TokyoRose
Blooded
Hey guys, I'm starting a rush suit build and wanted to share a little something I came across.
I plan on making my own professional quality dreads down the line, but for the time being I needed something quick and cheap. I'm not a huge fan of backer rods, they do the trick and I've seen some people do great things with them, I'm just not fond of their lack of movement. So while perusing the dollar store, looking for bits and pieces I could use for my suit build, I found these silly little things;
They are wooden snakes that I hadn't seen since I was in Mexico when I was like 8 or so.
Now bear with me!
Their ass end has pretty close to the correct shape, they're designed to flop and move around in a natural/organic-ish way, and they're incredibly light. So I thought to myself... could these possibly work in a pinch?
I bought 2 @ $2.00 each, brought them home and painted one with black spray paint and one with black plasti-dip. I was worried that there was a chance the paint/plasti-dip could potentially cause the little joints to stick together and limit the movement but I didn't at all. It actually covered really well with one coat and some little touch ups in between the joints to cover the light color of the wood. There wasn't enough of a difference in final result between the plasti-dip and the paint to justify the difference in cost, so I went back and bought 12 more, just to see how they would looked in a bunch and painted them all up.
Now obviously they have some issues. Like being able to see the joints but at a distance, and even up close really, they don't look too bad. They'd actually look really good painted silver and used as Robo-Predator or Predinator dreads.They can only really flop 2 directions, they don't have a 360' range of motion but if placed properly, I think they'll work just fine. They're wood and will probably make some noise when they clank together but they're soft wood and it's really nothing to write home about. The last thing is that they will add up weight wise and price wise- say you need 40 dreads, that's $80 plus tax and paint. But I figure I will just do my top row in these (14 or so) to sell some movement and then maybe add some backer rods or something underneath if it's looking sparse, to fill in the rest of the head a bit.
Here is a super quick video showing the movement. (sorry, it's sideways)
I haven't seen dreads done this way before, though it's very possible they have been. I don't have a finished mask to stick them onto just yet, but let me know what you think and I'd love to see pics/videos if anyone else gives it a shot.
I'll add updates when I can.
Brandon.
I plan on making my own professional quality dreads down the line, but for the time being I needed something quick and cheap. I'm not a huge fan of backer rods, they do the trick and I've seen some people do great things with them, I'm just not fond of their lack of movement. So while perusing the dollar store, looking for bits and pieces I could use for my suit build, I found these silly little things;
They are wooden snakes that I hadn't seen since I was in Mexico when I was like 8 or so.
Now bear with me!
Their ass end has pretty close to the correct shape, they're designed to flop and move around in a natural/organic-ish way, and they're incredibly light. So I thought to myself... could these possibly work in a pinch?
I bought 2 @ $2.00 each, brought them home and painted one with black spray paint and one with black plasti-dip. I was worried that there was a chance the paint/plasti-dip could potentially cause the little joints to stick together and limit the movement but I didn't at all. It actually covered really well with one coat and some little touch ups in between the joints to cover the light color of the wood. There wasn't enough of a difference in final result between the plasti-dip and the paint to justify the difference in cost, so I went back and bought 12 more, just to see how they would looked in a bunch and painted them all up.
Now obviously they have some issues. Like being able to see the joints but at a distance, and even up close really, they don't look too bad. They'd actually look really good painted silver and used as Robo-Predator or Predinator dreads.They can only really flop 2 directions, they don't have a 360' range of motion but if placed properly, I think they'll work just fine. They're wood and will probably make some noise when they clank together but they're soft wood and it's really nothing to write home about. The last thing is that they will add up weight wise and price wise- say you need 40 dreads, that's $80 plus tax and paint. But I figure I will just do my top row in these (14 or so) to sell some movement and then maybe add some backer rods or something underneath if it's looking sparse, to fill in the rest of the head a bit.
Here is a super quick video showing the movement. (sorry, it's sideways)
I haven't seen dreads done this way before, though it's very possible they have been. I don't have a finished mask to stick them onto just yet, but let me know what you think and I'd love to see pics/videos if anyone else gives it a shot.
I'll add updates when I can.
Brandon.
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