Ed's Latex Tail Project

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

So I'm a senior in college and it's time to do my senior project. Since I'm a costuming major, I figure its a perfect excuse to make myself a realistic cast tail.

I'm doing it in latex because I'm a poor college student and I can't afford to drop $400 on silicone.

This is the idea sketch for the tail.

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As you can see, it's mostly inspired by the Thirteenth Year, my fav mer movie. I've got a clear Hydra monofin coming to me, so hopefully I'll be able to cast the fluke fairly thin. Extra fins all depend on how much latex I have leftover after casting the body. Goal is to have it done by the end of March for a pod meetup. Here's hoping.

Fortunately, I can buy all the clay and casting supplies at the local art store, so I get a student discount and won't have to pay shipping. The only thing I'm ordering online is the monofin and Monster Maker's latex.

[Mermaid Adriel]

it seems great :D good luck ;)

[OceanRose]

Will you make webbed fingers too? LOVE THAT!
I like the colours in your design too :-)

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Hopefully I'll be able to do webbed fingers. I've always wanted webbed gloves with a wrist fin. We'll see if I have any leftover latex.

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

So while I wait for my monofin to arrive (it shipped out today, but it's also coming from Spain, so who knows when it'll get here) I've started working on my scale sheet. I picked up two of the big 12 packs of foamie sheets, which is a lot more than I needed but better to have too much than too few.

I may be a bit of a masochist for picking the smallest circular punch they had at JoAnn, but I've never much liked the large circle scales a lot of people have and wanted smaller scales.

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And the scale sheet so far. I'm glueing the scales to a chunk of foamcore board that I "liberated" from work. BTW, the white in the photo isn't foamcore showing through the scales, it's just tacky glue seeping out. I'm being a bit liberal with the glue :B

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[Nicoseamus]

It looks awesome so far! Hope you do great!

[MermanZen]

OMG I love your design I especially love all the extra fins good luck:)

[Mermaid Caspiana]

Love your design! Can't wait to see you finish! Good luck!

[Winged Mermaid]

Yay, so excited for you! :D
Just be careful about when you buy the latex. If it freezes it will become useless. If it's shipped through a state with too cold weather that could happen. They recommend 1-day air in winter, but they don't guarantee even that will keep it from freezing if it's too cold.

[Azurin Luna]

Woo! Very nice looking, I love your design. Good luck with your construction :D

[Alice]

Reminds me very much of my own tail jessica is making it ^____^ im loving the spiney memaids popping up
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[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Yay, so excited for you! :D
Just be careful about when you buy the latex. If it freezes it will become useless. If it's shipped through a state with too cold weather that could happen. They recommend 1-day air in winter, but they don't guarantee even that will keep it from freezing if it's too cold.

Yep, I'm going to wait until it warms up to buy my latex. I can't cast with it this cold anyway, since I have to do it outside. There is not enough space in my dorm room or at my workspace at school to cast an entire scale sheet.

[Jessica]

Awesome design! It looks like we're going to have a mini pod of spiny predator/badass mer people on here!

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Finished my scale sheet today!

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Monday I'm going to run up to the art store and pick up the clay and materials I need to start sculpting and casting some little side fins while I wait for it to warm up so I can work outside.

[Trident True]

Purple and Black EPIC one of my favourite colours.

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Just got my monofin in the mail! It shipped here incredibly fast considering it came all the way from Spain.

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I'm about to go buy clay and casting supplies so I can get started sculpting my fluke tonight. I'm also going to call around and find a local pool that allows fins so I can go test out my monofin.

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Got a good start in on my fluke sculpt today. I ran out of clay before I could get all done, though, so I'm going up to get more tonight.

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[MermanZen]

Looks awesome here's a little trick some of my merfriends tolded me, if you push down and stretch the clay out you can make the clay last longer and the fluke of your tail won't be too heavy

[MermanZen]

Told

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Finished my fluke sculpt! Had -just- enough clay for it.

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[merboy78xy]

it's lookin good!!!
keep up the good work! We need more mermen around these waters!!!

[Mermaid Dottie]

Looking good!

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

So I've tried molding my fluke three times and each time the mold fails for some reason or another. Fortunately, my sculpt is still perfectly okay. I'm going to go talk to the sculpture teacher at school to see if he has any advice/ can sell me some bulk plaster so I don't have to keep running to the store and buying the 4.4 lb boxes of it.

[ShyMer]

Aww man, that sucks that it's not working out for you. I hope he'll be able to give you some tips.

In case he somehow isn't very helpful, there are a lot of people here that have plenty of experience making different kinds of molds. Maybe if you're very specific about what you're doing, someone will be able to help you figure it out.

Keep at it though! It'll look awesome when it's finished!

[Mermaid Riia]

What did you use to make the mold?

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

I've been using plaster, which has failed for various reasons or another. I know what went wrong and think I can correct it with my next go, I'm just out of plaster.

On the positive side, I went and talked to the sculpture professor today. Not only is he willing to sell me some plaster (apparently, the art department buys plaster in 50lb bags for $15), he is also letting me do my casting work in the plaster room at the lab! No more working on my dorm room floor. Now I just have to carry everything over to the school :B

[ShyMer]

Awesome news all around!

[Mermaid Dottie]

Rock-a-delic! You'll be wearing that tail in no time!

[Mermaid Jaffa]

If you still having problems with plaster, you could try something like this. It comes in 15 - 20 lbs.

Its a local brand, but I'm sure you have something like it in your country.

http://www.alumilite.com/ProdDetail.cfm?Category=Silicone%20Rubber&Name=Mold%20Putty%20-%2015

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

My fluke sculpt in it's nice new mold box.

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Apparently Plastalina clay really likes to stick to cardboard, because it was really hard to get it off and onto the wood. I got it though. Poured the mold today with the help of the sculpture teacher, going in tomorrow morning to demold!

[MermanZen]

Awesome !!!!!!!!!

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

And finally, a clean demold!

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I'm going back in on Tuesday to pour my scales. Time to order some latex.

[ShyMer]

Awesome job!

I see an air bubble at the top (I had a bunch, your mold looks much nicer than my fluke mold did.) I've heard people just fill it with clay or some other material (I picked glue for some reason. Not sure why, it worked poorly.) Out of curiosity, did the sculpture teacher suggest any ways to fix bubbles?

I'm looking forward to when you get to the latex casting step, it's one of my favorites :)

[Mermaid Adriel]

well done! :D

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

I'll probably fill in the air bubbles with clay, unless my teacher has any other ideas. There's a few of them, mostly on the outer edge.

Made my scale mold today. We didn't want to make a pour mold because then it'd be too heavy to lift, so instead it's a "shell mold"" using a special fibreglass-reinforced plaster. I dipped peices of fibreglass cloth into the plaster and lay them over the scale sheet. Took me around 4 hours. :U Demolding it tomorrow, I'm excited to see what it looks like.

I've also finally gotten to take my monofin for a test swim and WOW it's amazing. I zip across that pool. I've also got my friend into it, he's ordering a Finis Rapid so he can keep up with me. We're going to start swimming at one of the local pools weekly or so until summer when we can swim outside again.


On another note, does anyone know anyone who has made a tail using latex from Burman Industries? I've seen them reccomended a few places on the forum, but never heard of anyone actually ordering from them. I'm considering it because, given their location in Hollywood, I don't have to worry about the latex freezing in transit like if I order from Monster Makers.

[Winged Mermaid]

So exciting! I know that I remember a few mers having ordered from both Monster Makers and Burn Man Industries. I believe I remember that it was Raven was the one who listed Burn Man Industries for her latex supplier, and she made at least 2 latex tails before moving onto silicone. :)

[PaolaMF]

what clay is?

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Do you mean what clay did I use? I used a brand of Plastalina, which is an oil-based clay that doesn't dry out or harden intended for modeling and sculpting.

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Demolded my scale mold yesterday!

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First I had to peel off the Foamcore that I had all my scales glued to. Most of my scales decided to stay in the mold, so they had to be peeled out by hand

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Fortunately, they came out quite easily, leaving me with my completed scale mold.

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Ordering latex tomorrow, hopefully it will be here by Wednesday so I can start casting!

[MermaidMyrthe]

Oooh, sooo pretty!! Well done and good luck!

[Mermaid Adriel]

Well done! :D

[MermanZen]

awesome!!!!!:)

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Got my latex ordered! It's supposed to be here tomorrow.

I am a bit concerned though. I ordered from Burman Industries in California, and I live in Seattle, Washington, but tracking says my package is currently in Texas. I really hope it doesn't freeze on the way here. Why a 2 day air mailed package has to travel from California to Washington via Texas, I do not know.

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Wrist fin and pectoral fin ready to mold! Waiting to sculpt my dorsal for last so I can make sure I have enough latex for everything.

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[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Poured my scales and fluke today. The scales are done and I'll pull them out tomorrow morning, while the fluke needs another coat to fill in all the ridges.

While I wait, I'm working on some webbed hands!

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This is just a spandex base, I'm going to coat them in several layers of liquid latex and paint them to match my tail.

[Mermaid Sabie]

Wow that looks great! I really hope your webbed fingers turn out, I love the idea of them

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

First scale sheet is done! This is the back, my front sheet should be done and ready to pull out tomorrow.

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The fabric sticking out is powermesh, which I layed between two coats to give the latex some extra strength.

[Pascal21M]

What are the next steps to finish it?

[OceanRose]

Love what you did on the gloves! you got the fingers really snug

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Pulled my second sheet of scales! These are for my front. Purple photographs terribly, but it is very vibrant irl. This latex cures a great fleshy peach color when untinted, so I made the upper few scale rows untinted to help blend

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Also pulled the first half of my fluke! It's going to need a bit of touch up paint, but the current tint should save any knicks or scratches from being noticable.

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I poured the second half, but it's spring break right now so the sculpture lab won't be open again until Wednesday.

Next step is to start seaming everything up! I got a friend to help me make a Duct Tape Dummy of my lower half so I can get started on Wednesday when the lab opens again.

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

While waiting to work on my tail, I'll be making small acessories. Inspired by the Masquerade Mer-mask thread, I decided to make my own so I could feel more confident about wearing goggles in the pool.

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[Mermaid Jaffa]

Cool! Are they plastic, aluminum or some other material?

I saw some nice masks made from resin, don't know how well that holds up in chlorine...

[Mermaid Sabie]

Looks sooo good!! What paint did you mix your latex with?

[Imogen Finnly]

I've used burman industries and its remarkable. The owners are great and are more than willing to help

Sent from my C5155 using Tapatalk

[Carolina Mermaid]

How did you get those????

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

The mask is a metal laser cut. I don't know what metal, something soft. I swam in it for about two hours and didn't have any issues, though I did loose a couple of the little gems.

I mixed my latex with some Jacquard Pearl-ex powders.

@Carolina: How did I get what?

[Mermaid Adriel]

love that mask! <3

[Carolina Mermaid]

The mask, thank you!

[Meshy]

I have 2 masks like yours, a bat shaped one, and the one in my avatar picture. I got them from my local renaissance faire, they cost about $25 (USD) each. I love this idea and I plan on getting another to try this with.

[Ashton]

looks good so far, I cant wait to see more.

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

I bought my mask on Amazon for around $10. They have a lot of different options on there. The goggles are Swedish Goggles, which are $3 on Amazon and come in peices that you put together for the perfect fit. It's a bit odd because they don't have a silicone edge to help seal them, but so far they've worked pretty great!

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Started seaming my tail together today. The black is the fresh latex, the rest of the tail looks dusty because it's been dusted with cornstarch to keep it from sticking to itself.

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And laid my fluke peice down to get a little preview of what it'll look like when done

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[Mermaid Sabie]

Ahhh! So exciting!!

[Ashton]

did you put your monofin in your cast fluke?

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

I haven't put my monofin in my fluke yet because I went swimming with it today after I got done seaming. I'm going to put it in on Friday when I go back in to finish up.

[Ashton]

Ah, gottcha.

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Alright, got the main body of the tail all put together today. First I sandwiched the fluke together over my monofin. The latex wouldn't stick to the polycarbonate, so I drizzled some Gorilla Glue down in there and that seems like it'll hold pretty well.

My fluke clamped within an inch of it's life.

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Then I attached it to the tail. The ankle ended up being too narrow, so I added scales cut from other parts and peiced them together to fill in the gap.

Tail back:
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Tail Front:

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Now all that's left to be done is try it on, which I'll probably do Monday, and add the extra fins. I need to cast one more Pectoral fin then they'll be done. I haven't sculpted my dorsal yet, though, so that will be a little while longer.

[Mermaid Dottie]

That looks really rad! I can't wait to see it finished and worn!

[Nyx]

Look amazing Ed!

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Thanks everyone!

Tried it on today for the first time. It's a bit big, but better too big than too small. I'll take it in a bit when I add the fins. Sorry about the lack of a background/shitty photoshop, but my room is a mess right now.

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[Ilyena]

Awesome tail :D. But I have to apologize, I kinda laughed with the picture of all the clamps holding the fluke together, never seen so many clamps before in once place except the hardware store >_<

[Mermaid Dottie]

Nice! Doesn't look big, but pictures can be deceiving I, suppose. Looks really good. :)

Sent from my C6916 using Tapatalk

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

It's a lot more obvious in this photo. (ahh, ugly messy dorm room background)

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I'm going to take it in a bit when I add the dorsal and the pectoral fins, then try it on again to see if I need to adjust the side seams

[Ashe]

Ah wow! I just read through the entire thread and seeing a tail like that being made from start to finish is really neat :) It looks great!

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

More work getting done! Today I painted my tail. The colors just weren't vibrant enough. To paint the tail, I picked up some Purple Jacquard Lumiere and Black artists' ink, along with some glitter. I mixed the paint/ink with glitter and some latex then just brushed it on like paint.

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(the backsides of my pec fins drying)

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The entire tail so far laid out on the floor.

I also poured my dorsal fin today. I'll be ready to pull it and seam it into the tail tomorrow!

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[Winged Mermaid]

Looking so awesome!!
Only concern- Did you wash the tail of all the powder beforehand? If it's not clean it can disrupt the bond and flake off later.

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Yes, I did wash off all the cornstarch. I rinsed my tail before I tried it on (if only to keep from getting cornstarch all over my floor), then sponged it off again right before applying the paint.

[Mermaid Tula]

Looking so awesome! <3

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Seamed my dorsal fin into the tail.

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It was cast pretty thin because I'm almost out of latex, so it doesn't stand up on it's own. It doesn't bother me too much, though

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The whole tail from the back.

I also whipped these guys up out of liquid latex. They aren't perfect, but they're fun.

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[Mermaid Tula]

Omg those gloves! *swoon* Fantastic job on the dorsal and everything else!

[Trident True]

I like what I see. The Thirteenth year was a good movie. I remember saying to myself. that tail looks so realistic. i think its more dull colours that intrigue me rather than bright colours. but each to their own. When seaming your tail, it may be easier to seam it on a body cast of your legs, this way you can get it to fit the body without having any extra/loose baggage, plaster bandages work well for this. I've never created a tail like this before so i could be 100% wrong but its worth a shot.

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

I didn't have the materials or the help to make a plaster cast of my legs, I made a duct tape dummy instead and seamed over that. My problem was it just wasn't a very good DTD and I didn't have enough materials to stuff it well :U But it worked out alright in the end. I took it in when I added the dorsal and pectoral fins and now it fits pretty well. It's my first cast tail I'm not too concerned if there's small mistakes.

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Went out and managed to take some photos in tail. I went to a local beach (the only one in the area that is sandy rather than rocky) and settled down by some old pilings that I thought looked cool.

I'm wearing long sleeves because it also ended up being FREEZING despite the sun. The incoming tide was making us nervous, so I didn't have time to get my tail adjusted like I wanted (it's really hard to get it up over my butt). Still, got some good pictures out of it.

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[Alcyone]

that's lovely! Good job exdraghunt (http://mernetwork.com/index/member.php?1319-exdraghunt)!

[Mermaid Adriel]

really beautiful! :)

[Mermaid Sabie]

Awesome!

[Mermaid Ellowyn]

It's beautiful!

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Video of my first swim! It went pretty well, though I did get my hands stuck in my gloves and ripped a seam open trying to get them off. (I'm going to replace that seam with snaps to assist in the donning/doffing of the gloves). Also ripped a seam in my tail, but that's easily glued back up.


http://youtu.be/kWZLVuQLShg

[Winged Mermaid]

So awesome!!!

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Thanks Iona! I am now super pumped for the upcoming pod meetup :D

[ShyMer]

Cool! It looks great in the water. You swim quite nicely :)

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

I thought I'd add a list of the materials + costs used in the project, along with some of the things I learned along the way. (Note, plaster is not included in the total because I am using the school's supply, which is bought in bulk)



Monofin: Hydra monofin from Scuba Store. $60 + $47 shipping
Clay: Van Aiken Plastalina. Four 4.5lb packages. $30
Two 12-pack foamie, two yards of powermesh, butcher paper (for drawing out patterns), foam punch. $50
Pigment: Jacquard Pearl-ex. 2 package black, 1 purple. $15
Latex: 2 gallons from Burman industries. $98 + $71 shipping.
Paint: 1 bottle Jacquard Lumiere purple, 1 bottle black India ink, bottle of glitter, paint brushes: $20

Total: $391

I bought as many materials locally as possible to reduce shipping costs.


Advice and things learned:

Plaster is a chemical cure, not an evaporation cure. There is no need to put it on in layers when mold making, or to wait for the previous layer to dry. To minimize bubbles, pour a thin layer over the sculpt, then pour the rest over top.

The “island” technique of mixing plaster. Rather than calculating ratios, regular white plaster can be mixed like this. Add water to a container, then start shaking plaster in over top. Allow time for the plaster to settle. Continue adding plaster until there is an island of plaster sticking out of the water. Remember to let it settle before adding more.

Mix plaster with your hands, fingers make it easy to detect chunks of plaster and break them up.

Air bubbles in a plaster mold can be filled by mixing a tiny amount of plaster and dabbing it into the bubbles, then wiping smooth with a finger.

Latex is an evap cure process. The thicker you pour something, the longer it will take to cure.

Latex will not stick to a monofin. Use E6000 nice and thick. Gorilla Glue doesn’t work as well because it is an expanding foam and dries rather stiff. E6000 is rubbery and will flex.

A good coat of Shellac will keep foamies from sticking in a plaster mold.

Latex is white when liquid. Be careful when mixing pigment.

Latex will stick to latex well when seaming the sides, but E6000 makes for stronger seams when adding extra fins.

Powermesh reduces the stretch but strengthens the cured latex. I do recommend.

[Mermaid Dottie]

Fantastic job, Ed! I really like the way it moves in the water. Looks great dry, too.

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[BayouMermaid]

Looks good! Your design translated really well from paper to real life. Nice work!

[Pascal21M]

Amazing tail very nice job

[Ashton]

your webbed hands in your swimming video looks really cool and unique, you really matched your skin color well good job!

[Mermaid Wesley]

*applause* good job! It looks snazzy


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[Ariel-Starfish]

It looks awsome!!!

[Mermaid Riia]

Out of curiosity, how big where the pearl ex pigment bottles you used? I'm slowly (but surely) making a latex tail too
Your tail looks fab!!

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

The art store local to me sells Pearl-Ex in the small bottles. (the smallest size shown here http://www.jacquardproducts.com/pearl-ex-pigments.html )

I used two black and two purple. I probably should've gotten three black. The colors didn't end up quite as dark as I wanted (especially the black, which was more of a grey), which is why I ended up painting the tail.

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Thought people might like to see this. Since I can't seem to get a decent underwater photo, have some slow-motion underwater swimming instead!


http://youtu.be/pEdQEUwuKqA

[Mermaid Zipora]

Wow!!! It turned out amazing!!

[Raayvhen]

It's a wonderful tail! Very fitting for a merman!

[SIF]

Hopefully I'll be able to do webbed fingers. I've always wanted webbed gloves with a wrist fin. We'll see if I have any leftover latex.

I have web-gloves that I am never going to use. I love the feel of the water on my hands as I swim. My Merling has first dibs, but if she doesn't want them, you are welcome to have them.

[SIF]

I have web-gloves that I am never going to use. I love the feel of the water on my hands as I swim. My Merling has first dibs, but if she doesn't want them, you are welcome to have them.

. . . Nevermind....:$

[spottedcatfish]

Lovely tail! Great video!