Here we go again...neoprene and silicone caulk hybrid take 2

Hi everyone! Ok so my first tail was a huge learning experience. I'm actually pretty proud of it considering I had no idea what I was doing, and I made it in 4 days lol. I've put a lot more thought into this new design and will be making it in a better, less rushed way. Although I am impatient so it still won't be the traditional way of doing things. My design is inspired by a dragon/reptile. I will be making a reptilian belly, and color inspired by an iguana. I have a mahina monofin that will go inside my fluke. I have completed the first half of my fluke and have the base silicone for the second half. So I know most people sculpt in clay and make a mold for their flukes and fins, that is not fitting to my impatient ways so instead I spread out a tarp, drew on my shape in sharpie and sort of sculpted ridges into my silicone as I spread it out. Then after much experimenting, I found that my personal preference for coloring it was to thin the silicone down with mineral spirits, adding acrylic craft paint and then literally just painting it on with a paintbrush. So that's where I'm at so far. I will update as I get further.

Attachment 39942 my original design, I changed the fluke

Attachment 39944 close up of my ridges in my silicone base

Attachment 39945 this will be the back of my fluke, I'm going to make my spots look better on the other half

Attachment 39946 I can't wait to finish this one!

Omg I love this fluke!

This looks amazing so far! I love the fluke

Thank you both! I'd be much further along but it's winter and I'm working indoors and my silicone is taking forever to set up!

Attachment 39952 top half of my fluke is done!

Looking awesome! Yeah the weather is being really crazy here lately. It's almost in the 70's today lol.

Yep, I'm Oklahoma too lol

Does the fluke just pulls up off of the tarp or do you have to cut the tarp around the silicone?

It doesn't stick to the tarp. You just leave it sit until it cures and it peels right up

Yeah I saw you were in Oklahoma lol :D Nice to see more mers here!! Did you also make your tail in your avatar pic?

Yes ma'am that was my first one. I have a thread on the making of that one too that includes all the ways I messed up along the way lol. Hopefully this one won't have to include mistakes

So I've done a bunch of research on how to attach the fluke to the monofin since silicone won't stick to it. I didn't have this problem with my first tail because my monofin was covered in neoprene. Last night I attached the back side. I checked it this morning and it worked great! I took a fine mesh fabric and used e6000 to attach the mesh to my monofin in random dots all over. That way it was held down but not attached tight so the silicone would grab the mesh.Attachment 39955 Attachment 39956

Attachment 39958 both sides attached to the monofin and now connecting the sides together. My sides don't line up perfectly so tomorrow I'll be trimming and touching up the paint job.

Attachment 39960 it's heavy and a little hard to control my flipping of it. I'm going to have to work out with this thing lol. I think I made it a bit thick. It's 18 lbs.

Attachment 39962 and now for the tediousness of making the scales

Looks great so far! I love the organic shape and color of your fluke. It reminds me of water lilies and lily pads. Very pretty! :)