Ghastly Thoughts: The "Fact Rat"

Well, have you ever opened your mouth and wondered if you shouldn’t have? I did this past week, though now I’m glad I did. We have, here in the bay area, a horror host show called Creepy KOFY Movie Time, hosted by a morning radio DJ ,” No Name”, and his Demon buddy “Balrok”. The Balrok Character’s make up is one that I sculpted and finished for them, though I don’t apply it before each taping. Last Saturday night I was home watching the show and Balrok kept talking about these movie facts that he explained that he gets from the “Fact Rat” and wondered why No Name and the Cave Girls have never seen him scurrying around. After the show was over I wrote to the actor who plays Balrok and suggested to him that if he ever wanted an actual Fact Rat for the show to let me know, and I went to bed.


In the morning I received via email a nice note from Balrok letting me know that he would love for me to make a Fact Rat, and that he was giving my info to the young man that would in fact be playing the Fact Rat on future shows. I also got an email from a guy named Brian (the guy who is playing the Fact Rat. You see where this is going…). Brian, in his email, told me that he had a mask lined up but if I could come up with something custom before the next taping, he would like me to make the mask. Oh, did I mention that the taping was in 5 days…….. NO? I forgot to mention that....? huh.

The race is on. Monday I got to work roughing out the face. This would be a quick face mask just in latex, so no foam latex this time. Brian was able to meet up on Tuesday at my shop, so when he came I needed to have a rough design for him to approve. When he arrived on Tuesday he liked the direction in which I was heading. We discussed some minor changes that he would like to see made to the ears and such. The sculpture was finished that night and I left it uncovered Tuesday night so that it would be dry enough on Wednesday morning to mold. I decided to mold the ears and teeth separately; ears cast in latex still, teeth cast in resin. By midday Wednesday the molds were made and I poured up the mask and ears.

Thursday morning I popped the teeth out of their silicone molds and cast them with a color match translucent resin, then got to work on painting the mask. All goes fairly well, and by early afternoon the mask was all painted up and ears and teeth attached. I kept trying on the mask to make sure that Brian would be able to see and speak clearly. I designed the mask so that his real chin would be exposed to help make speaking more comfortable. With a little trimming it was fine and pretty comfortable, all things considered. Next was the hair. I had some left over grey hair from National Fiber that was sewn into a 4 way stretch fabric. This I figured would tackle two issues; I could use the fabric as a backing to the mask, holding it onto Brian’s head and it’s super quick and easy to use. Making templates with some paper, I cut out the pieces of fabric that I would need to cover the head and glued them onto the mask. I took some bulk fibers in the same color and applied them around the face, blending the fabric edge so that you can’t see it. I added some whiskers using fishing line and I think we’re done.


Brian stopped by Friday to try it on and pick it up. It fit him well, another big relief. All in all it was a fun project. I haven’t had a real deadline for my work in a long time, and it did me some good to get it all done with time to spare. I wasn’t able to make it to the taping but I’m told the Fact Rat was a real success. I look forward to seeing it on TV In the next couple of weeks.


Now on to the next project, a bust of one of the characters from one of my favorite movies for a private collector. I’ll give you a hint…. “ They creep up on ya…….”

Be sure to “Like” Ghastly Creations on Facebook for all up to the minute news and photos.
And check out my website; www.ghastlycreation.weebly.com

‘Til next week, I’ll be making monsters here in my beautiful city by the Bay.