A few updates:
If you have never worked with stingray hide, I will tell you it's very tough - almost like metal - in terms of cutting or manipulating it. Once I got the look to the way I wanted, I cut out a piece intended for wrapping the ravel skull shown above.
But. at the half-scale size I'm working with, literally upholstering the skull proved to look very sloppy. So instead, I decided to use the sanded stingray for reference, but instead sculpt the texture onto the skull myself:
I was so pleased with how this came out, I applied the same treatment to the inset of the horned headdress, which is the other location stingray hide was actually used on this costume for the film:
Here is a view of the "stingray" textured brooch temporarily in place with the re-sculpted headdress inset:
I will be painting the brooch with a silvery gray basecoat and then doing a black wash which I will wipe off, to get in all the spaces between the stingray "scales".
For the headdress, to be true to the film costume, it will be basecoated in black, and then buffed with metallic black so there is less contrast.
More updates coming soon!
