Lorelei's First Silicone Tail Attempt!

[Mermaid Lorelei]

I'm back! My vacation was amazing, but I'm definitely glad to be home.

Thank you to everyone who has been wishing me well. <3

Lorelei I don't think I have your sculpting talents. Do you think I could pour the shell shock over a construct of fused wire tubes shaped in the form of fluke/fins and use that as the mold?

Anyone can sculpt. It just takes practice dear. As for everything else, I have responded to the PM you sent.

In progress news, both sides of my fluke are attached to my monofin. I still have to add a bit more silicone to seal it all up though. I've also poured the first scale sheet. It should be ready in a few hours. Yay. And all of my side fins are poured and ready. :> It's nice to be working on this again.

[Winged Mermaid]

Lorelei I don't think I have your sculpting talents. Do you think I could pour the shell shock over a construct of fused wire tubes shaped in the form of fluke/fins and use that as the mold?

I'm not sure about the shell shock, but the tubes glued together works for Mike Van Daal! That's how he made his original flukes To be specific, over 200 1/4'' vinyl tubes, cut and super glued together.

[Mermaid Lorelei]

So I pulled up my scale sheet yesterday. It's awesome. And I love it. I wrapped myself up in it yesterday cause I got so freaking excited. X'D I've started cutting it to shape, and I'll be pouring the rest of the scales later today I hope.
My fluke is one solid piece, by the way. :3 It's a bit heavy, but I can still lift it above my head without much effort. I'm hoping in the water it will be weightless.
I'll try and take some pictures for you guys later.

[Merman_Shawn]

Lorelei, are you making it smaller than your actual measurements at the waist to get a nice snug fit(and avoid flapping silicone), or are you cutting it to your real measurement?

[Mermaid Lorelei]

I'm probably going to take it in just a touch. If you take it in too much, you get love handles, no matter how little fat you have on your waist. I'm also tempted to add an elastic strip to the back to help keep it tight on the bum.

[Merman_Shawn]

I'm probably going to take it in just a touch. If you take it in too much, you get love handles, no matter how little fat you have on your waist. I'm also tempted to add an elastic strip to the back to help keep it tight on the bum.

Very true. I was watching some vids of silicone tails in the water and noticed the "flapping" at the waist. Your plan sounds good.

[Mermaid Lorelei]

Yeah, I personally hate the flappy-butt syndrome that a lot of tails seem to suffer from. And I really don't want to HAVE to wear a belt to keep my waist looking good.

[Keiris]

LOL! " Flappy Butt Syndrome??" Thanks for the head's up on that so I can try and avoid it when I get this thing cookin'! How many seams do you think you'll have Lorelei?

[Mermaid Lorelei]

I'm hoping to have two seams at the most. If my scale mold was wider, I could have gotten away with one seam, but hey, you learn as you go.

[Mermaid Lorelei]

So. I've learned a lot in the last few days.
First, be careful when ordering anything. I managed to order Dragonskin FX Pro instead of Dragonskin 10. Thankfully it is working just fine, but it could have easily been a disaster. So yeah. Double check your orders EVERY TIME.
Second, I think I like FX Pro better. XD Ironic much.
Third, I've made a successful mold of a life size starfish, after an unsuccessful attempt at making a shell mold. Anyways, I can now make silicone starfish for whatever I want (like bras, jewelry, etc.)
I'm going to try again on the shell mold, because I would like to be able to make those in silicone as well.
Fourth, Take your time! I seriously rushed on my shell mold and now I have to throw the whole dang thing out. It's worth it to take a few minutes to make sure you're doing everything right.
Fifth, ... I don't know. I can't even remember everything I learned. :P Oh well. It'll come to me eventually.
But, for all of you keeping track, yes, I've made tail progress. Tomorrow (after my college classes get out) I'll be gluing scales together. :>

[Mermaid Lorelei]

Pictures!

Here's my fluke. It hasn't been painted yet, and I still have to attach the scales, but you can get the idea. All of the color you see was mixed into the silicone when it was originally poured.


And here are the scales. I shot it in grayscale to keep the final colors somewhat a mystery. ;P

[Mermaid Saphira]

^ lookign good!

[Stillwater]

Things are looking very nice!

I can't wait to see the finished tail.

[lasserine]

Pretty, cant wait to see it finished.

[Blondie]

It's looking so perfect! I'm really loving your fluke.

[Mermaid Lorelei]

Arg! I'm at the stage where I start gluing the seams together, but it's proving to be one heck of a seriously annoying venture. It just doesn't want to work. :X

[Felicia]

Everything looks really cool so far I can't wait to see when it done

[Keiris]

Are you using more Dragonskin as glue for the seams or something else?

[Mermaid Star]

The seams were tough for me too. I had to use a lot of clamps. Also, if you clamp wrong the tail puckers and doesn't look right, (ie the ridges that Mertailor tails used to have on the sides of them when he first started making silicone tails.)

[Mermaid Lorelei]

Woo, I figured it out! I have part of a seam done now. -happy dance-

And to answer your question, yes, I'm just using more dragonskin. :>

Yeah, that was part of the problem I was having, Star. I couldn't seem to get the puckering to go away, but I've got it now.