Silicone carbon fiber tail- Inexpensive!!!

[.MermaidSophia.]

Hello! This is my thread on the silicone tail I'm making. It won't have a monofin built into it, as the support will come from carbon fiber rods within the veins of the fluke. (Just like a real fish). It will also be extremely efficient on silicone, the gallon unit of 10T dragonskin will probably be more than enough for me. I'll post pictures soon!

[.MermaidSophia.]

Here is what the fluke of the tail is mostly made out of. It's a 60A durometer (car tire stiffness) silicone sheet 1/4" thick and 36 x 36 inches. As you can see it isn't very stiff on its own, which is where the rods will come in to add extra support. It's cool that I've been able to draw ideas directly onto the silicone with a whiteboard marker. I can get the exact shape I want without spending hours molding clay or going through tons of paper. It's really just as easy as draw, erase, repeat.

[Hydra1337]

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[.MermaidSophia.]

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I added another file type of the same picture. Hope this helps!

[ladyofthelake]

I love the design! I can't wait to see the finished product! Keep up the good work and keep us posted as you progress!

Here is what the fluke of the tail is mostly made out of. It's a 60A durometer (car tire stiffness) silicone sheet 1/4" thick and 36 x 36 inches. As you can see it isn't very stiff on its own, which is where the rods will come in to add extra support. It's cool that I've been able to draw ideas directly onto the silicone with a whiteboard marker. I can get the exact shape I want without spending hours molding clay or going through tons of paper. It's really just as easy as draw, erase, repeat.

[Hydra1337]

I added another file type of the same picture. Hope this helps!

It did, thanks! Great work so far!

[.MermaidSophia.]

Attachment 41172

Attachment 41173 Alright, so here is the real heart of this project, the body. Now originally I was going to go with a flat surface to mold the scales (make clay scales, lay them on a sheet, pour plaster, boom. flat mold) but I knew that with my complete lack of sewing skills it would probably create a big ugly seam down the side. And thus, the inside out method was born (I have no idea if that has a real name, but I'm just going to roll with it). The concept is this: make a plaster mold that you can pour silicone over two or three times until it is thick enough, then very very carefully peel it off and turn it inside out, and voila, you have a completed body made perfectly to fit your legs. There is no excess silicone that you would have to trim off, and nothing is wasted that way.

Of course, this method has given me some real headache. For one, the scales are a big problem. The only type of scales I can use are small primitive circles. Because this is my first ever silicone tail, it doesn't bother me too much, but I'm worried that it might make some problems for me down the road if I ever want any type of scale besides circles.


THIS. This is the biggest problem of all. Because the body changes in width so many times, the scales won't always line up correctly. And then you are left with horrors like this. The circles are uneven, have big gaps in between them, and overall just look bad. I try my best to avoid patches like this, but it happens sometimes anyway.

[Mermaid Wesley]

Wow!!! What a cool idea! I hope this works for you!!

Edit: the irregular scales probably won't be a big deal. Nature isn't perfect!
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[.MermaidSophia.]

Thank you Wesley! People have told me beofore that it won't show up much, but I'm worried anyways... haha maybe I'm just trying too hard to make it perfect.


so here's the first full design of what the fluke is going to look like. I imagine I'm going to have to change it a few times before it's done, but I think this is going to be the main look (inspired by Mermaid Raina's Rapadash 2 tail). this part of the process won't be as difficult, so I'm going to start it after I finish the body mold. The carbon fiber rods are going to be attached along the lines, which I'm pretty excited about. In my mind I can see it being really flowy and realistic once it's finished. Flowy, but not floppy. There probably won't be much extra silicone hanging off the ends to create drag. As for the foot pockets, I'm still a little lost . I'm not sure yet how I'm going to make the thing actually hold to my feet while I swim. If anyone has any tips or ideas they would be a great help!

[Mermaid Wesley]

(Oh trust me I get perfectionism, I've been working on my silicone tail for 2 years )
Could you attach water shoes or something to the blade itself?


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[.MermaidSophia.]

(Oh trust me I get perfectionism, I've been working on my silicone tail for 2 years )
Could you attach water shoes or something to the blade itself?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's awesome!! I really think that every merperson should make their own tail at some point or another. It really is one of the most rewarding things to spend a long time making something yourself. It really makes you appreciate all the time that people put into doing this kind of thing as a living.

I have considered using water shoes in it, but I'm worried that the cloth in it might grow mold or decay after a while. I did buy some cheap little silicone socks off of amazon, however. They're very soft and I'll probably use them as lining for the inside of the thing. Thank you!

[.MermaidSophia.]

So the next little problem I have to work through is attaching the carbon fiber itself to the tail. Because silicone doesn't bond to anything but itself, I'm feeling a little nervous as to how on earth I can do this in a way that will last. I have a few ideas, the main one being that I buy some thin silicone tubing, which the rods can go inside. The tubing would then be closed on either side and attached to the fluke. Hopefully with the rods, the tubing, and the silicone sheet I will have a fairly stiff blade.

There are a couple things that make this method a little risky though. One being if a rod snaps, it could be very difficult to replace. This will hopefully never happen though. The individual rods are very long and thin, also there will be many of them so the stress of swimming should be pretty spread out. Also, I have a feeling it is going to be really difficult to attach the tubes themselves while still keeping a smooth look to the tail.

A third hopeful is that they will actually look like veins, not just tubes on a flat sheet.

[merwandering]

If I were going to do this, I might try sandwiching the rods between two pieces of fluke shaped fabric, and either sewing or gluing channels for each rod. Or maybe cutting a shallow channel for each rod into the thick rubber sheet, but- those ends- I would find a way to cap off the ends with something durable, they'd be the first thing that would start to tear it up- they look like they'd poke through with movement. This is a really cool idea! Good luck!

[.MermaidSophia.]

If I were going to do this, I might try sandwiching the rods between two pieces of fluke shaped fabric, and either sewing or gluing channels for each rod. Or maybe cutting a shallow channel for each rod into the thick rubber sheet, but- those ends- I would find a way to cap off the ends with something durable, they'd be the first thing that would start to tear it up- they look like they'd poke through with movement. This is a really cool idea! Good luck!

Great suggestions merwandering! I'm probably going to try to keep cloth out of the tail, But maybe a second thin silicone sheet to cover it? From some research I've done they don't look too expensive.

You also just gave me an idea- I could put a hard U shaped cap over the end of each rod to distribute the force so all the force isn't being delivered to one tiny spot before sealing it. Thank you for the help!

[.MermaidSophia.]

Just did a bunch of work on the body mold. Nearly done the toughest part! Probably only 2 or 3 more sessions and I'll be finished grinding the scales! So excited!!

[.MermaidSophia.]

Oh boy... the day is finally here. The day, if I was of drinking age, I would crack open a bottle of champagne and gorge myself on cookie dough until I couldn't move. Yes... It is that day. I AM FINISHED CARVING SCALES ON THE BODY MOLD.

After crunching some numbers, here is the approximate effort I have put into this [ahem] darn thing:

-more than 30 hours hunched over a chest high object, holding a heavy object I am trying to keep perfectly steady while carving as many scales as I can before either my neck pain becomes unbearable or the drill gets too hot to hold
-about 3000 7/8 of an inch individual scales covering the entire mold, which all have taken my complete concentration to carve, and are extremely frustrating to fix when you mess one up
-and then 4 months of this. 4 straight months of finally arriving at the end of your tediously long week of high school, and then knowing the only mermiading you will be doing is staring down at the end of a tiny dangerous drill bit!
-I am also fairly certain I have coal miner lungs now. anyone who has worked with plaster before can confirm that the stuff creates so. much. dust.

So here I am... finally past the worst of it. But these last few days of the home stretch have been horrible. In order to finish it this weekend, we had to MOVE THE MOLD. If you can only imagine how scary this was... I am only a few hours of work away from finishing, and we have to pack it up, drive it in a car down the horrible roads of springtime Vermont, set it up OUTSIDE propped between two questionable ladders, and chase off people, my chocolate lab (who just loves to run at you full speed spontaneously), and little sibling's remote control cars to finish the thing. Praise whatever angelic being that is in charge of protecting fragile things, because nothing happened to it.

Unfortunately, the tedious work is not finished. That drill leaves the most unattractive hole right in the middle of your scale, so I must now go back over each and every one of them and stuff that hole with plaster, then scrape away the extra with an exact-o knife. I'm not too upset about this though. It allows me to correct some of the mistakes I have made while drilling. It also won't take very long at all, as I can receive help offered by family members (thank you thank you thank you to my mother and brother!!). Most of the tail has already received this final treatment, and we only have about a thanksgiving platter sized area left to do on the thing.

So yeah, that basically sums up my weekend. This thing is starting to become all I can think about, which probably isn't a good thing. I've got finals coming up, so it might be up to two weeks before I can get the mold to a point where it is ready for glossing.




Happy mermaiding to all!

[Mermaid Kassandra]

Wow this project really catches the attention!
So far it's a very nice job, hope this will be a successful experience ��

[ladyofthelake]

Wow! Your mold is amazing! I'm following your progress! Hopefully you can splash it this summer!

[Aurelian]

Looks awesome! I'll definitely be following this thread!

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Ooo!

I had thought of making a monofin from silicone sheets at one time... I even asked about it but nobody at that time had made anything like it. I'll be sure to check in now and then to see your progress!