So everyone knows this guy right? For the uninitiated this is the Lich King, from adventure time. He’s an immortal and thoroughly evil being who is determined to end all life. Naturally I decided I needed to turn myself into a lich too.
To start, I bought a basic cardboard mask to serve as my base. You can kind of see it under the papier mache in the second photo below. I also cut a series of rings out of a pringles tube, as I judged that it would be about the right size for the lich’s massive eye-holes. Around this I built up the shape of the face using a fine, square mesh that I found in the gardening section of Mitre 10. I covered and sealed this all with a couple of layers of papier mache. The weird antennae thing is actually a tube of mesh that I pushed through the mask to act as an anchor for the big horn I would soon be attaching.
I also bought some rotten false teeth from a costume shop and attached them to the inside of the mouth. Before covering the eyes I marked the centre point with a pin-hole – these ended up on the mask’s cheeks, just below the eye-hole – then attached some finely meshed fabric. These markings would be useful later on when it came to inserting my electronics.
Here’s a shot of the Highscore Kid himself, applying yet another layer of papier mache. You can see the horns here. The short, broken one was made with the left over pringles tube while the longer horn was built with the fine wire mesh and papier mache. They were both attached using hot glue and then solidified with more papier mache.
Once the mask had its shape I started applying thin layers of liquid latex. By laying tissue paper over the mouth between applications I created a skin-like layer that I could later cut open and peel back. Rolled up tissue paper was also laid across the mask’s forehead to create veins.
The peeled liquid latex was then cut up into tears and the exposed parts of the mask were painted roughly with pink, dark red, and some purple.
The only thing left to do was paint the rest. Alternating brown and grey for the horns and a light blue base for the skin which was then covered with a light grey. The final touches came from some friends of mine. The green LED eyes were rigged up by a friend from work while the robes were made by Lady De Vil Clothing.
Final picture is me and my girlfriend, Princess Bubblegum, at Auckland’s Armageddon Expo. I made a kid cry…