Two-tailed project! One fabric, one silicone

[Rett]

When I first read you were using gold/copper and blue I thought that there was no way they would look good. Boy was I wrong! You tail looks fantastic!!! And the colors look awesome together!!!! Love it!!!!

[Cordelia]

I love the look of the larger scales! Can't wait to see how it looks all together.

[Dancing Fish]

Taking a break from the problematic fluke to get Rowan's tail finished! She's decided to paint the fluke herself. So far, so good!

For anyone who wants to layer silicone on painted spandex...be aware that the spandex will lose 90% of its stretch and plan accordingly! This turned out a wee bit tighter than we planned.

[Dancing Fish]

Oh, argh. I stripped and scrubbed and scrubbed some more, then repainted with tinted silicone. That stupid patch in the middle left still didn't cure. I rubbed off the uncured bits and scrubbed again with alcohol, and tried again. Still. Won't. CURE!!! I give up. I will leave it brown, because that's the base color of the fluke, so it won't show too badly when peeling inevitably occurs. Now I'm just concerned because that's where I'll need to connect the fluke to the body. The scales might make a flappy loose section there. Perhaps a dab of silpoxy might help where the silicone itself isn't sufficient? I'll take any suggestions at this point... I do not want to have to repour this side!

One last possibility is that I'm using a newer batch of dragon skin. (Different lots not sticking together?). Has anyone had that issue? It's not the blue pigment after all, apparently.

So so here's the finished section... You can see the new shiny patch that I just redid. Again. Grr!

[PearlieMae]

II wish I knew!!! Have you contacted Smooth-On's tech support? They might be able to help!

[Dancing Fish]

Yeah... They're baffled too. It was probably the cheap Michaels clay I used for the sculpt. Though I still can't figure out why it's only affecting that one spot. I looked at the pic of the sculpt and there are three different colors in that section... No smoking gun there! And the other fluke is fine.

[Dancing Fish]

I gave it one more shot today, after scrubbing with dish soap, then water, then alcohol... Still. Sticky.

I have to repour it. I can't take the risk that the scales won't stick. On the bright side, I can use the blue color after all! Just... What a waste of silicone! But at least the obvious peel line won't be there, and I can say that I did all I could to save it.

[Mermaid Wesley]

You can use it to slap people with when they make fun of mermaids or as something else I guess.


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[Mermaid Kate Silverfin]

You could use it as a wall decoration perhaps? I would do that

[Dancing Fish]

LOL fish slap! Actually, my husband suggested the same thing! Rowan's been asking for a paint change. Maybe her wall needs a cool mermaid...or a sea serpent!

meanwhile, the new fluke has been poured, and so far no sticky spots. Woot! Back on track! To be honest I wasn't entirely satisfied with the blue side anyway. Now I can try something new! Hmm...

[Dreadful Mermaids]

This kind if reminds me of another mer who had fluke curing issues when it came to painting. I don't remember the thread off the top of my head but she was doing it with her monofin in the fluke and the monofin was the culprit. May I ask which monofin you are using again? I've heard before too that sometimes items in your environment even if it's in the same room or surface can effect curing as well. Just a thought.

[Dancing Fish]

That's a great idea, but I'm just using a simple Lexan sheet for a monofin, and it's not in there yet. I'm doing all this on my bitty dining room table and haven't had any other curing issues other than this one. I've ruled out everything I can think of! For all I know it was something we ate there! I'm just going to forge ahead and hope for the best.

[Dancing Fish]

OK. I'm going to be puttling fluke halves together soon! I'm just using Lexan as the monofin, using the Fin Fun monofin (which just has your feet resting against the plastic with neoprene ankle cuffs to hold them in place) as my inspiration. So here's my question:
Since the silicone will be tighter than the spandex tails, effectively holding everything in place, do I have to put anything else in the fluke to keep my feet from sliding around? Or can I just make the fluke out of the two silicone halves, feet resting against the mesh-covered plastic, without any kind of extra molded foot pocket or water shoe or whatever glued to the flat monofin? Or do I really need ankle cuffs to keep the feet in place?

And I'm still trying to figure out how the powermesh (substitute for lace) is going to work. Just cover the whole plastic piece in power mesh? Perhaps the feet should go UNDER the powermesh in the foot pocket area? GAH, this stuff is complicated.

[PearlieMae]

I'm thinking your curing issue might have been a small pocket of silicone that didn't get mixed completely. Otherwise, I'm baffled.

[Dancing Fish]

Yeah, that part of the fluke remained unusually sticky, even after I scrubbed it with dish soap and alcohol. There was something embedded in that portion that was just...off. Ah, well. I'm about to paint the replacement. Wish me luck!

[PearlieMae]

Fins crossed!

[Dancing Fish]

I just found this again: my original color scheme collage! It's turning out far less orange than I'd originally intended...more like the pic at the top right.

[PearlieMae]

Beautiful!!!

[Mermaid Clara]

I just found this again: my original color scheme collage! It's turning out far less orange than I'd originally intended...more like the pic at the top right.

love the colors!

[Dreadful Mermaids]

I love this.