How to Paint a Rubber Gas Mask

We need a gas mask for the show.  Yeah, one of those old-school ones with the giant breathing filters in front.

They usually come in gray and black because people who make gas masks don’t have a sense of humor.  But gray is boring.  How about a more appealing color?  Like…bright yellow!

Unfortunately, gas masks don’t come in yellow, so to get the right color, we have to take a stock gas mask and paint it what we want.  However, there’s one problem with that…

Problem #1: How do you paint a rubber gas mask?

Answer: Painting a rubber gas mask is a lot harder than you think.  Don’t believe it?  Then go out and buy a Cold War-era Soviet Union gas mask from your local army surplus store, a can of spray paint, and try it for yourself.   Yes, do it.  Right now – go buy a gas mask and spray paint (if you’re under 18, use parental supervision – duh).

When you open up your new (or should we say – old) gas mask, you’ll notice a very strong smell.  That, my friends, is the smell of rubber.  It’s funny how something can still have a weird odor after sitting 50 years in a cold warehouse halfway across the world.

Look at how the gas mask is made.  Kinda cool, huh?  Of course it is!  It was designed to protect your lungs against polluted air – for example, the kind that gets created when you have to take the trash out or scrub the toilet.

After you finish painting the mask, it looks beautiful at first.  A clean, glossy coat of slick color.  But looks are deceiving, because as soon as you put it on, your hard work cracks and flakes off because dry spray paint isn’t as stretchable as rubber.  Since spray paint doesn’t work, what do we do?  Go eat ice cream and call it a day?

No!

Well, take that back.  YES for ice cream, but NO to giving up!

I started digging around the costume shop and stumbled on some yellow, oil-based face makeup.  It’s the same stuff clowns use to make their goofy faces.  It also happens to be used in sci-fi movies to paint alien masks that are made out of latex rubber.

Alien masks…rubber…Wait a sec, rubber gas masks are made out of rubber, too! Eureka!  So I take the yellow face paint, which comes in a tube that looks like a giant piece of lipstick, and smear it all over the gas mask.

Behold, we now have a yellow gas mask.  When the makeup dries, it doesn’t crack like spray paint but becomes flexible and stretches with the mask.  Perfect!  Add a breathing filter painted like an orange-and-yellow candy cane, and we’re good to go.  Mask ready.

Problem #2:  Why in the world would someone want a bright yellow gas mask?

We’d love to tell you, but we can’t for now – you’ll have to wait until the show comes out.

By the way, if you haven’t voted for your favorite logo yet, there’s only a few days left.  So go vote now!