Pakko Skull Mask Project (Patreon)

Today I want to show you something different.

Since a while I had the idea to make a (skull) mask for Pakko. I originally wanted him to have a solid beak for his fursuit but the idea was discarded pretty quickly because his beak would have become way too heavy to wear, straining your neck and back. So with the mask he can kind of have a solid upper beak, but it's detachable. And you can use it as accessory with different painted patterns.

So the idea was born and it became apparent pretty quickly that it has to be 3D printed. And for it to be 3D printed I needed a way to make sure it would fit Pakko's fursuit head perfectly. This meant I needed a 3D scan of the fursuit head...

I actually wanted to buy a 3D scanner since quite a while because it is sometimes good for references to have 3D models of things. When my good friend Torvid visited me and Draxi, he showed me an 'easy' way to get to a 3D scanner which I didn't know at the time. Apparently, it is possible to do 3D scans with the iPhone 12 Pro (or later) because it has a Lidar sensor (iPads too, but those are less accessible).

Unfortunately none of my close living friends seemed to have an iPhone Pro so I decided to buy one. After two weeks or so of searching I found the most destroyed - but still functional - iPhone 12 pro for around $80. Glass on both sides shattered, but the phone was still fully functional despite a crack that barely missed the camera and the lidar sensor.

I tried it out and it was a success! I have now a pretty decent 3D scanner and as it turns out it would catch Pakko's fursuit head perfectly. Fortunately I do have some experience in Blender and importing and scaling it was not too hard.

The next step was creating the actual mask above the fursuit head. Luckily the scan was precise enough for retopology. Retopology is a way to create a second, nicely ordered 'skin' over the ugly underlaying topology of the 3D scan. It is also an easy way to set the thickness and subdivision (to make it smooth) for the mask.

Once the mask was ready I had to export it for 3D printing. Unfortunately I don't have a 3D printer (I'd love to have one but it would be one too many hobbies) so I asked my neighbour to do a prototype. Since the mask is quite long and wide it had to be printed in three parts and then connected via pins, but it worked out in the end.

We decided for a thickness of 5mm which seems to be sufficient to be stable enough not to break. The mask fit perfectly and I attached it to the fursuit head with some strings. It was finished in time for EF (Eurofurence) so I decided to do a test paint for the con. I used some acrylic paint which is waterproof and does not rub off (very important for fursuits!). I think people at EF liked it a lot so it was a success!

Now that I had a working prototype, I decided to do another mask for halloween. I was invited to the halloween party of my normie neighbour and I wanted to make something special for it (they know about us being furry). Since their party motto was "dia de los muertos" I thought it would fit to make a mask for that one too! My good friend Jasper printed more versions of the mask with better filament, this time in two parts only and with bone colored filament.

I got a bit more experience with the acrylic paint (it must have been 15 years or so by now I used paint x...x) and since it's all hand made the patterns are a little bit crooked, but I feel like that gives it more charm. The improvised patterns took around 4 hours to paint and I think it works especially well with Pakko's led eyes. :-3

For now I don't have concrete plans for another mask, but I'll figure out a new design for future masks probably. Creating it was time consuming but a lot of fun and a worthy fursuit project!

I want to thank following friends who helped me with the project <3

Torvid - For showing me and helping me with the 3D scans.
ArkaKio - For inspiration and guidance. He has a mask for his dragon fursuit.
Daniel - For 3D printing a prototype.
Jasper/Jonas - For 3D printing the masks with better filament and colors.