POTC OST tail with Neoprene base

[Mermaid Dottie]

Oh, Calypso! I love you!


it does look pretty good, doesn't it.
You were a huge help.

[Prince Calypso]

*smiles and blushes*
Thank you sweety. love you too

[Mermaid Dottie]

Soooo, I need some help...
Besides it being WAAAY too big(Which I can totally fix),
The paint job looks TERRIBLE in the water....


It's supposed to look more like my avatar, and less like poo green...

[Mermaid Tula]

Hmmm. Maybe you could get some gold acrylic paint, mix it with fabric medium and paint in the scales with it?

[devilkitten1]

Ok, the red looks spot on! Which brand of paint did you use? I know everyone else use Luminere, (I think i misspelled that name).

[MerEmma]

With the color issue, do you think it might just have been the time of day? The day looks closer to evening and not in the bright sunny daylight, which I think would probably make it brighter...not sure. Good luck, I don't know much about painting though. ):

[Mermaid Dottie]

What I've got on there is Simply Spray, Gold Glimmer.
It's a metallic gold fabric paint, on top of a coat of simply spray Brite Yellow.
It looked really good before.... now it looks green....
The red is just a fabric marker.

[Mermaid Allie]

Yeah painting some gold sounds good! Also I LOVE THE FLUKE SHAPE AAH

[Mermaid Allie]

Hey Dottie would you mind if I used the same scale pattern/method as you on my tail? If it bothers you don't worry about it ill find another one!

[Spindrift]

Maybe opaque shiny fabric (gold) - either cut to the scales, or to replace the black lining. I think you're getting the problem because you used a black base underneath the tail skin and the black shows through in water.

[Mermaid Dottie]

Oh, thank you! I I'm debating on turning it into an ariel tail, now that it's greenish anyway..... The problem is the red....

[Mermaid Dottie]

Hey Dottie would you mind if I used the same scale pattern/method as you on my tail? If it bothers you don't worry about it ill find another one!

Go right ahead. I posted the template a couple pages back.

Maybe opaque shiny fabric (gold) - either cut to the scales, or to replace the black lining. I think you're getting the problem because you used a black base underneath the tail skin and the black shows through in water.

That's the neoprene. it came that way. Black rubber neoprene with a beige fabric-y lining.

[Prince Calypso]

I was afraid that would happen. the fabric gets darker when wet.
a think a gold overlay done repeatedly might fix the problem
This is one of the reason i was always kinda iffy about using just a neoprene base for a tail

[Mermaid Dottie]

Yeah, but your tail is going to be EPIC. I''m so excited to see that all come together. ♫♥♪♥♫
I put TONS of metallic gold and gold glitter paint on top, and once I get a little cash together I'm gonna go buy more and do it again and again until it's so golden, you won't even be able to look at it when the sun shine on my scales.
Or maybe I'll just brighten it up with yellow/white fabric paint.
Here's what it looks like now:

I need to retrace my scale outlines, but I was expecting that anyway.

[Mermaid Allie]

Crossing my fins the gold works!!

[Mermaid Dottie]

Same here. At least it will shine pretty? and if not, I'm spraying the whole dang thing red, and buying some dragon skin with flippin yellow/orange pigments to do scales on it THAT way.

[Mermaid Allie]

Hahaha not a bad idea actually! This tail would look cool red

[Mermaid Dottie]

I'm hopin it'll come out like this

but with opposite colors... yellow on top of red.

Update: So After my painting-smear-fest, I cut it open and took it in (several) inches and added the fins that you see above. I then sealed my seams with Aquaseal. Today I trimmed my side fins down and stitched them together, the burn/melted the outer edges for a more natural look. This hides my seams, some.
I also re-inserted the fluke, and glued the neoprene together at the bottom and down onto the fabric. I'm currently waiting for my aquaseal to dry. Then, I decided that I randomly wanted a red swim bottom to wear underneath it. So I made a '50's style swim bottom out of some leftover red spandex I had lying about. I'll take pictures later, when my phone is charged. It came out way cute, though, and is nice and tight, like a competition suit. ^_^
Oh, and I forgot to mention; I also trimmed the top of my tail (finally) to reflect the shape of the scales.
I'm excited to see how it all looks now.

I mean aside from the paint, This project was really fun, and went well.

[Mermaid Tula]

Can't wait to see!

[spottedcatfish]

Oh, Calypso! I love you!


it does look pretty good, doesn't it.
You were a huge help.

Her tail in this picture looks similar to how Mermaid Shelly does her neoprene painted tails.