making a 3D scaled tail: neoprene and puffy paint

[Mermaid Mia]

hello. I don't know if anyone else will find this useful, but I thought I would share how I created my blue tail. I really wanted something with 3D scales but have no space/money for silicon. After some research and a good deal of test swatches I settled on making the main body of my tail out of neoprene and puffy paint (the fluke is spandex and I have a band of power-mesh around the top due to the design of the tail).

I have taken this tail out and about on dry land in my wheelchair (that I desperately need to decorate). and I have had it in tubs. I have not yet gone swimming, but it has held up fine thus far.

I ordered my neoprene from "Seattle Fabrics". The all other supplies came from Jo-Anns. My mono fin is the "fin-Fun" by Finis.

{because I want everyone to have the credit they deserve I got the idea to use puffy paint from this mermaid here: http://blog.erinstblaine.com/2013/07/how-i-made-my-neoprene-swimming-mermaid.html
the techniques I developed and the construction are my own.
The tail was for a cosplay of Fem! Mermaid Haru. The original character belongs to "Free!". The gender bent design belongs to me}

[Ashe]

Excited to see!
How would you review the neoprene from Seattle Fabrics? I've been looking into buying from there but I wanted second opinion :)

[Mermaid Mia]

I measured out my pattern and cut everything out. then was able to sew through the neoprene with a Jeans Needle on my sewing machine. I tested this out and made alterations then sewed the fluke fabric to it. the mono-fin was inserted and the end sewn shut. ( I had an extra of the old style fin funs, so I'm not planing on removing this.) It is held up at the top with a drawstring through the neoprene section, and elastic through the power mesh. the elastic is just to help the mesh stand, does nothing to keep the body of the tail in place.


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I later realized the inside of the fluke needed reinforcing. I tested, and craft foam holds up just fine in water.
so I created a sleeve for the ends of the mono-fin that extends out to the tips of my fluke. Thus the tips are still floppy but there is not a harsh line from the end of the fin.
I made the sleeve by tracing pieces of craft foam, glueing the edges together, slipping git on, and sewing the ends shut agin.

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[Mermaid Mia]

Excited to see!
How would you review the neoprene from Seattle Fabrics? I've been looking into buying from there but I wanted second opinion :)

i LOVE it. if i remember correctly (its been a while since i started this) I ordered the 2mm in Turquoise. it shipped in a roll so there were no strange creases, very comfortable, very warm. i did not have any problems with the fabric pressing off of the rubber and it even went through my sewing machine fine.

[Mermaid Mia]

I stuffed the tail with the massive pile of grocery bags we keep (knew there was a good reason I had not recycled them yet.)
then I created 3 scale templates. one small, one medium, one large. I worked form the bottom to the top starting with the small. The best way to keep all my scales lined up was to start each row in the middle, and work outward along each side. If I started from the sides the rows got crooked. I used a thick line of my light blue puffy paint for this, to start to give the scales dimension.
I worked on and off on the front for about a month, and then powered through the back in around a week.

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[Mermaid Mia]

once all of the outlining was done it was time to get pretty! I used teal acrylic paint and 4 colors of puffy paint. I would "prep" the area with the teal paint and let that dry. this gave me one solid color palette to work with and helped the puffy paint adhere better to the neoprene. then I started with dark blue at the joint between scales, medium blue i front of that, light blue for most of the work, and glow-in-the-dark blue for the edges. I blended out the dark blue and blended inward the glow blue in streaks, mostly cause I liked the effect best on the test swatches. I would recommend really cheep paintbrushes for the blending, cause they will never be the same.
This honestly took the most time. On average 4 rows of scales would take me an hour. but I did this mainly over winter break, so I could (and did) work on it all day every day.
I ended up using a lot more paint than I had anticipated, and probably spent over 90 dollars on paint by the end, and that is with coupons. I would estimate I used 9 bottles of the light blue (partly due to the outline), 3 bottles dark, 4 bottles medium, and 6 bottles glow. I did not use the whole thing of teal acrylic paint though :)

the process of one row of scales
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progress over the whole tail
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[Mermaid Mia]

once the whole thing was done... I decided it needed more!!!!!!
so I bought two bottles of plain white glow-in-the-dark puffy paint and two clear sparkly puffy paint. I applied the glow first with a paintbrush just around the middle part of each scale and then after that had dried i put the sparkles over the whole edge.

I also took this time to fill in any gaps that had been missed on the scales.

and I did a little more to the fluke, dotting the ends with puffy paint, starting with the lighter a the edges and moving slightly darker awards the middle, then covering it all in sparkles.

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[Theobromine]

Awesome! I love all the detail you put into it!

[Mermaid Mia]

Awesome! I love all the detail you put into it!

thank you! :3

[Mermaid Mia]

I now consider myself done :)
so I took my tail to cons and for some splashy splashy time in the tub.

closeups on the scales, with lights on and off ;)
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some finished pictures
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[Keiris]

Your scale treatment is GORGE!!!

[Mermaid Nelly]

Wowza! This is absolutely gorgeous! I've never seen anything like this, but I love the puffy paint idea! It looks so shiny and beautiful when the light hits it and I love the texture!!!

[Echidna]

this is very cool!
it's awesome when people invent something entirely new.

I made 3D scaled tails as well because I wanted something looking realistic but can't afford silicone.

[Mermaid Mia]

Your scale treatment is GORGE!!!



Wowza! This is absolutely gorgeous! I've never seen anything like this, but I love the puffy paint idea! It looks so shiny and beautiful when the light hits it and I love the texture!!!

thank you both so much!!! :3

[Mermaid Mia]

this is very cool!
it's awesome when people invent something entirely new.

I made 3D scaled tails as well because I wanted something looking realistic but can't afford silicone.

how did you make yours? they look beautiful. I'm always looking for new techniques :) hoping to embark on a scaled tail soon.

[MerMaiden Lissa]

Wow! I love the texture and the glow in the dark!

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[JustCOS]

I LOVE this! You did a really excellent job~

[Mermaid Mia]

Wow! I love the texture and the glow in the dark!

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I LOVE this! You did a really excellent job~

thank you! i worked really hard on it :) i really appreciate the positive feedback

[JustCOS]

I can tell! It looks like you really put a lot of thought and effort into this!

I'd been looking for a way to do a new tail, do you mind if I use this as my inspiration?

[Mermaid Mia]

I can tell! It looks like you really put a lot of thought and effort into this!

I'd been looking for a way to do a new tail, do you mind if I use this as my inspiration?

Please do!!!! If you think its the right technique for you :3

[IllynReaver]

Love the colors and detail of the painted scales.

[Ashton]

That is a very cleaver use a materials.

[Mermaid Mia]

Love the colors and detail of the painted scales.


That is a very cleaver use a materials.

Thank you :3 it was a labor of love XD

[JustCOS]

By the way, did you use the 4 Oz bottles of paint, or the smaller ones?

[Mermaid Mia]

By the way, did you use the 4 Oz bottles of paint, or the smaller ones?

The 4 oz. I don't even want to know how many of the little ones i would have used... Or how cramped my hand would have been.

Here is a photo of the exact ones i used (couldn't bear to throw out any bottle with some still left)
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160422/8b94c2af84efade293f664d6103ad4ea.jpg

[JustCOS]

Hah hah, I figured but I wanted to be sure :3

[MerMaiden Lissa]

Here is a photo of the exact ones i used (couldn't bear to throw out any bottle with some still left)


You can use the leftover for touch ups
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[Mermaid Mia]

You can use the leftover for touch ups
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Thats the plan :)
I was also hoping to make some scaled accessories in the same colors, like lanyards for conventions or a waterproof bag for swimming.

[Mermaid Alea]

I am so glad you did this method! I found that same article you mentioned as being your inspiration. I was really inspired by that tail because it looked like it was silicone when I first saw a photo of it.

My question is how well has your tail held up to swimming? I found yet another tail tutorial using puffy paint but they commented that if they were to do it over they would not have used the puffy paint. They said that it didn't hate water, but it doesn't like it either. I was not sure if that meant it started peeling a little or something? Here is that other tutorial: http://aminoapps.com/page/cosplay/3180818/mermaid-tail-tutorial

Anyways your tail is beautiful and I really have been wanting to try this method. I think I will do this to a mermaid top first before doing it to a full tail just so that I can test it out.

[Mermaid Mia]

Yes i have seen that also :) i too am on cosplay amino. I have experienced a little cracking in the ankles but its not bad. I would just say that it works a LOT better on neoprene than on spandex.


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[Mermaid Alea]

Okay great thanks for answering my question! For a tail I would definitely do this on neoprene. I have a top base that I got as a buy one get one free so it won't be too much of a loss if I try this and it doesn't work on the top. I really hope it will though.

I am glad you did this with Tulip paints. On the green tail tutorial she used Jones Tones paints which after some searching I found is now called Allure Adhesive paint, but that paint is harder to find in stores than Tulip.

[Mermaid Mia]

Okay great thanks for answering my question! For a tail I would definitely do this on neoprene. I have a top base that I got as a buy one get one free so it won't be too much of a loss if I try this and it doesn't work on the top. I really hope it will though.

I am glad you did this with Tulip paints. On the green tail tutorial she used Jones Tones paints which after some searching I found is now called Allure Adhesive paint, but that paint is harder to find in stores than Tulip.

I thought about jones tones but in the end it was accessibility and price that drew me to tulip. If you use this method please let me know how you like it :3


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[Dame Melusine]

OMG, that paint job is AMAZING!

[Mermaid Mia]

OMG, that paint job is AMAZING!

Thank you [emoji7]


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[Mermaid Arietta]

This is amazing!!

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[MermaidMorgaine]

How does this sort of a tail hold up in water? I want to stick with fabric tails (once I mermaid) but I want the realistic "scale feel" as I would love to do like birthday parties and what not in my town, nothing to big I don't plan on doing it for a permanent income but I want a "silicon-esk" feel to my tail. I want it to be comfortable, not to heavy, not a billion dollars, but when you touch it it has a "scale feel" to add to the realism. Any tips would be amazing!

[Mermaid Mia]

it holds up fine in water. the texture of the neoprene really helped with that. I will say it is not comfortable compared to my basic fabric tails. it is still very hard to get into and out of, the neoprene was already a more stiff material and the puffy paint on top only adds to that. also you can still see the seams in the tail just from where the neoprene was sewn together, though the scales are fairly continuous around the sides. i would say for gigs this method would probably be a good start but eventually investing in silicone or sequins would probably be the way to go. also remember that kids are very open to believing. If you get/make a fabric tail and add enough accessory's and play your part they will love you as a mermaid, scale feel or no.

[MermaidMorgaine]

Could this method be used on a fabric tail? And thank you for your input. I literally have just started researching mermaiding, and my first monofin is coming from amazon next week, thankfully I am a strong swimmer but I am a bit nervous about this journey. Thanks again for the assistance. :)

[Mermaid Mia]

you can absolutely do this on a fabric tail, but will experience more cracking because spandex is very stretchy where puffy paint is not. if you are just starting to look at making your own fabric tail i would suggest checking out Courtney mermaids painting tutorials (https://youtu.be/Xi4aoGMNafI)

i might even say look at some of the nicer fabric tails on the market and then you can decide if you want to spruce them up with puffy paint or sequins or anything else :)

[TheMerthropologist]

Oh man, I usually hate puffy paint since it can be such a pain to work with but you did so amazing with it! I love the shifting of the color and the glow! Glow in the dark paint is always fun! <3
Even on non-stretch fabrics, puffy paint can have issues with cracking particularly if it gets moved before it's fully dried

[Mermaid Mia]

Oh man, I usually hate puffy paint since it can be such a pain to work with but you did so amazing with it! I love the shifting of the color and the glow! Glow in the dark paint is always fun! <3
Even on non-stretch fabrics, puffy paint can have issues with cracking particularly if it gets moved before it's fully dried

Thanks! It was interesting but i was determined. And yeah i had to he very carful with it and there are still some cracks in places around joints


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