Monday, April 25, 2011

Transformation

I know, I know ... I have to finish taking pics (and video ... yes, I finally got a videocam!) of my HALO armor, I felt like doing something a little different and perhaps, a little easier than slipping into all of those layers and armor.

A realistic face mask.

I'm sure that you've heard of the guy - Conrad Zdzierak - who was convicted of robbing several banks in Ohio wearing a "Hollywood Quality" African-American mask. The mask was so good, that some guy's mother actually identified her son as the bank robber!

So I decided to get a hyper-realistic mask from Composite Effects. As I've said before, Wes Branton is an absolute pleasure to work with and we quickly came to a design based on his newly-released "Mac" mask. Tanned complexion. Chestnut hair. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to look like, so I sent him some pics. I wanted a high and tight like this:


With a thin, razor cut beard like this:


After I received it, I put it on and showed a couple of my LEO buddies. Needless to say, they were impressed. It was a total and complete transformation into a rather ominous bad-ass. I also added some accouterments to reinforce that somewhat sinister image:

  • septum crescent
  • Galco jackass rig (from Ebay - where else?)
  • solid plastic "practice" Glock 19 (sprayed with black Plastikote vinyl dye)

And it does look amazing. Thanks to Wes and his crew (particularly to Marissa for the incredible hairing job!), I have an amazing stone-cold alter ego to use.