Deluxe Painted Spandex Tail

[lynsea]

Starting another tail. As a broke, recent graduate, I have no money for a silicone tail (although I am saving up). I decided to use some spandex and modified my Finis fin. Here are some progress pictures! It's not going to be the most professional tail ever but I've found that putting a bit of effort into it is actually making turn out better than I thought!

Here are my progress pictures so far:

I made the zip tie, fabric, and silicone fins.
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Similar to Hannah's tails, I added a belt-like thing to the inside of the waste. This is actually rubber so it's quite sticky in terms of friction. Haven't tried it in the water yet but it's working when I move around.
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Did a few swatch tests with the fabric and some simply acrylic paint I bought.
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Here is a close up of the scale patch I did tonight. It looks darker without the flash but I love how the hint of sparkles.
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And here is the tail thus far! It's going to take a while to do the whole thing but I think it will definitely be worth it.
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Let me know what you think! If definitely adding some extra fabric to the fluke but not sure what yet. I have both the vinyl and the same shiny fabric I used for the fins.

[PearlieMae]

Nicely done! I think I might have started the scales at the bottom and worked my way up, though. I love your fin fabric, I was making fins from something similar. I also smeared on a layer of silicone caulk, sprinkled ultra fine rainbow laser glitter over the fins and applied another layer once that layer dried...very sparkly in the sun! Good luck!

[Neptunie2]

How did you modify your finis foil?


Currently "growing" my tail!
Lots of love!!!
-Emily

[lynsea]

How did you modify your finis foil?

I modified it with the zip tie and duck tape trick that is another another thread on this forum.

[lynsea]

I have quadrupled the number of scales on this thing... man do they take a long time!

[Jadestone]

Wow! Your scales look great :) Love the shading and the sparkle on the bottom!

[MerEmma]

I love the sparkly fabric<3

[Ashton]

Are all the scales by hand or did you create a stencil of some sort?

[lynsea]

Are all the scales by hand or did you create a stencil of some sort?

A bit of both I'd say. I have a single scale stencil and used the for the whole tail.

I actually finished the painting (finally). I'll post pictures later!

[lynsea]

Ended up finishing this tail a long time ago, just forgot to post pictures! I have a few extra silicone fins that I am currently troubleshooting how to attach. Might be selling if anyone is interested!

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[Mermaid Adriel]

*.* looks great!

[Rivertee]

:jawdrop: I think my heart just stoped. That's spandex!? Holy painted tails!!!

[lynsea]

Thanks very much! I figured I would share it as a lot of people are going towards the silicone end of things. I wanted to show there is still hope for a great looking tail without spending hundreds!

[Mermaid Momo]

Did you use an airbrush to paint it?

Sent from my ALCATEL ONE TOUCH 5020T using Tapatalk

[lynsea]

Nope! Just a paintbrush a single scale stencil. It was mostly free form painting and I'll be honest, it took forever! Three layers of paint plus the glitter layer.

[Mermaid Talisa]

Hey could you tell me what kind of paint you used? It looks so awesome!

[Rebekah.fish]

This is what I'm trying to do! Thanks for giving me hope lol. Did u stretch the fabric before you painted it??