Revamping a fabric tail using Seatan's method

[MermanOliver]

Finally I found both the time and the courage to start impregnating my good ol' tailskin with silicone. I'm using Dragonskin 10 medium and a paint roller for solvent-based paint as spreader. The workplace is protected by heavy-duty plastic foil, and the same foil went into the tail as separator to keep the front and the back from fusing with the silicone.

The amount of silicone to create that patch (about 20cm by 50cm) was just 50ml (25ml part A and 25ml part B), so that method is really silicone-saving. And as a benefit the silicone coating restores some of the lost shine on the holographic print.

Here are some pictures of my workspace:

The spreader (paint roller):


Tail on the workspace:


Detail of the patch with a metric folding rule for reference:


More to come!

[MermanOliver]

The first coat went well without any issues, but today it got a little messy.
Tried a bigger batch of silicone without realizing that the separator foil wasn't big enough for the new patch. Had to rearrange the foil with the tailskin soaked in freshly applied silicone without smearing it all over the place and doing it fast enough before it all cures.
Well, it seems that the separator principle has to be thought over...
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[Hydra1337]

That's a really cool idea. =)

How thick will the silicone be once the whole tail is coated? And will the silicone stretch because of the base material or will it keep its shape?

[MermanOliver]

That's a really cool idea. =)

How thick will the silicone be once the whole tail is coated? And will the silicone stretch because of the base material or will it keep its shape?

This isn't my original idea, I followed Seavanna. Actually there are some more tails like this around (Keiris, I think, did another one with a really nice fluke). I am just documenting my progress and mishaps on my own tail here.
The silicone is quite thin if everything works out as planned, about half a millimeter to one millimeter at most. Just thick enough to coat and seal the fabric and not to rub off. The shape will be defined by the underlying fabric.
The samples I did behaved more like thick pieces of cloth than silicone rubber and they didn't lose much stretch compared to the original material, so I expect the finished tail to behave more like a fabric tail when dressing up and swimming while having a smooth texture on land.

[hellocourtney]

I'm going to be doing a similar thing to my tail (I was so excited when you updated your thread again!) and I'm planning on cutting a large piece of corrugated plastic to shape and putting in my tail as a separator.
When my silicone arrives this week I'll do some tests and update you if you like?

[Hydra1337]

I saw that it was Seavanna's; I'm steadily going through her tailmaking thread.

I'm going to be doing a similar thing to my tail (I was so excited when you updated your thread again!) and I'm planning on cutting a large piece of corrugated plastic to shape and putting in my tail as a separator.
When my silicone arrives this week I'll do some tests and update you if you like?

I'd definitely like to see updates on that.

[Mermaid Mystery]

This is going to be awesome! Just a quick note, I do believe that Seavanna goes by Seatan now and uses he/him pronouns. Otherwise keep it up! I'm excited to see how this turns out!

[Hydra1337]

This is going to be awesome! Just a quick note, I do believe that Seavanna goes by Seatan now and uses he/him pronouns. Otherwise keep it up! I'm excited to see how this turns out!

I looked at the thread again and you're right. My apologies to Seatan if you're reading this.

[Mermaid Wesley]

I can change the title if you like


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[Hydra1337]

Good idea. I think that would help prevent more confusion.

(Sorry for derailing the thread by the way)

[MermanOliver]

...Just a quick note, I do believe that Seavanna goes by Seatan now and uses he/him pronouns. ...

Oops, I haven't noticed that until now, sorry.
@Wesley, please feel free to rename the thread.
@Seatan: Please accept my apologies.
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[MermanOliver]

Did another layer of silicone coating. Oh boy... My respect for tailmakers is growing every second. A reputable maker asks some 2500 dollars plus for a full silicone tail? Pay it, and give a more than genorous tip! The artists (and that's exactly what they are) have more than earned it.

So, back to topic. The coating went more or less well:

• Cut the separator to the shape of the tail and inserted it.
• Started mixing and pouring silicone, but the open time appeared quite short. Maybe it's better to use slow cure next time (Question to the experts: Can you mix different cure speeds of Dragonskin in a project without issues?).
• Modified the procedure: Pour the mix roughly on the fabric, spread it with a wooden stick and even out the texture with the roller. Works quite well.
• Batch size is 100ml mixed silicone max (50ml A, 50ml B) at the moment, seems to be a good trade-off between progress and workability (i.e. the silicone curing before spreading has finished) with medium cure.
• Room temperature is 18°C.

Recorded a time-lapse and will put it online when editing is done.

See ya!

[Mermaid Wesley]

I love when people start making their own tails and at some point they always start appreciating professional tailmakers more lol. I think you can mix cute speeds but for your thing I would advise against it, just in case it peels apart or something


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[PearlieMae]

You can mix different cure-rate Dragonskin, just don't use fast part A and slow part B. Try and keep ratios even.

[MermanOliver]

The timelapse video is up!


The pics were taken with my trusty Hero3, timelapse rendering was done in Blender, including the audio track. The workflow is quite challenging, but allows for a whole lot of options (color correction, cropping, titles, special effects etc.), although in this video I just scaled and cropped the pictures to fit the 16:9 HD format (time was, as always, the limiting factor). Maybe I'll do a tutorial how to color correct and cut especially underwater footage sometimes later on (still learning, so don't judge by the other videos on my channel ).

[Hydra1337]

Very cool! I love watching timelapse videos.

[Mermaid Wesley]

Nice!


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[hellocourtney]

Looking good! Can't wait to see it finished

[MermanOliver]

I'm going to be doing a similar thing to my tail (I was so excited when you updated your thread again!) and I'm planning on cutting a large piece of corrugated plastic to shape and putting in my tail as a separator.
When my silicone arrives this week I'll do some tests and update you if you like?

Of course, please feel free to share your experience! The cut-out plastic foil works more or less, but doesn't seem to be the best solution.

And sorry for replying with such a delay.

[MermanOliver]

Making good progress on the coating. Front is more or less done, and the back is coated in large parts, too. With every batch of silicone working with it gets easier and easier. If you try to push it the silicone resits, but if you work with it and not against, it just floats smoothly and does what you want (in fact, much like swimming with your tail: don't force your way through the water, be one with it ).

EDIT: P.S.: Progress will go slowly from now, I ran out of silicone and the new batch is on back-order....