Excellent work! I love the look!
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Excellent work! I love the look!
It's time for another update. Due to the delay at the pool I decided to do a separate polycarbonate ("lexan", although the stuff I got is a different brand) monofin. The shape supports the trident shape of the fluke far better than the Mascotte monofin would have.
Attachment 19014
A work-in-progress picture taken during cutting the fin. I did a small timelapse (a GoPro is such an amazing toy :p), but the clip is a little too big for the web yet. And here is a picture of the raw shape with the protective film still attached:
Attachment 19015
For the footpockets I will go with some full-rubber short fins glued to the PC sheet. They are scheduled to arrive tomorrow, so there is definitely progress there!
That's all for now, more info will follow soon.
Cool, but you might want to round the points at it could tear the fabric and/or hurt someone if you catch them with it
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Hm. Good point. Thanks for the tip, Selkie!
Finally! Got my first swim in my tail! :dance: Unfortunately the pool was really, really shallow (1,30m, something about 4ft), so there was hardly any room for maneuvering without either breaking the surface or scraping the tail. They have an adjustable bottom, and it got stuck at that depth *sigh*.
But I have a video, and as soon as I got it to manageable sizes (currently it's full HD with 50fps, a teeny bit too large for the forum :p) I will definitely post it here!
Looking forward to seeing it!
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As promised, here comes the video:
http://youtu.be/zmT4US2XxLo
Inside there is still the black Mascotte monofin, as the polycarbonate one isn't quite finished yet. By the way, that project was quite a lot of firsts: First tail, first self-drawn pattern, first massive use of a sewing machine, first time of video editing and first video upload to Youtube ;).
The next first is coming on: First self-made monofin. The footpockets need to be glued on. I'll keep you all informed about the progress here!
Where did you get those fabrics from?
I wasn't sure of whether web shops offer decent stuff, since... well I found it nearly impossible to find anything decent in German shops be it spandex fabric or anything that looks good and won't dissolve in water right away :D
P.S.: Mo-oment! Was machst du im Höver-Bad!? O_o Da bin immer wieder Montags!
So, glued on the footpockets. It took two attempts, first I tried to be clever (haha...) and used a kind of contact glue. Sounded good at first, but as contact glue relies on pressure for bonding, which I could not excercise, the bond failed.
So I had to remove the residues and tried superglue for plastic. Well, as far as I can see now, the glue is true to his name: The bond seems to hold like welded even after only five minutes! To see if it really holds up, I'll wait twelve hours (at least) before doing further testing.
Attachment 19673
Nice! Natural merman swimmer!
Wait wait wait......did you HAND sew that?!?
Mermiah, no, not hand-sewn, by no chance. I used a sewing machine, like everyone else ;)! The white stitches, which I think led to the impression that the tail may be hand-sewn, are only a tacking thread (which, in fact, I _did_ sew by hand ;)), just to keep the fabric together (like needles, but much, much less spiky and much easier to handle :p) until finally sewn. I tacked the fabric, sewed the actual seams with a machine and pulled out the white tacking like pulling out needles. It's a little more work, but for me it keeps the fabric better tacked where I want the seams to be.
The picture I posted was just before making the machine seams.
Just a quick update on my first water-test with my self-made monofin. To make it short: It works really fine, the blade has a nice flow and gives a good push. And what's most important: the superglue works! :dance:
Unfortunately I did a really, really stupid thing, at least concering pictures: I tried being smart and removed the protective film (the white layer in the picture posted earlier) as a sign that the fin is finished :doh:... The consequence: I now have a completely tranbsparent polycarbonate sheet which looks nice on land, but (as seen in some other thread here in the forum) becomes nearly invisible in the water :blush:... So no pictures here of the fin in action, sorry. But I will post pictures or even a small film when the fin is installed in the tail.
Well I'm glad that your finn is complete. Can't wait to see it in the tail!
Oh, by the way...
Thank you and a big hug on letting me try your tail out :D
First tail swim - check!
I did the same thing with my Lexan fin, except at one point, I drew on the vein lines from my fluke...THEN I could see it.
I later cleaned them off with rubbing alcohol (DO NOT USE ACETONE, IT WILL CAUSE THE LEXAN TO FRACTURE!!!)
Now when I swim at the gym pool, the crawl swimmers can't figure out why I am so much faster, and never out of breath.
Pearlie that is hilarious! Id love to see their faces!
Love it!Quote:
Originally Posted by PearlieMae
That's hilarious, Pearlie!
Oliver, I LOVE the look of your tail! Even with the Mascotte monofin inside it that fluke shape is great in the water! I can't wait to see how it all looks with the lexan fin!