When I first started this project there were a pair of latex Xenomorph hands on eBay which I did not buy and I kick myself to this day. But in the end I just made the hands like everything else, and that's more satisfying. Unfortunately I did not take many pictures of this steps' process, so I have tried to keep the description as helpful as possible.



Start:The base of these gloves were black fleece gloves from Walmart. I wanted to keep with the black fleece because it worked so well with the chest piece in taking paint for details. Even though the gloves were L/XL, they felt tight and I didn't want my hands too hot, so I cut out the inner layer of thinsulate and fleece to make the gloves more roomy.



Fingertips:I initially tried making foam finger extensions but they were not strong enough. I also toyed with the idea of those latex Halloween witch fingers, but they were not long enough. In the end I bought some rigid latex skeleton gloves from the Spirit Halloween store. I cut the fingers off the end and hot glued the fingertips of the fleece gloves. I then covered them with black fleece because I knew the latex would be hart to paint.



Details: The ribbed texture strips on the top of the hand were created with come fabric I found at JoAnne fabrics. I bought it because I thought I could dry-brush it to get the ribbed detail look, but that did not work. However It still took paint well and once the hands were painted it looked fine. To hide the edges and make it look more polished, I glues simple black nylon cord around the edges of these pieces. This also helped with texture and detail once painted while allowing the glove to remain flexible.



Claws: Made from space filler foam tubing, I cut the claw shapes out and simply glues them on the end. I opted for this because i wanted them to be sharp looking but didn't want to risk breaking a nail on Halloween of stabbing a kid in the eye. This foam is rigid enough to keep the shape but also flexible so it will bend on impact. I can also keep its natural color to help highlight the claws in the dark.



Extra Thumbs: If I was going with the ALIENS style Xenomorph, I could go with the large 3-fingered hands that they have in that movie, the two large ones actually being comprised of two long fingers joined together. However, since I am going for the classic look, I had to go with the 6-fingered look, with two joined fingers and two thumbs. I did not make these functional, and they look a little funny if I make a fist, but they look great if my hands are open.

I ended up carving a base thumb shape out of epifoam and covering it with sheet foam. (I could have just covered it with black fleece and saved time, but no) I then glued that to the opposite side of the palm where my actual thumbs are and painted the foam black with spray paint. Again, the foam keeps it lightweight and able to take a hit if it gets knocked into something.



Once the fingers were made, the proportion of the hands looked off. The fingers were long but the palm was really small looking. To offset this look I decided to web the fingers slightly. I took elastic fabric and cut it in "V" shapes and glued it between the fingers. This not only made it so finger movement was not restricted, but gives a cool look when you splay the fingers and the membrane stretches with the movements. This also makes the hands look larger and more imposing. A good, but not necessary addition to the hands.



Final touch-ups: Once it was all glued together, the whole thing got a layer of black spray paint (or enamel on the epifoam parts, sans claws) then then I used simple grey primer to add details and coloring as well as some dry brushing with grey acrylics on the black cords.



Afterthoughts: It pays not to be sloppy with your glue here because when you paint it with grey the spray paint will adhere to the glue brighter because it is smooth instead of textured, so it can leave globby splotches. In the dark it won't matter, but the perfectionist in me noticed.