How much Silicone

[coral_sybil]

How much silicone does it take usually ​to make a tail?

[MerEmma]

Try the search bar and reading some tutorials for questions like this next time (or even this time!), this question is answered a LOT I know. :) I believe you should buy two orders worth for your tail but I'm not positive.

[suire]

So, I've now made two silicone tails. The second one was an accident. I read through someone's tutorial and they said they used two 1 gallon orders of silicone for their tail. I'm sure they had leftover, but from what they said it wasn't much. I followed their example and bought the same amount but I ended up not using the entirety of even one of the gallon orders. So I made a second tail with the whole other gallon I had left.

Mers come in all shapes and sizes. I'm am particularly petit so I only needed one gallon. If your legs are very long or maybe a bit bigger around then you might need two gallons. Silicone is expensive, though, so it's totally ok to buy it a gallon or a quart at a time as this will not affect its adherence to a previously bought batch.

Basically, there is no right answer. You are unlikely to need less than one gallon, though, so you might start with that then see where you are. Hope that helps!

[Mermaid Wesley]

It all depends on your size and on the thickness you pour it. I'm starting with one gallon order and seeing how far I get :)


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[coral_sybil]

You see a friend of mine who would be helping me seems to think we'd need six gallons for one tail

[Mermaid Wesley]

Ummm no. Not unless you're making something crazy thick like a freaking 80 pound behemoth. No. 2 tops.


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[Theobromine]

Yeah, if you look at a 1-gallon lot of it on the Smooth-on website, you will see it weighs 16 pounds. So keeping in mind that most silicone tails weigh somewhere around 25-30 pounds, depending on how thick they are cast (my Finfolk tail weighs about 30 and it's fairly thick), then two orders should cover you pretty well.

[Theobromine]

Oh, and also keep in mind that a 1-gallon order of the silicone actually comes out to 2 gallons, from what I understand, because there is 1 gallon each of Part A and Part B (someone correct me if I'm wrong). So if you order 2 lots of it, you will have 4 gallons total product. So maybe your friend was thinking of 3 orders and was just confused/being confusing about how much that actually amounts to.

[Mermaid Melanie]

I ordered 2 gallons cuz my fluke is kinda thick I think, but yeah I got 4 gallons total with 2 parts A and 2 parts B, haven't poured the silicone yet but I think there will be plenty !

[Atlantisblue]

How thick is the average tail? I've never seen one in person.