Alien head - problem with tendons, the condoms are failing...

[xmr1]

Hiya,

I have a very nice Alien Warrior head made by Swampdonkey. He used condoms for the tendons. These looked great but being made out of latex they are crumbling now. Do you guys know of an alternative that hold up better than latex condoms but look equally good? What glue would work best to attach condoms?

I know there are latex-free condoms but I have no idea if the material is more durable...

Thanks for all input!

 

[DivideByZero]

Latex is pretty durable, however, if it was glued with something or painted with something that reacts with the latex it will cause it to decay. Any idea what was used?

Is this by chance one of the alien heads where the guy went missing for ages? Is that all sorted now?

 

[xmr1]

Yes, that's the one. I had no problems getting my head. From what I've read he appeared again.
He painted the condoms, maybe that's the reason for them to crumble. But are latex condoms really that durable? They are dry, very thin and are glued under stress. Before attaching new ones I'd like to think about alternatives...
Is there a glue that doesn'tmaffect the latex?

 

[SwampDonkey]

Mysteriously missing "Alien Head Guy" here:

Yes, I had some rather scary and unexpected medical issues pop up and had to spend a few months in Houston during treatment. I really did have to drop everything and leave in order to have all manner of horrific alien experiments conducted on me. It sucked. BAD. Since im getting my blood work done locally now, I'll be around to help you guys sort through these issues.

About those tendons: IN order to get them to stick to the urethane I had to toss them in a big jar with water and a dash of dishsoap and shake the hell out of them to get all the lube off of them. After they were totally cleaned and dried, they were cut to size, glued, and painted to match the head.
The enamel paint worked fantastically with the latex. But unfortunately, the enamel-acrylic clear coat tended to dry it out and cause cracks over time.
One way to combat this (as Ive learned) is to paint the tendons normally, then hit it with a pure clear enamel gloss. After drying for a day or two, spray a little silicone oil on a rag and Q-tip to coat the latex areas.

Another experiment I tried out was mixing acrylic with clear RTV silicone and dry brushing the tendons. Worked great but I had to run off before I really had a chance to test it long term.

Hope this helps!

SD

 

[xmr1]

I'll just try that out! What's the best glue to attach them?

 

[DivideByZero]

Good to see you are back SwampDonkey and all the best with your health moving forward. Being a bit of a noob here I have only read a handful of threads on this forum and that sale one happened to be one of those few. Nice work on the Alien head by the way!

xmr1 - There are some specialist latex glues you can use but I have no idea about where you get these from. In the UK, we find all this specialist stuff hard to come by so no idea what it's like out there? Dymax Blog ? Adhesives, Light-Curing Systems, Dispensing Equipment, and Oligomers What adhesives can I use to bond Polyurethane?

I am sure that someone will know of a standard glue that will work just as good though. Interested to find out what you use.