Monofinless, single scale method tail in the making.

[deepblue]

I started this a while ago, and am already on my second attempt at the fluke mold, so I'll post what I've done and tell the tale of woe and renewal. lol My husband got me started on supplies in December, then I purchased a bit more of what I'd need each month since then until I could get started in late February.

My plan: Monofinless fluke and the PearlieMae method of tailbuilding. Why? I have a Finis Wave, and honestly, I just don't like how it feels. I have narrow size 6.5 feet, and even with neoprene booties, my toes slide forward, and it's very uncomfy. I've been toying with the idea of a monofinless tail for a while, as I don't plan on taking it in the ocean and I like smaller flukes (such as what you'll see in Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid, see my profile pic for that mermaid tail). I also really like the look of no monofin, smaller heel bumps, smoother ankles. So heck, why not. Then I decided I will make the fluke as a monofin itself first, with a strap, and then build a tailbody to attach to it. That might be too ambitious, and I might end up attaching it permanently.

While I have played with making scales, this is the first time I've sculpted a fluke. It's so much fun! And meditative, too.
Onward to the pics!

So it began. I had a piece of Lexan on top of the vellum my fluke design was drawn on, because vellum is very slippy and the clay would not stick, at all. I used vellum because I had a roll of it already and it's easy to trace through for doubling the half-design I drew first. My clay is Plastilina. I used a clay conditioner to soften the clay, and an extruder to create the long, snake-like pieces for the outline. I wanted it to be very even to begin with.

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I built it up.

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I textured it, and added scales to the foot pocket area. The texture here was before refining.

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Built up a wall, and then made sure it was laying flat on the ground outside, by using a level and stir sticks to even it out.

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And then I mixed and poured the fiberglass resin. Woe and behold, it did not turn out well. Within 15 minutes, a crack appeared. Then, the San Andreas opened up. I had followed instructions and the weather was ideal But it did not work out.

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A friend of mine who works with fiberglass often said it was probably too much hardener. I told him I'd followed instructions exactly. He then said, "The best thing to do with the mix directions is throw them out! Temp, humidity, elevation, and elves always change how it turns out." WELL. ELVES. Okay, then. I won't be using fiberglass resin again. I see most people have success with it, but this experience has soured me. And the smell. OMG. Even outside, with the door closed, it stank to high heaven.

Such a shame though, because I can see the detail was really captured.

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[deepblue]

So I've started on the second attempt. I drew a new outline, which is pretty basic and mostly the same, but neater. I've started over, using a slightly different set of steps and it's been a much quicker go this time.

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Here's where I am now.

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[Luna Dreamtide]

Oh dear that mustn't been frustrating! I like your fluke though - I hope your next mould works out better!

[Dancing Fish]

Yeah, fiberglass resin is GAWDAWFUL for stench, and digging the clay out afterward took forever. I decided the more expensive resin was definitely worth it (less stink, much easier to clean!). :) I'm so sorry your mold broke, but the second fluke is looking marvelous!

[Mermaid Wesley]

Very pretty sculpt! Here's hoping your mold works better this time!!

[Misty Lau]

How will your propulsion be without a monofin?

[Mermaid Kalahari]

Your sculpt is beautiful! I'm a fan of the long tendrils. I'm too gathering supplies to try my hand at sculpting a fluke and making a monofin less tail. Are you going to use a stiffer silicone? One of these days I'm going to try and talk to a smooth on person to see if any of the stiffer silicones/rubbers will adhere to the dragon skin to give it a stiffer core with the dragon skin skin.

Good luck on the next mold! What do you plan on using this time?


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[Alyx]

How will your propulsion be without a monofin?
i wonder this as well

[moomer]

I love your fluke design! And the little adjustments you seem to have made between the molds are really nice. It has really tidied it all up and it looks AMAZING.
I am following for my own crafty pleasure :D

[deepblue]

Thanks, everyone. :)


How will your propulsion be without a monofin?

It should be just fine. I've been watching videos of people swimming in Mike Van Daal's monofinless works of art since he started making them 5 years ago, and it doesn't seem to be an issue. The mers who have his tails (also called FlipTails) do mention they're heavier, but since I don't have one, I can't be sure as to why. I will be using a stiffer silicone, a harder shore, along with a Dragonskin 10. It's possible that this will make it heavier.


Your sculpt is beautiful! I'm a fan of the long tendrils. I'm too gathering supplies to try my hand at sculpting a fluke and making a monofin less tail. Are you going to use a stiffer silicone? One of these days I'm going to try and talk to a smooth on person to see if any of the stiffer silicones/rubbers will adhere to the dragon skin to give it a stiffer core with the dragon skin skin.

Good luck on the next mold! What do you plan on using this time?

I plan to use Smooth-On's Smooth Cast. I like the 1-1 mix ratio. I've made scale tests using plasters, and I find them too easily chipped, so I already know I don't want to go with that.


I love your fluke design! And the little adjustments you seem to have made between the molds are really nice. It has really tidied it all up and it looks AMAZING.
I am following for my own crafty pleasure :D

Thanks! I also really like the small differences, I'm very pleased with how this one is turning out, better than the last.

I've had precious little time to work on it the past few days, but I managed to get this much scaling done today and yesterday.

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[moomer]

That is simply divine.
I love the differing size of scales. It looks very natural.
Can't wait to see more! :D

[deepblue]

My second go is now ready for casting. I've also put several clay scales down, so that I can mold the fluke and a number of scales at the same time. I also have a separate but not pictured plaster mold of just scales.

I drove myself a little nuts this second time around. I kept having scale layout symmetry issues, even after measurements, so I had to start over on the scaling. But then I discovered the issue- a spine that was off by 1/8", which made everything which followed that much more off. Fixed it, and now I think I have to let go and accept that it's good enough because I've reworked the texture over and over and I don't think I'm going to get much better than this. lol The overlap at the top is so that when two are sandwiched together, one will overlap and be used to seal over the edge on each side.


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Unfortunately, my planned trip to the art supply place that carries Smooth-On Smooth Cast did not happen, so I need to keep all this safe til I get home with the materials on Saturday.

[MeliPixie]

This is going to be so beautiful! I'm sorry your first cast broke, but look at the improvements that came from it <3

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[moomer]

Argh. Its gorgeous.
I may be lusting after this, HARD.
I cannot wait to see it cast. :D

[deepblue]

This is going to be so beautiful! I'm sorry your first cast broke, but look at the improvements that came from it <3



Argh. Its gorgeous.
I may be lusting after this, HARD.
I cannot wait to see it cast. :D

Thank you both. :) I hope it turns out as I'm envisioning.

[Rett]

Its looking great! Cant wait to see more progress! :D

[Mermaid Wesley]

<3 stunning!

[deepblue]

Thanks for the support!

I was able to get to the art supply place this weekend. Before pouring, I decided to spray the entire surface with Smooth-On's Universal Mold Release, because I had no idea if the plastic would adhere to the plastic surface I used. I wasn't concerned about the clay being an issue.

First, I made sure the whole thing was even. My building was built in the 70s, things settle, and yes indeed, I did need to level it. I used stir sticks stacked underneath the whole thing until the bubble was center in all directions.

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Also not pictured, I noticed the plastic lifting a tad on the corners, so I weighed it all down using the small weights from my husband's weight set. Everything was flat, from what I could tell. I imagine it was the warmth of the Smooth Cast that caused the plastic to try to warp, but I also didn't expect it from this product because there wasn't all that much heat coming off it. This happened with the resin attempt, and the plastic was totally flat when removed. So. If I do this again, I'm going to use a different surface.

When it came time to lift the mold, almost all of it came right off, which was nice. You can see here how much was left on the surface. But all the scales were left behind, which makes sense size-wise.

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Somewhere along the line, some of the liquid seeped under the clay. It created a very fine layer, most of which was easy to just pop off. However, it got through the scales and even though I'd pressed them down and tried to keep that from happening. It was so thin, though- no problem getting it out with the clay underneath.

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One problem I ran into was bubbles forming in the scale molds that I added. Not all of them have them. Most do. It also did a weird thing where it pulled up part of scale to create a bubble that is still textured. But it's not a huge deal, as this was just to see how it would work and I can still create some small molds just for scales, and I have one from plaster already prepared. This photo could have better focus, sorry about that. But you can see the pit where a bubble formed.

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Here's the little creature my husband created from the clay he helped pull out of the mold. :p

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Getting the clay and plastic bits from the scaly area has been a rather tedious endeavor.

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Here's where I am now.

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I should mention that I'm using a stiff nailbrush to help get the clay out. It's working much better than the old toothbrush I have on hand, which is just too soft.

Current plan is to get this cleaned out, do a couple scale tests using the different shores of DragonSkin I have on hand, and do a pigment test, and once that's done I will pour in stages.

In stages because I don't know if you can tell in the photos, but this mold came out bowed up in the center. smh. I should not have used he surface I did. However, my plan was already to pour the spines first, then the scales, then the webbing, using clay to block flow, and thereby getting colors where I want them without dealing with paint, since I don't have the equipment for painting and I do have all sorts of Pearl Ex pigment powders as well as some black and holographic powder pigment I found on Etsy.

I hope to get that done this week. I still homeschool my daughter since her legs still, on occasion, have trouble, so my time during the week is limited, but I'm absolutely enjoying this whole process. Even the mistakes are fun before they become msitakes. heh. :)

[Freshwater_Nim]

Now that is one Beautiful sculpt! I'm so rooting for you!

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[MermaidBrandie]

Lovely. :)

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[PearlieMae]

If you pour some baby oil into your mold, it'll break up the clay, and once you've scrubbed that out, a little dish soap and water will clean out the rest!

[MermaidBrandie]

If you pour some baby oil into your mold, it'll break up the clay, and once you've scrubbed that out, a little dish soap and water will clean out the rest!
Points up.

I was going to say a power washer helped me get clay out of a resin mold, but that would depend on your resin.

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[Karri3]

Super excited to see how this turns out. I love your fluke design :D


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[deepblue]

I have been trying to respond to this since yesterday, but for some reason, the forum or my Windows 10 won't allow me to use the spacebar in a reply here. So I installed a Linux os onto an older laptop and here I am. lol


If you pour some baby oil into your mold, it'll break up the clay, and once you've scrubbed that out, a little dish soap and water will clean out the rest!

Thank you. I'll remember that for if I do this again. I ended up spraying the whole thing with Method all purpose cleaner, let it soak for a bit and then scrubbed. But I imagine the baby oil would do better. I listen to the PearlieMae wisdom!

[Slim]

The spacebar issue can be avoided by typing before the quoted area like I'm doing right now. how the quoted area is formatted and windows being windows that causing the spacebar problem after the quoted area.


I have been trying to respond to this since yesterday, but for some reason, the forum or my Windows 10 won't allow me to use the spacebar in a reply here. So I installed a Linux os onto an older laptop and here I am. lol



Thank you. I'll remember that for if I do this again. I ended up spraying the whole thing with Method all purpose cleaner, let it soak for a bit and then scrubbed. But I imagine the baby oil would do better. I listen to the PearlieMae wisdom!

[deepblue]

The spacebar issue can be avoided by typing before the quoted area like I'm doing right now. how the quoted area is formatted and windows being windows that causing the spacebar problem after the quoted area.
Ah, so it is a Windows issue.
I did notice that it worked when above the quote, but I don't always want to type above the quote. Cut/paste will be in order when on that laptop.

[deepblue]

I've had a slight delay. See the specks? Those were not there until I left my mold out to dry- having sprayed it with clear coat- and then unexpected tree trimmers revved up an enormous wood chipper right under my balcony and the dust blew up, and boom. Rough and speckled.

So, I won't be pouring today as I'd planned. I'm not sure if another clear coat will help, but I'm going to try it, and then go from there.

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[Fifi Tigg]

Cannot see the pic

[deepblue]

Odd- it was there last night, then gone. I've just added it again.

I poured some tests last night, and I learned a few things.

One, I'm going to need to use a lot more pigment. Two, I sprayed mold release on part of the test and not on the rest. When pulling out the silicone this morning, the part that wasn't sprayed brought up the clear coat with it. Three, the unevenness of the mold is definitely an issue that can't be worked around. Oh, and finally, the tree dust really didn't seem to affect things much.

The scales I poured and used mold release on did come out nice and glossy, but the ones I made in plaster molds without clear coating came out very dull.

I'm probably going to give it a third go. When I do, I'm also probably not going to post here until it's poured, I'm going to do my best to copy this fluke mold to the final scale, because I really like it. I'm also not going to make scales a part of the mold, this time I will do a mold for just the fluke, and hope that by making it smaller, it might help it stay flat. I'll be looking at the answers on the sculpting surfaces thread I started to decide how I can get a better result.

So this thread might go silent for a while, but eventually I will hopefully get back with some good news for my fluke. :)

[deepblue]

I've had no luck finding any helpful information online as to why my mold warped, so I've emailed Smooth On a complete description and I'm hoping they can give me some idea. If they respond, I'll post it here.

[Mermaid Wesley]

Awesome. I hope they can help!!


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[deepblue]

Here's what Smooth On said:

The good news is you can weight down the Smooth Cast 300 and add heat to take the warp out.
Now the reason for the warp... Lexan does not do a good job of distributing the heat of the resin so the resin is curing from the center outwards.. this pulls the resin towards the center as it cures thus causing a warp. Smaller pours could help this by reducing mass which reduces exotherm... adding a filler such as Ure Fil 7: https://www.smooth-on.com/products/ure-fil-7/
ould help by adding dimensional stability to the resin... heating the Lexan MIGHT work as then it will add heat to the edges of the curing resin so it doesn't just cure from the center out...
My favorite is to add the filler.
Hope this helps


Smooth-On Technical Support

So I have some options. I'm in a stall atm, we might or might not be moving soon. So I haven't began a new sculpt. I don't know that I have a source of heat to flatten the mold, and if I did, I'm pretty certain that the mold would not be even after, and I can't use a filler without risking that, too.

One thing learned: do NOT use Lexan for a sculpting base/pouring surface. This make me nervous about using any kind of plastic, acrylic, or plexiglass as a sculpting base.

[merwandering]

I haven't read your entire thread, so apologies if this isn't helpful. But- I found a couple of things, one being that it is more important to have a very solid flat surface than it being perfectly level- it seems like perhaps the cardboard & lexan could temporarily bow some under the weight, and if you do pour again, I would suggest maybe using those directly on the most flat solid surface you can find and foregoing the paint stirrers. BUT: Here's the thing- I have stored my smooth-on resin fluke mold multiple places in the last year (under beds, etc) and twice, it has been on what was apparently not a flat surface. However, moving it somewhere flat, the first time, in maybe slightly warm, but closer to room temperature weather, it was flat the next time I got it out, a few weeks later. Another time, I put it on the warm floor of our hot garage and I think two days later it had flattened out. It seems to just constantly warp a little, so- hopefully that is true for your mold, and if you put it somewhere warm and flat it will correct itself? Good luck- hope your lovely mold survives!!

[deepblue]

Oh cool- that's good news, because if it doesn't take a great deal of concentrated heat, a summer's day in San Diego, with the tail on a flat sidewalk could do the trick. I've nothing to lose by trying. Thanks, merwandering!