“Chi Chi Chi, Ha Ha Ha” (Monster May’hem)

So have you worked out who my next (possible) submission for “Monster May(hem)” is from the title? Some of you might remember at the end of 2020 I sculpted my very own “Chibi” version of “The Mistress of the Dark” herself Elvira, and it was suggested that I could do some more of the great “horror movie” icon’s, well this idea has been simmering away at the back of my mind ever since, Now the one “Monster” that I really wanted to do was everyone’s favourite “Crystal lake, momma’s boy”…Jason Voorhees! So I thought why not do him for “Monster May(hem)?”, well a couple of reasons really, Keith has stated that entries need to be actual monsters, so no Orc’s or Rubber suit monsters etc… So I’m on pretty shaky ground here, as he’s really just a “big guy with a mask and machete” , but as I already have a couple of “bona-fide” entries in already, I thought I’d go for it (plus its good practice for what I have in mind for “Forgotten Heroes” next month too) and if Keith says “NO” fair enough. Oh and yes I know that it would have been much better to have posted this yesterday on “Friday the thirteenth!!” 🙄.

First job/s was to make up a simple dolly to build over, so a piece of florists wire was bent in half, then teased out and back to give me an idea of the length and positions of the legs, this was then pulled and pushed up and down in a bottle cap filled with “Blu-tac” till the proposed waist was at the right height (I used my “Elvira” figure as a guide for this holding her next to the cap). Now I wanted him to be a little taller than Elvira (who is 34mm to the top of her head), so his waist was a millimetre higher that hers (this will grow as I move up the body). Next I pushed another single wire into another bottle cap,, for the head to be built up upon. Anyway once I was happy with this I mixed up some putty and rolling a ball slightly smaller than Elvira’s head popped this atop the single wire, a little shaping and a couple of indentations where the eye’s would be (I know he has a mask on, but bear with me on this OK) and I was happy with this, I then took the rest of the mixed putty and smeared it around the body dolly, ready for me to start the sculpting proper tomorrow.

So next day I was able to start adding some detail to the head, now there is no definitive look to Jason’s head, sometimes it looks, like a bald head, sometimes it’s black, and later on its scabby and rough (not unlike Freddy Kruger’s), in the end I went for this later look, Now I’d put an indentation in the right hand side of the jaw as he is again sometimes show with the bottom quarter of his mask broken showing his decayed teeth and jaw on that side, so after adding some tiny teeth I roughly built up his jaw on this side, tapping in some detail , then continued this around the rest of the back of his head, and finally added his ears, which again are rough and not level. With the bit of putty I had left I added his boots to the bottom of his legs, looking at pictures of him there is nothing remarkable about these, so as the bottoms of his trousers will cover some of them, I just did basic “boot” shapes here.

Didn’t have a lot of time today so thought I’d just concentrate on the body as this should have more stages to it. So working up the body I decided to add the legs/trousers, these were simple enough just two sausages of putty put onto the front of the legs then spread/teased around them, once I was reasonably happy with these I added a blob to the front and another to the read crotch areas, and blended these into the tops of the legs, I then added the folds and ripples in the material with my pointed colour shaper (honestly if you are going to do any Greenstuff work invest a couple of these, see my “tools of the trade” article.) Anyway once this was done I added some rips and tears here and there with the tip if my pointed probe and the tip of a small knife, and frayed the bottoms of the trouser legs in the same way.

OK so I started today with the intention of adding his iconic hockey mask, but on looking at the pictures I’d saved I decided that I didn’t like the finish on his head, it was just too rough, so taking several tiny flattened pieces of putty I “skimmed” over the back of the head again this time giving it a slightly bumpy but not rough appearance. So as I could not now add the mask for fear of buggering this up I instead added his T shirt by adding a blob of putty above his waist and basically repeating what I did on the trousers, with the putty I had left I added the under layer for his jacket. Now one of the things I’ve noticed about Jason is you would think such an iconic monster would have a definite “look”. But there is huge variation in his costume from film to film, sometimes he has a jacket sometimes not, he is a lot taller in some (depended on the actor playing him) and even his mask changes subtly from film to film (basically it’s usually a big guy in a hockey mask, and that’s about it!), So my version, is my version, and he’ll be wearing a jacket.

Time to add his mask, so a small ball of putty was rolled about the size of a “nugget” of sweetcorn and this was pushed onto his face and flattened and smoothed out, I then took my small knife and remover the bottom left corner where his mask is broken and make the edges jagged with my probe. Next I added a tiny bit of putty to form his “nose bump”, and after that took a ballpoint pen re-fill cartridge and using the “ball” end pushed in the eye sockets, then turning this around I used the open “ring” at the other end to define the edges of the holes more. I then had a guide to take my rubber tipped pointed colour shaper and gently shape and deepen the holes up to this ring (this is why I added the recesses in the original head sculpting). I then added all the other smaller holes in the mask with a pointed probe, and lastly taking my small knife I cut in the “gash” over his left eye hole. With the putty I had left I re-skinned his jacket adding a bit more bulk (he’s a big lad after all! 😉), also adding his collar and a couple of pockets.

And that’s pretty much where I’m up to at the moment, I’m hoping a couple more days sculpting should “break the back” of him and I’ll be able to get on with the painting, so I might have him finished next weekend, but no promises.

So till next time, stay safe and cheers Roger.