Rodian Costume...Mask and Hands Help!

I'm looking to make/buy a set of Rodian hands for my Jedi costume. I've got the Rubies Deluxe mask, which is awesome, and was also wondering how I'd go about modifying it for a realistic mouth movement. Finally, I want to paint the spiny mohawk orange...will spraypaint deteriorate the latex at all? Sorry for all the questions; I'm a costume newbie at age 13, and don't have much money, so if I'm going to do this, it has to be right the first time.

 

Don't use spraypaint. I don't think it'll ruin the latex, but it'll look like crap. Since the latex is flexible, the spray paint will crack. You need a flexible paint. You can either buy some latex (craft stores sell "molding latex" that will work) and mix some oil paint into it and use that, or you can mix oil paint with rubber cement and thin it with mineral spirits or naphtha and use that.

Mouth movement? You know what might work? Cut a couple pieces of plastic that fit inside the lips and glue them to a clothespin. Bite on the clothespin and his mouth opens

 

They do make paints for latex, so I would suggest looking for that. I would not use enamels under any circumstances. your best bet is acrylics or latex paints. They're water-soluable while wet, but once dry, it's permanent. this makes clean-up much easier, and, unlike enamels, won't eat into the latex. Also, enamels won't properly adhere to latex, poly-urethane, or vinyl.

 

Yeah he's right too. But while acrylics will adhere to latex, it'll crack if you bend the latex. If you mix it with latex, it'll work though.

Some spray paints are laquers though. Those WILL stick to those rubber/plastic materials, but they'll probably crack too.

And yeah, there's latex paints but other than house paint, they're kinda hard to find in a store. At least here it is.

 

Don't use any paints that are oil-based, enamel-based or contain acetone on latex masks. I know professional makeup artists often use "Pax" which is 50% pros-aide and 50% acrylic. You can also use a mixture of acrylic and slush latex.
But you shoud still be careful. I have had a molded latex piece show cracks after two weeks because I had painted it in the wrong type of acrylic even.