Ghosthunter Luigi



This Year's theme is Luigi's Mansion. So naturally i need a Luigi. using Foam, Fiberglass and paint i built my Centerpiece
Supplies
- Carving Medium (Large foam blocks, or Pink insulation foam
- Foam Cutting Hot knife
- Spray Paint,
- Primer
- Fiberglass chopped strand mat
- Total Boat epoxy
- Bondo or similar body filler
- Gloves
- PVC pipe,
- vacuum hose
- stake light
- Spray Foam
Shaping




First you will need to glue up any foam medium you have to the size you need. I luckilly found EXTREMELY large packing foam blocks and could pretty much carve luigi from one big block. If you are using Pink Foam boards you will use the Spray foam to laminate the layers together until you get a large enough block to carve.
Using the Hot foam knife slowely carve bits away until you get all the basic shapes. Dont worry about making it perfect. you can sand it down to fix later. In the case of the head, body and arms i decided to seperate them from the main body for ease of carving. Once carved i attached the limbs with bbq skewers and spray foam . i kept the head seperate for paining as its the only piece that requires flesh tones etc. Once you have sculpted your form you are ready to put on the hardcoat to protect it in the weather.
Prepping for Fiberglass (Conditional)
Depending on the type of Epoxy you are using on the foam you may need to put a foil seal coat over the foam. You can use aluminum foil tape, or foil sheets glued over the whole surface with PVC. Make sure you turn your piece into a full on Baked potato because if any surface is uncovered the epoxy will eat through the foam and ruin your project. Make sure to use your brush to push the foil into any small crevice and crack you will maintain all your detail.
I chose to use Total Boat epoxy for fiberglass which is formulated to go over foam for boat building, so i was able to skip this step and apply fiberglass directly to the foam itself. Its a little more expensive but worth it for the time saved.
Fiberglass




Fiberglassing is an aquired skill.....which i had to aquire lol. For this reason...i dont have any pics of the process of this. However i can point you in the right direction with my lessons learned. I purchased a roll of strand fiberglass off of Amazon and it provided more than enough for this project.
You'll notice the Fiberglass is like a thick sheet of felt. you can thin it out as its layers of stranded material, but i would recommend using the full layered thickness as it gives you a stronger more uniform surface in the end. Before you start i would tear a large quantity of the sheet into smaller applical pieces as you are going to be applying small piece by small piece slightly overlapping edges to melt together.
The Epoxy dries fast, so only mix enough epoxy that you can use in about 10 minutes. Once the epoxy is mixed place a piece of Mat on your project where you wish to start. Size of the piece depends on what you are trying to cover. Hold the Fiberglass in place and start to flood it with the epoxy using the end of your brush to tamp the fiberglass into the details. If you had to coat your foam in foil, its very much the same type of motion. once the fiberglass is fully flooded and sticking in place you can move on to the next piece.
As it begins to cure keep an eye on it as it may develop bubbles. In this case use the brush to continue to tamp down the air bubbles and keep the fiberglass in contact with the sculpture. Continue this process until your entire piece has been coated with fiberglass and epoxy. This may take a few days to do properly, and you may need to sand down and reapply in case of large bubble or imperfections.
Once you are sure your Luigi is sturdy enough and no more fiberglass is needed, find the little imperfections you wish to fill and use Bondo body filler to patch the holes. Bondo is a fast dry two part body filler....this dries REALLY fast, so work small again. Mix the bondo and the Hardener according to the instructions and fill your imperfections like you would patch a small hole in drywall.
Once you are satisfied that imperfections have been filled, you can use a power sander to sand the whole piece. Fiberglass cures hard but leaves sharp edges and some ridges you'll want to smooth out. WEAR EYE PROTECTION AND A MASK. you dont want fiberglass in your eyes or your lungs.
Special Mustache

The mustache was kind of a happy accident. Initially i had carved a mustache out of foam that i had planned to attach with glue after all the painting had been completed. However. in the process of Fiberglassing the nose i reallized i had a large amount of fiber sloughing off the nose and i could pull it out to make it look like a mustache. SO I formed the wet fiber into a mustache and heated with a heat gun to quick dry it to the point of holding a shape. then i extended it by a small piece up to the hat to hold in place. Once dry i cut the supports with a dremmel and voila ... Mustache.
Paint


Once Luigi is fully sanded you will want to put 1 or two coats of primer all over and let dry . i used a Black matte krylon primer. once dry i taped off the gloves and painted the green of the shirt and hat, as well as the brown of the straps and the shoes. Once dry i taped off the edges of the green, and brown and painted the blue overalls.
while the overalls dried i painted the fleshtones on the still disconnected head, and the white of the gloves and eyes.
once dry i put on a coat of matte acrylic clear coat, and on top of that i used pasco paint markers for the small details on the buckles and the eyes.
Ghost Light



Luigi needs his ghost light this is simply a plastic vac hose a piece of PVC and a plastic Cheese tub combined over a spike light to create the flashlight. Spray painted Silver and placed in his hand. The other end of the hose is fed through the second hand and attached to the tank in back with spray foam and a screw
Time to Hunt Ghosts.


