Two-tailed project! One fabric, one silicone

[Yulia]

That colorscheme is so cool! Wow!

[Fifi Tigg]

Looking so beautiful!

[PearlieMae]

Sweet! The big scales are awesome! It looks like an Arawona (sp?) fish! Nicely done!

[Mermaid Wesley]

Oh wow! I normally don't like huge scales but I really digging this!!


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[Dreadful Mermaids]

This is totally awesome. I love your creativity. The big scales make it more eye catching. I can't wait to see how you mix in the blue ones with it. So excited.

[Mermaid Alea]

I agree with Wesley those are some wonderful huge scales and I am usually iffy on the huge scales.

The colors are wonderful as well!

[Merman Arion]

oh fuck... THIS IS AMAZING!!! I'm blown away!

FINISH IT!!! I want to see more!

[Rebekah.fish]

This is so awesome!!

[Mermaid Julianne]

I LOVE THE COLORS! It looks so cool, like nothing I've ever seen before. Can't wait to see it done!

[Dancing Fish]

Thanks guys! There's no way I'd have kept up with this project without this forum and all the advice and your encouragement!

[PearlieMae]

I so didn't see your slime coat question!

I don't thin the topcoat at all! First, I wipe down the tail with 91% isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol - I use the 91% because it has less water and dries faster, and it gets all the cat hair off of it), then I mix small amount of Dragonskin, about 2 oz at a time, and smear it on with my fingers, working it into the crevices. Comes out all nice and shiny! BUT it doesn't stay glass-like shiny for long, just using the tail will dull that shine a little, there's nothing you can do about that. But it seals everything together and you look very fishlike! Before adding the fluke, turn it inside out and coat the inside well, too, so you don't have any pockets for water to collect or mold to grow.

It looks awesome! These are the arawona fish I mentioned before:

[Keiris]

Pearlie those fish are just GORGEOUS!!!!!

[Dancing Fish]

Oh, WOW. Now I wish I'd done a search for those fish before choosing my color scheme. On the other hand, I like my color scheme.
Pearlie, your suggestion was brilliant-- I've been afraid to touch uncured silicone with my hands, but if you do it, then I'll do it too. It works great and there's no need for that weird thinner!

I ran into a weird problem today, though. For the first time EVER, I've got patches of my topcoat not curing properly. Now I am putting it on top of a layer of silicone covered with powdered pigment (the way Tigg colors her tails), but that's never been a problem before. All my scales and the other fluke's topcoats turned out fine. I have no idea what's causing it. The pearl-ex blue seems to be the culprit. But it cured just fine in most areas, even blue. I guess there's just a patch here and there of unmixed part A/B, like I didn't stir it enough. It's very irritating! I mostly fixed it up, but you can totally see the border where I had to scrub/peel that uncured layer off. Oh well!

[Yulia]

Fish have scrubs too! When it's done no one will notice.

[Dancing Fish]

I'll just tell everyone I'm recovering from Ich.
The repair didn't work-- it still failed to cure. I'm baffled. I've peeled off the affected area and will try again. Argh.

[Mermaid Kate Silverfin]

Maybe try wiping the area down with isopropyl alcohol? It often helps it bond better and may help remove any contaminants. That is super strange though!

[Ashe]

This is looking absolutely amazing! And the colors, oh wow Actually used some of the same colors on my own tail! So be warned, the gold you're using may look very yellow in pictures with a lot of sun and underwater. I have a little album if you want to check it out

[PearlieMae]

Oh shit! I can't imagine why it's not curing! Mixing is the only thing I can think of, other than a pigment incompatibility.

You have to be careful applying a topcoat over powdered pigment, the pigment will act as a release! I had some beautiful scales that totally split into layers because the pigment didn't let the silicone bond to the lower layer! I had to cut out whole sections of scales and replace them! Now I am really careful to leave enough bare silicone around when I dry brush any pigment onto pieces, so the topcoat will adhere and seal together. I've also had topcoats peel like sunburn because I didn't clean the silicone with alcohol just before I topcoated it.

[Dancing Fish]

Oh shit! I can't imagine why it's not curing! Mixing is the only thing I can think of, other than a pigment incompatibility.

You have to be careful applying a topcoat over powdered pigment, the pigment will act as a release! I had some beautiful scales that totally split into layers because the pigment didn't let the silicone bond to the lower layer! I had to cut out whole sections of scales and replace them! Now I am really careful to leave enough bare silicone around when I dry brush any pigment onto pieces, so the topcoat will adhere and seal together. I've also had topcoats peel like sunburn because I didn't clean the silicone with alcohol just before I topcoated it.

Yeah, that's probably going to be a huge problem in the future. The scales are fine, but the fluke may peel eventually if I'm not careful with it. On the other hand, it looks so gorgeous! And I can't seem to get good pigmentation just by sticking it in the silicone, even for really thin coats. Oh, well, it's just a personal tail. I can always replace the fluke if needed.

[Keiris]

It's so beautiful, Dancing Fish! Once the problem areas are cleaned with alcohol, you can't paint on more pigmented silicone to get the blue you want?