Man, this one was a journey.
More than a decade passed before I was finally able to add one of my favorite Hellboy characters to the collection.
I actually started building a Krauss bust over ten years ago, using an old motorcycle helmet and a lot of elbow grease. But, as with so many projects, motivation eventually disappeared when things just weren’t coming together the way I wanted.
Years later, I found a 3D model and had it professionally printed in China on an industrial resin printer — twice, in fact — just to figure out the correct scale.
Then, by pure coincidence, two original Krauss costumes appeared on iCollector shortly afterwards. I bought both and combined the best parts to create the basis for the display.
Needless to say, that gave my motivation a serious boost.
I started heavily modifying and adapting the printed parts. Nico created two new breathing filters for me in 3D, while I scratch-built the nose section myself.
One of the biggest challenges was fitting the shoulder armor properly to the mannequin. I also printed articulated hands and a neck with a ball joint so the pose could be adjusted more naturally.
As always, my toughest critic was my wife, who has an annoyingly good eye for proportions.
Once all the filling and reshaping was finally done, everything was primed and sanded. I then used a Dremel to deliberately recreate the casting imperfections found on the original pieces before moving on to paint and weathering.
The belt buckle and communicator are also based on 3D files that I modified. The belt itself was custom-made by my leather guy and then weathered by me so it would blend naturally with the original production leather parts.
After more than ten years from the first attempt to the finished display, I honestly couldn’t be happier with how this one turned out.
Definitely one of the most satisfying builds in my collection.
