Dragonskin tail question.

[Aniganatis]

I'm making a tail for my little sister but he is allergic to latex, so I'm going with dragon skin. I believe I have the mold process down but my question is, since I want to make dragon skin tails for other family members how do I make a mold for them? I'm not around them to make a mold for them. How are all these tail makers making these silicone tails by just measurements? What am I missing?


Im sorry if this has already been answered, if so just post the link. I really need to know.

[Mermaid Allie]

Well they make a neoprene tail to measurements then cover it with silicone... i think?

[ShyMer]

I don't know that you need a mold for the legs at all... I feel like all you need to do is make a scale sheet, trim it to fit the measurements, and silicone them together at the seams. It looks to me like that's all most people are doing now anyway, though it's not like I'm an expert. It's just an observation.

I feel like casting for the legs might be necessary is if you're doing something like what Latexmans did for the goldfish tails. From what I've seen of other tailmakers' products, they're not doing that at all.

[Winged Mermaid]

Usually the professional SFX people do leg castings. They know how to do it correctly, as if you do it wrong you can end up sending your model to the hospital with 3rd degree burns. It's serious business. Also, becuase the market is small, commercial tail makers rarely if ever have people they make tails for see them in person. You can't really do a casting for someone on the other side of the country :P Instead they make a sheet, then wrap the sheet into one (or two) properly sized and shaped pieces, then glue them together with more silicone. Seams, especially good looking ones, are hard to do for sure and take a lot of patience from what I've heard. But the more you do the better you get at them. Mike's you can hardly find the seams at all!