Silicone tail without Monofin?

[Misty Lau]

Hey! I'm new here- anyway, to the point. I've been giving a good deal of thought to attaining a translucent fluke. I'm pretty sure that's how the silicone from Smooth On is without pigment. Please, correct me if I'm wrong. Usually, you would create a silicone tail out of just the Dragonskin 10, right? Of course you cannot get any decent propulsion with just this and no monofin. However, there are other hardnesses available. What if you molded the "ribs" of the tail with a hard silicone, and the translucent parts with the dragonskin 10? Any thoughts? I haven't done any research to see if they cure together or not- I'm assuming they should. I'd love to hear other mers' opinions on this. Also, when I do commission or create my tail, I'm going to go for a brownish lionfish tail.

Also, has anyone tried to have their tail cover their entire torso, over the bust? I'm interested in that as well.

Credits to Doll Divine's Neptune's Daughter for the game that helped create the image. It's not exactly what I plan on, but it's close.

EDIT: I'm sorry for double picture... I don't know what to do about that. Oops. First post, hopefully I get some slack. :biting nails:

http://mernetwork.com/index/attachment.php?attachmentid=39379&stc=1

[Mer-Crazy]

Pearlie's first ever tail (her personal tail) is a full body tail and she loves it!

I'm pretty sure silicone takes on a white colour when it's uncoloured. Here's an unpainted picture from the Mertailor:

http://mernetwork.com/index/attachment.php?attachmentid=39380&stc=1

[Lili]

Clear silicone also begins to yellow if it's in the chlorine and ocean s lot

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[Trident True]

the Only way you would achieve a translucent fin would be to add a little of pearl pigment into it just enough to create a tint not a saturated colour. as far as im aware smooth on silicones do cure to a white. i have used another brand in the past which cured to an off white slightly translucent colour, however that was an australian brand.

in regards to a full silicone fluke without a monofin, it can be done. this will depend on how thick you make the fluke and what shore A you decide to cast it in. the thicker your fluke the better it will be in the water. Im not too sure if tin cure silicones will cure with addition cured silicones ( platinum silicones) however i do know that platinium silicones won't stick to cured tin cure silicones. you would need to do a test to be sure if it would work. there could be a possibility that they may cure just fin.

[Misty Lau]

Thank you all for the feedback, it's really helpful!

I suppose I'll have to put up with little to no translucency then. Do you know if legs and knees will show through the un pigmented white?

[Marinus Mortimer]

The would if your taking a pic or vid from below and the light straight above it will go through the tail and show yes.

[Misty Lau]

How would I color up the tail with a white or cream color on the body of it? Pigment the silicone when I pour it into the mold?

On another note, I'm going to be doing individual scales. I'm pretty sure I'm just going to have the material under them a sheet of silicone, instead of power mesh or something like that, so that I don't have to worry about the scales not staying on and things like that. Any ideas about that?

[Mer-Crazy]

From what I know most tails have powermesh with a layer of silicone either side but I'm not entirely sure how best to go about it with individual scales. Your best bet is to go check out Pearlie's individual tail thread and have a look through that as it is probably the best resource for individual scale tail makers :)

http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?6109-PearlieMae-s-Silicone-Tail-Journey

[Misty Lau]

I've been watching that thread as well, thank you!

I'd be interested to hear other people's tailmaking adventures. Is there a single thread talking about it?