ANH Tusken Raider Mask rebuild

Ok so i got a ridiculously good deal on a Tusken gear ($120 complete/shipped!!) right here on the dented helmet, so i jumped on it. It was all home made and not to bad. But me being the way i am, and loving to "rebuild" stuff, i decided to completely re-do the mask. I THINK its a poor mans kit (please correct me if im wrong any of you Denizens out there!)

So heres how it looked when i got it:




Not bad but when i look at this reference pic....

.... it looks way off.

One of the things i didnt like, was the "nose" (or i call em teeth) was too high up. I actually noticed most fan made Tuskens look like this. They dont look BAD, but they dont look "right" to me. I have actually started my own sculpt of a base mask, but thats for another thread lol. I also barely fit in it vertically. My chin was right up against the leather wraps on the bottom of the snout.

So i decided to strip this one down and do a kind of daring mod, hoping i didnt destroy the mask lol. Here it is stripped down:




So my plan was to remove the "snout" and part of the bottom/sides and lower it about an inch. I know..daring...and i wasnt even sure it would work, but i went forward... and did this!:


And here is my holding the pieces to what i was hoping i could get it to:



I then proceeded to CA glue and rivet spare HIPS to the sides to reattach the snout/bottom sides. I also added support in the nose area.We now have this:




I then cut the hole for the Metal Nose (KINGJAWA) and tried to remove most of the leftover hotglue from the previous build.



I then taped on the old resin eyes just to get an idea what it would look like:



Not bad.

So i now added some wire mesh to the open areas on the mask:


i also attached what the previous owner had used as the back of the head (construction helmet i believe) but did it with elastic straps. It was just basically tape holding it together previously. I also padded out the forehead.




Then i added the vinyl on the mouth/face areas:



I then added the leather and metal parts..all by KING JAWA.




Then i started the wraps..trying to emulate the Peter Diamond Tusken as best i could.


Here is how it came out:





What do you guys think? It was as close as i could get it to the reference. One of the things i want to address with my scuplt is the width of the bottom of the snout. Should be a tad wider to match the reference Tusken i posted. Couldnt do too much with this kit in that sense, but all in all im happy with how it turned out.
Heres a compare pic. Not quite the same angle heh. Obviously its not perfect, and still a bit off..but at the very least i got the eyes/nose ..well i always called em "teeth" ...spacing pretty close! Im happy with this bad boy for now!

I still need to weather this overall, but i decided to do the mod on the mouth, and think its much better now. Heres what i did.

I made a "frame" to support the extra width with pieces of HIPS.




I then wraped it with craft foam to give it a flat surface and added the vinyl and the leather wraps. I also dyed the thin leather wrap dark red, and re-did the Nose. I think face wise, this is the best its going to get. Just want to add a few more wraps and weather it and im done.




Heres a new comparison....the best i could get. The eyes are angled differently than the reference, but i think i got the overall look down:


Heres a compare of my original, my modded rebuild and the on set reference.

Hm...i think maybe i should brush up on my Tusken speak? LOL

It looks MUCH better and I think the mouth build-up was well executed. Awesome!

nice work. I love the aging.