Rigid full body dummy?

Hoverboots

Member
I've been meaning to make myself another duct tape dummy for a while now, and I got to thinking; Is there some sort of expanding rigid foam I could put inside it to create a hard body? Or some other filler other than bubble wrap or something else floppy, I'd really like something solid to work with and was curious if any of the brilliant minds on here had any ideas.
 
The main thing that comes to mind with using an expanding foam is that it's going to cause a fair bit of bloat in areas that aren't cylindrical like the torso, and to a lesser extent, muscles of the arms, upper legs, etc. Otherwise, I'd look at a can of the home insulation foam 'great stuff' or similar and see what's in it to try and find it in bulk. Otherwise, a resin that will dissolve a lot of gas at high pressure. Last thing would be unexpanded polystyrene beads. Not sure, but I think those are heat set, I also don't know where you'd find a person sized oven...

How do you feel about drawing and quartering yourself? :D

More seriously, a heat gun might work. I haven't worked much with expanding foams, just throwing out ideas.
 
I have not made a duct tape dummy, but as it is flexible, expanding foam will distort it. As mentioned above, Great Stuff could be used as a stiffener, but then again, so could resin. Working in small batches at a time, coat the inside of the duct tape until you have built up enough thickness that you have a mannequin.
 
If you want expanding foam, check out US Composites. I found their prices to be pretty good. But Clonesix is right about it expanding and distorting areas of the dummy. Best go in small batches and give it room to expand (upward) in the dummy as you go.
 
i'm another for teh expanding foam. look online as foam comes in different rates of expantion so you may want a 2:1 rate in the uk i use a shop called flints and they have 2part polyerathrane expanding foam. i hope this helps
 
A little great stuff goes a long way at times so you'd have to work slowly. I also learned a trick from the company that makes it that when you're done soak a pipe cleaner in wd40 and stick it in the tube that the foam comes out of. it forms a seal that stops it from drying so you can use the rest later.
 
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