Making a No Face cosplay had been a dream ever since I first saw the film Spirited Away. If you haven’t yet seen Spirited Away, you are missing out on an unforgettable story! The character is a tall, lonely, misunderstood ghost of sorts. The character seems like a fairly simple cosplay to make, but it presented its own unique challenges!
The first challenge was making the mask. Years ago, I had the idea to make the mask out of clay, but I didn’t have the knowledge or skill to make it how I wanted. The mask had to be light, but rigid. The surface of the mask needed to be very smooth. It had to attach without any visible straps. And it had to be made in a scale that didn’t make it look too small or too big, since I wanted to make a “life sized” version of No Face. Feeling overwhelmed with all the challenges this cosplay presented, I put making No Face out of my mind. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be.
Fast forward several years, and I found myself as an owner of a 3D printer. A few months after learning how to 3D print things, I remembered my dream about a No Face cosplay. I had a light bulb moment: I could print a No Face mask exactly how I wanted it!
I found a free file of the mask over at Thingiverse and upscaled it to 200%. Then I cut the mask in half so I could easily print it on my print bed. I printed it using Hatchbox Black ABS filament.
Top half of the mask. 
Inside view of the top half of the mask.
Once I had both halves printed, I glued them together using a combination of CA glue and baking soda. Below you can see how large the mask is at just over 15″ tall!
After it was glued together, I sanded things smooth and applied several coats of gray filler primer. I could still see some of the seam in the middle, though. There were some imperfections in the finish as well.
I applied some Bondo to the areas on and around the seam and sanded things again as smooth as I could.
After I was happy with blending the seam, I applied a few more coats of filler primer and lightly sanded the mask smooth. This allowed me to see any additional tiny holes in the surface. I filled in the holes with spot putty. That’s the red stuff on the mask! I went over the mask a few times, adding spot putty whenever I would notice somewhere I’d missed before.
Initial application of spot putty. 
Spot putty after sanding.
Once I was happy with the smooth surface, it was time for a few more layers of filler primer, some wet sanding to make it super smooth, and then it was ready for the decorative paint! The mask was painted with several coats of white spray paint. I painted the details by hand using Testor’s enamel. It took two coats of purple for the eye details, and two coats of black for under the eyes and inside the eye and mouth holes. The detail under the mouth is dark gray. Everything was sealed with a few coats of matte clear to protect the paint.
First coat of paint in the recessed areas. 
Finished paint. 
I cut out some pieces of black speaker cloth to line the backs of the eyes and the mouth (forgot to get photos of this!), and glued them on from the inside with hot glue. This helps to give depth to the eyes and mouth.
And that’s it! The mask is very light and extremely strong. So with the mask part done, the next challenge was to figure out how to create the overall shape of No Face and to be able to wear it around comfortably. See that process here!
