the bulbs directly onto the PVC pipe using some Epoxy glue.
Drain covers
Testing for size
This left us re-examining the ct-down flower pot idea for the base of the stalkex (and the side circular plug-ins for the dome). The PVC pipe didn't quite match size wise so we took a trip to the hardware store for some better looking parts. The Plumbing dept. saved us again when we found new bases in the form of the some PVC drain covers, new plug-ins with some PVC threaded connectors, and a couple of pipe ends t use to inter-lock the sprinkler PVC pipe onto the eyestalk bases! While there we picked up some extra blue and Red Wiring to boot.
Belt sanding the Drain Covers free of markings
The next step was to belt sand the raised numbers and markings off the drain pipe covers. Thankfully Paul's neighbor had a belt sander we could borrow. This came in handy more than once!
Drilling PVC base to lock onto the eyestalk pipe
Then the pipe ends werre drilled and attached to these drain covers, centered for eyestalk assembly. The 4 holes were also marked and pre drilled for when these would eventually would attached to the dome (and keeping the look of the originals!).
Fitting the bulbs to epoxy onto the PVC
The bulbs were finally epoxied onto the tops PVC pipes. We planned to do this for the bottoms too but ultimately decided that for transport it would be better to make sure they were removable and luckily once place on the fit was so snug they certainly weren't going anywhere!
Letting the Epoxy set and dry
Grey Putty 9000- what saved us on making the eyestalks
To help hide the join from bulb to PVC we used some really nice sculpty Grey Putty 9000 which is normally used for modeling. Paul applied this carefully with a Q-tip and it really smoothed the join making it appear to be one solid piece.
Applying the puty to smoothly adhere the light bulbs to the PVC.
Once dry and set the Eyestalks would be ready for painting on our next build day!
Wires for Morbius
Our final task for the day was to apply some of the cool wiring to the neck of Morbius. We had some Yellow wiring leftover form the TARDIS restoration and we'd just bought the blue and red as well. So we pre-curled the wire on a broom handle and a vice to get the right look.
Curling the wire
super gluing the yellow wire
Using the reference picture we placed and applied the more prominent yellow wire first poking it into the latex and fixing it there with a heavy dollop of super glue.
Gluing the blue wire
We then carefully repeated this process with the blue wire which had to be place higher up. These were done fairly quickly and again really helped bring home the Morbius look. It was looking really FABULOUS now!
So the body was now pretty much done and put-to-bed! Talk about a major hurdle accomplished! Now all that was left was to tackle the all important Solon brain casing - and deal with the dreaded domes of doom.
Be here for Part IX of the build which continues with domes, sprinkler parts, wires and lamp bases with the HEAD of Morbius!
-Honorarydoctor
So onward to part VIII of the build. After completing the the terrific paint job and getting a foothold on the fur it seemed the next natural step would be to finish ALL of the fur application, plus add the neck wires, do the stitching and if there was time try and get a start on the eyestalks. Tales of plumbing supplies, wires, hair clippers abound with the FUR of Morbius!
More Pics and info
Before adding any fur it was decided to create a nice flap to hide the back zipper. This was done with more of the 3/4" Foam barged neatly into place.
Back Zipper
Adding back foam to cover the zipper
So with that prepped to take on some fur, we broke out the rest of the fun fur I got. The first thing tackled was a repeat of the day before by applying another ring of fur to the other arm. Then a nice long strip was spray glued to the new foam back to create the flowing mane of back hair on Morbius.
More fun with fun fur
Spray glue still our other best friend
Covering foam with fur
With that looking good, the claw was next. Paul drew a nice pattern on the claw to determine placement, cut the fur to match and applied it with more spray glue. Once applied to both side it REALLY came to life! The claw was then temporarily attached with a few straps and snaps to complete the effect.
Prepping the claw for adding on the fun fur
The furry CLAW of morbius
For the rest of the fur we spent a couple hour prepping up several sections of fur. First cutting the remaining yard of fur into 5-6" widths and the taping them down with blue painter's tape fur-side up.
Painter's tape - a new best friend
Prepping LOTS of fur
This was double taped to hold the fur in place ready for shearing later. We prepped at least 10 of these sections to be used all over the rest of the body.
Clipping the back of the fur with shears
The next step was to take each taped section and slowl,, careully cut it with some electric hair clippers slowly shearing away the back fabric with as close of a shave as we could muster.
Slow and steady wins the race
Once this was done these could be flipped, sprayed with glue and applied anywhere on the body by slowly peeling the painter's tape off leaving a nice natural looking hair growth coming from the monster's latex body.
Peeling it back so only the hairs will glue on.
Applying this fur with spray glue over the first arm.
So we first applied this to the arms to take the curse off the rather unnatural looking straight edge of the first fur applications.
Adding top fur to the back neck
Then we stopped to finish off the back. Small sections were cut and carefully spray glued on the upper back neck slowly leading all the way to the top base for the dome. Finally a little strip of velcro was added underneath to close the top portion above the zipper to hide the join completely.
Adding very top finishing fur with peel back technique
The very top was added with the painter's tape peel-back technique.
Adding velcro so the very top will close shut
Applying fur to the back calf
Essentially using more of the pre-taped and peel-back method we went around and applied this to alll the major areas - back knees, back calves, and front shins.
Applying fur to the back knees
Applying the fur to the front shins
Finally we got to the fine tune detailing. Cutting down the pre-taped section of fur and lightly spray gluing little areas on the chest and neck to add the odd looking wisps of hair that grow out of several spots. We went over our reference material and carefully hit little areas for extra fur flair. These little extra hairs were really making all the difference in the look of the monster. The devil as always is in the details.
Applying the wisps of neck hair
With the fur finally done, we turned to the stitching. Paul had a couple of great bits of thread that were tough and thick but needed painting so they would read as a silver tone. This was easily done with some spray paint.
Painting the thick 'stitch' twine silver
Next this silverized twine was hand stitched over all of the pre-corded sections of the costume which gave a nice road map to where it went without having to go crazy again on the reference photos.
Hand Stitching on the twine over the pre-corded sections
In about 10 minutes the stitching was complete on the chest, waist and legs. Another detail - finished!
Stitching added to the leg sections as well
Next we approached prepping the eyestalks for the dome. Now originally we'd bought a couple of cheap 99 cent store margarita glasses and some flower pots with the intent of cutting them down and assembling them into the eyestalks with the hep of some red halogen outdoor flood light bulbs and some extra PVC sprinkler pipe Paul had laying around.
Red halogen lights
99 cent store Margarita Glasses and Flower pots- what we almost used for the eyestalks...
This plan didn't quite work. But we did try valiantly to fidget these into place. We started by determining the ideal length for the eyestalks was 6" so we cut the PVC pipe to this and cleane dout the edges with the dremel.
Sawing the 6 inch lengths of PVC pipe
Sanding down the edges with the dremel
Then using the dremel again the Margarita glasses were cut down to only use their top portions to hold the bulbs.
Cutting the plastic glasses
Then we realized the only way to make them fit properly would be to physically cut the light bulbs down a bit- losing the base that goes into the socket normally. Not that the lights ever turned on in the show, so we didn't feel we were losing much here. Again the dremel took care of this problem.
Testing the fit!
Cutting down the bulbs
So close yet so far
Upon re-testing the fit- it was CLOSE...but just not quite there. After much deliberation, we decided to ditch the plastic glasses and attach the bulbs directly onto the PVC pipe using some Epoxy glue.
Drain covers
Testing for size
This left us re-examining the ct-down flower pot idea for the base of the stalkex (and the side circular plug-ins for the dome). The PVC pipe didn't quite match size wise so we took a trip to the hardware store for some better looking parts. The Plumbing dept. saved us again when we found new bases in the form of the some PVC drain covers, new plug-ins with some PVC threaded connectors, and a couple of pipe ends t use to inter-lock the sprinkler PVC pipe onto the eyestalk bases! While there we picked up some extra blue and Red Wiring to boot.
Belt sanding the Drain Covers free of markings
The next step was to belt sand the raised numbers and markings off the drain pipe covers. Thankfully Paul's neighbor had a belt sander we could borrow. This came in handy more than once!
Drilling PVC base to lock onto the eyestalk pipe
Then the pipe ends werre drilled and attached to these drain covers, centered for eyestalk assembly. The 4 holes were also marked and pre drilled for when these would eventually would attached to the dome (and keeping the look of the originals!).
Fitting the bulbs to epoxy onto the PVC
The bulbs were finally epoxied onto the tops PVC pipes. We planned to do this for the bottoms too but ultimately decided that for transport it would be better to make sure they were removable and luckily once place on the fit was so snug they certainly weren't going anywhere!
Letting the Epoxy set and dry
Grey Putty 9000- what saved us on making the eyestalks
To help hide the join from bulb to PVC we used some really nice sculpty Grey Putty 9000 which is normally used for modeling. Paul applied this carefully with a Q-tip and it really smoothed the join making it appear to be one solid piece.
Applying the puty to smoothly adhere the light bulbs to the PVC.
Once dry and set the Eyestalks would be ready for painting on our next build day!
Wires for Morbius
Our final task for the day was to apply some of the cool wiring to the neck of Morbius. We had some Yellow wiring leftover form the TARDIS restoration and we'd just bought the blue and red as well. So we pre-curled the wire on a broom handle and a vice to get the right look.
Curling the wire
super gluing the yellow wire
Using the reference picture we placed and applied the more prominent yellow wire first poking it into the latex and fixing it there with a heavy dollop of super glue.
Gluing the blue wire
We then carefully repeated this process with the blue wire which had to be place higher up. These were done fairly quickly and again really helped bring home the Morbius look. It was looking really FABULOUS now!
So the body was now pretty much done and put-to-bed! Talk about a major hurdle accomplished! Now all that was left was to tackle the all important Solon brain casing - and deal with the dreaded domes of doom.
Be here for Part IX of the build which continues with domes, sprinkler parts, wires and lamp bases with the HEAD of Morbius!
-Honorarydoctor