WIP - 24 Wooden replicas of the Masks from Legend of Zelda Majora's Masks

[TheWolfofBees]

Hey Friends!

So recently I began the journey of making all 24 wearable masks from The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask from wood. I currently am 7 deep and will catch up with some of their work in progress photos as well so the whole thing is up here.

My background in making started as a kid, and late middle school/early highschool I delved into woodworking and that has been one of my main mediums ever since. The goal with these masks is to create replicas that are as though they were masks made in the real world. I am working directly from the images from the game so the designs will all be accurate however the main base for all the masks will be wood (For example the first one I did was the Bunny Hood, which probably didn't exist as wood in the world of Termina but I think you'll agree translates well to our world)

I welcome any questions/feedback/suggestions so let me know!

- The Wolf of Bees


Edit: Note I will be making these based off of the original designs from the N64 version of the game, not the updated/some changed models of the newer 3DS version as I grew up with the N64 version.

 

[TheWolfofBees]

Alright!

So the first "Mask" is not actually a mask at all!

Meet the Bunny Hood!
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"You got the Bunny Hood! My, what long ears it has! Will the power of the wild spring forth?"
​

It all starts with some wood, this is pine. Cut up into some more manageable pieces on the tablesaw. These are simple 2x4s
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Two blocks lengthed to match the width of my head. The masks with be scaled for an adult male head as opposed to a childs.
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Lined up, spread with glue and clamped. This piece will eventually become the head band, for now we'll set that aside and move onto the ears.

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I love scaled drawings and things that are perfectly mapped out. Unfortunately I find unless something is really technical I am much happpier to free hand it, I think it will also give these masks a more organic look that I'm going for.

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One ear drawn and cut on the scroll saw, traced onto a second block and cut so the match.

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This is the band roughly drawn on, I used a couple paint cans to get an even edge. It's purposefully offset to better reflect the face of the mask.
Took that to the drill press to help remove some of the mass from the band.

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After rough drilling to remove the material the inside is cleaned up with files/rasps.
Next I took a saw to the outside to start shaping, both taking away material but also begin to add in the shape and bevels.

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Rough shape coming together, evening out the sides and checking fit with ears.
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The same idea happens with the ears around the front in back as they have a similar curved shape.

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The backs of the ears are smoothed, the indentation is added to the front.
Now the top of the hood had a few "dimples" where the ears sit, to those are chiseled out and holes are drilled through the hole mask and into the ears so they can be attached securely.

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Some final sanding, and a coat of base stain. Two holes are drilled for the eyes which I decided will be marbles! They have an awesome reflective look and reflect a little white which I think nicely animates them. Some yellow acrylic is added and then roughed up with some files and more sanding.

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[TheWolfofBees]

Finished photos for the first mask!

 

[ThePropBox]

Definitely will be watching this! Great start with the Bunny Hood
Got myself a wooden replica of Majora's Mask made if you want to check it out.

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

Very cool! I hoped on doing something similar myself! Will be watching this with great interest!

(Also, I worked on a Majora's Mask, too. There's a thread here somewhere documenting it)

 

[TheWolfofBees]

Definitely will be watching this! Great start with the Bunny Hood
Got myself a wooden replica of Majora's Mask made if you want to check it out.

Thanks! I've seen your mask and it's really something special. I also love what you're doing with the gravity gun and will continue following that one.

Very cool! I hoped on doing something similar myself! Will be watching this with great interest!

(Also, I worked on a Majora's Mask, too. There's a thread here somewhere documenting it)

Thanks to you too! I'm not sure if I've seen yours but I'll take a look for some more inspiration.

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Now on to the second mask, the Blast Mask!



"That's the Blast Mask, isn't it? That is a fine mask. It is filled with feelings of gratitude." - The Happy Mask Salesman

So for the second mask I decided to go with the Blast Mask, a fairly simple bowl shaped mask.
In the game the mask has a bit more depth than I went for, but for the size I was making it it seemed to work a little better more flatly.



As always starts with some wood, this is a 2x6 of pine.



The plan was to take it over to the lathe to turn the shape but making the block a circle first really helps that process. I tacked the mask down to my table saw sled and started cutting corners! But actually, cut enough corners and you get yourself a circle!



That new circle got taken to the lathe and rounded out into a shallow bowl.



The design got free handed on making sure to overlap with the holes from where the bowl was mounted on the face plate.



And the design gets traced with a dremel. If I need really clean edges I usually use my dremel as it can carve what I can carve by hand in a quarter of the time. The rest of the space gets chiseled/dremeled out. I liked the idea that the mask has started cracking because of the explosive power inside it. I think I may go back and re work this one as it didn't come out exactly as I was envisioning. I might add back in a bit more bowl shaped and go for some deeper more obvious cracks as opposed to the kind of squiggles I originally did.



Finally a base coat of walnut stain for the paint to go on.

 

[TheWolfofBees]

Annnnnd the finished photos from the Blast Mask!




Next up: One of the 4 transformation masks!

 

[ThePropBox]

Wow now that was fast and unexpected, nice outcome though!
Mind if I ask which camera/lens you're using for your shots? The images look amazing.

 

[TheWolfofBees]

Wow now that was fast and unexpected, nice outcome though!
Mind if I ask which camera/lens you're using for your shots? The images look amazing.

Thanks again! I actually have 7 masks completed so far and am just slowly uploading them so that this thread will have all 24. I don't actually work that fast

As far as the pictures, my sister is a wedding/engagement photographer and she has been doing all my finished photos for me in exchange for some woodworking. I will ask her what equipment she's using and get back to you!

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Mask 3/24.... The Goron Mask!

Darmani! You... You are alive. You always did say, "I cannot die until I've eaten 1000 tons of rock sirloin!""
— A Goron

​

As per the usual we start with some wood, this is a 2x8 of pine. Free handed a rough shape and through on some features. These are just to check spacing, they will be carved over so I'm not super concerned about shape/accuracy at this point.



The carving starts off at the back of the piece. Gouge chisels are used to create a uniform hollow across the back. The front also has a chisel treatment. The rough contours are cut out.



The lines are refined so there aren't as many edges. I wanted to still keep a really chiseled wood look on this one so I made sure to leave some character. The hair piece is cut out and shaped, the feature drawn back on this time sized properly and are carved out.



A coat of stain as a base coat and some acrylic over top!

 

[TheWolfofBees]

And the Goron Mask! This one I have very mixed feelings about. Over all it feels very plain, but at the same time it is a fairly plain mask to begin with. I do feel like the facial expression turned out well, I see it and it instantly stands out as a wide eyed expressive Goron. Thoughts?

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

My my, this is some seriously speedy work! And they look great too, can't wait to see all 24 in one picture.

 

[clarence]

The ingenuity of the members on our world famous forum never ceases to amaze me. I never realised the bravery involved !!!! Walking around in a heavily wooded area wearing a pair of
rabbit ears now that takes some testicular fortitude and the only shot fired was from a camera?

 

[TheWolfofBees]

My my, this is some seriously speedy work! And they look great too, can't wait to see all 24 in one picture.

Thanks friend! I can't wait to see them all together either!

The ingenuity of the members on our world famous forum never ceases to amaze me. I never realised the bravery involved !!!! Walking around in a heavily wooded area wearing a pair of
rabbit ears now that takes some testicular fortitude and the only shot fired was from a camera?

Haha well thankfully I haven't received too many strange looks when shooting these.

Wow now that was fast and unexpected, nice outcome though!
Mind if I ask which camera/lens you're using for your shots? The images look amazing.

So I asked my sister and she said she has a Canon 5D, Mk. III and IV lenses, but primarily uses Sigma Art 35mm 1.4 or 50mm 1.4. I don't know too much about DSLRs/Lenses so I hope that means something to you!


- The Wolf of Bees

 

[TheWolfofBees]

Hey Friends!

Next up: The Keaton Mask!


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"Is that a "Kee...something..." character mask? I heard he's very popular recently?" - Kakariko Village Guard

This was actually the second mask I started on after the Bunny Hood but I ended up scrapping the first version because it just didn't have enough of a nose! Here goes take 2.

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I started off with a 2x8 of pine as the base and drew on my shape. As I had already made one attempt at this mask I actually just traced my first attempt to save time (well and because I liked the shape of my first one!) This time to ensure I would have enough material for the snout I glue a piece of 2x6 on straight away. Wood is one of those materials it's better to have too much of, cause once you cut it off it's (more or less) gone for good!

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I start by carving the back on all of the masks because the sides of the back remain flat. Since it's flat it's easy to clamp well carving the front, makes thins far easier, you also don't need to worry about damaging anything sticking out on the front or denting it. Draw, Clamp, Mallet and Chisel. I have the feeling I'm gonna be sick of carving out the back of masks by the end of this.


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Flipped it over and started chiseling away at the top. Important here is blending the top piece into the bottom well still keepin the right shape. Once a couple good rough passes have been made I start smoothing things out. (but not too much, I'm thinking a rough carved look will come out nice.)

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Some more shaping, sanding and carving out the eyes. I wanted the eyes to be really clean and pine is very unforgiving when it comes to detail work so I opted to use my rotary tool to router them out. A coat of stain as a base coat and some black in the eyes and it's almost there!

- The Wolf of Bees

 

[TheWolfofBees]

And some finished photos!

I really love the way this one turned out.

 

[TheWolfofBees]

Now for the first of 4 transformation masks: The Deku Mask!


You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?

This is a super iconic mask from this game... so the pressure is pretty high on this one.




Starts with that good old fashioned pine. Pine really isn't the nicest of woods. It's soft, it chips and cracks easily. It is very difficult to carve details into. Pine is also really cheap, easy to find and very forgiving if you screw up. I'm using pine for all of these because it allows me to keep turning them out. I'd certainly love to carve every mask out of walnut, but for the cost I'm not sure it would be worth it. Who knows, maybe I'll eventually do a special line of masks from ocarina of time and make them with some nicer materials.



To get the thickness I need I'm gonna double this 2" thick into one sold 4 inch piece.




Circle cut out, glued and ready to clamp.

 

[TheWolfofBees]

Unfortunately I didn't grab any photos of this on the lathe. Essentially that stack on the left got mounted on a face plate and turned down into a bowl. Then it got flipped and the inside of the bowl got turned out.



For this one the look of the eyes and size compared to the "nose" was really important to give the mask the iconic expression it wears in the game. I was a little more careful getting this one to shape with a compass and ruler.




I grabbed a piece of scrap and turned it round on the lathe to make the nose. This got drilled out on the drill press and then clamped and drilled down.



Next I took to the mask with carving tools, rasps, files, picks and sand paper and textured the whole thing adding in notches and gouges for a more deku bark texture.




I drew than cut out on the scroll saw the deku leaves. These got carved further (unfortunately no good pictures) and then burned with a blow torch before being painted. The mask also received a first coat of stain (one of several different colours/layers to get the the right effect.)

 

[TheWolfofBees]

Annnnd finally I present: The Deku Mask!




So the eyes. Originally I wanted to purchase real amber for the eyes to represent the living sap inside the deku mask, which I think would look incredible. Since the mask was done in pine I decided to hold off on the expense of the amber, maybe I'll remake this mask some day in a nicer wood and it will be worth it then. The eyes ended up being cast with resin and I think they turned out well just the same.

Next up: Whereever a Keaton is a Kafei is sure to be around the corner!

 

[spoudastis]

Really really fantastic work. The photos do your work justice, and really give them an eerie quality which I love. They are cartoony enough but are believable as real world objects. Well done!

 

[TheWolfofBees]

Nothing like the smell of Kafei in the morning.

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"That's Kafei's Mask, isn't it? The worry of a concerned mother is expressed quite well in that mask." - The Happy Mask Salesman




So I drew this one up on a 2x8 and then cut out the shape on the scroll saw. Right now the drawing is just for basic dimensions not actually what will be carved (hence why one eye is way bigger than the other!)



So to the face I too a gouge chisel and started profiling it. This one is kind of neat since the hair sits above the actual face part of the mask which means carving down beside/under the hair.



Flipped it over and bowled out the back where you would put your face. At this point I've bowled out 6 masks (one you haven't seen yet and the bunny hood doesn't really count!) and I've got my technique down. Only takes a few minutes to get the whole thing out. You can see in the second picture I had a chip out on the bottom left, accidental but adds character and definitely not worth starting over because. I ended up just leaving it as is without smoothing it down and I think it works. You can also see in the picture I had originally roughed out the face the opposite way on the board (across the 8" part) but found that that made it too skinny for the size I wanted. so I ended up redrawing lengthwise.


Face and hair carved out then added in some grooving to make the hair a little more interesting. On goes the base coat of stain and time for some paint! I painted this one up full because of it is in the game. This mask was presumably one of several copies handed out to people looking for Kafei so I think the paint being more intact and there being less wear and tear on it fits.

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- The Wolf of Bees