Duck Tape Double. Anyone here try it yet?

[decaturvader]

About 10 years ago, when I got my first costume (FX Trooper) I wondered how to display it.
I found a lady online who seemed to coin the phrase, Duck Tape Double. I did a quick Google search and found she's still around, but charging for her plans now.

I never got around to making on however.

Fast forward to today and now I HAVE to.

My new suit is forcing me to have a near exact clone of my actual body for modding and figuring it all out without stressing my family LOL.

her idea sounds quite doable and doesn't require chemicals :lol

The idea is to put on an old pair of sweatpants and long sleeve shirt. have someone start wrapping you like a mummy. Wrap horizontally first a couple layers, then vertically for strength. Once done, using scissors with that nice rounded edge, work your way under and start snipping a nice line and pull yourself out.
Afterwards, close the seam, inside and out with duck tape.
Now the fun part...filling it. Since she was only doing torsos, she used a cardboard shipping tube for a quick skeletal support and a coat hanger. Then she used some of that stuffing for pillows and stuff.
That's where I want to change things up. Mine won't have any feet...so, I want a pvc pipe skeleton. I will do the legs as a section, torso as another and perhaps arms as another and it will all go together in a typical hero/military pose.
I envision using something a bit more stronger than pillow stuffing....I thought about expandafoam...ya know, foam-in-a-can. Now, I know the stuff "expands", but I wonder if it will distort my duck tape double? I mean...with soooooo many layers of duck tape, will the tape strech or get out of its original shape?

So that's where I am at.
I will probably want to start on this thing tonite..at least get the duck taping part all done, then work on a pvc skeleton.

Thoughts and comments? Anyone been there, done that? :confused

 

[loganallenwolf]

I made one, I stuffed mine with polyfill and used a PVC Pipe skeleton and it retains its shape fine. The foam will definitely expand too much imho.

 

[decaturvader]

thanks for the input logan!
I guess the only real reason expandafoam even came to mind was strength and I really wasn't sure it would work...probably expand and bust the seams too as I think more about it.

Did you pack yours with polyfill really snuggly?
Can ya thump it with your finger or does it push in real easy?

 

[MaulWalker]

Sweat pants may make your double's legs too big. Use a pair of women's tights or even pantyhose.

Lynn

 

[decaturvader]

Sweat pants may make your double's legs too big. Use a pair of women's tights or even pantyhose.

Lynn

Hmm..true. Thanks for the tip.
I'm not really sure I need to be identical to me and the suit has a good level of tolerance on my build anyways.

If I get this thing built, its first purpose is to let me make adjustments and see how things fit on "me", without being on me :lol

Secondly, once all is said and done, it will be my mannequin for displaying the suit.

 

[Darth Mule]

I made a Duct tape torso last year and it has been indispensable so far.
However,
The experts say that paper tape (the stuff you have to wet to make work) is the best for this application. They say Duct tape stretches or shrinks or something. And their paper tape dummies do look nicer and smooth better. They also maintain their rigidity better without stuffing, so the polyfill would just be there to keep it from collapsing.

 

[decaturvader]

They say Duct tape stretches or shrinks or something..

Hmm..so this may not last for my mannequin idea afterwards...
Well, if the tolerance is good...I could give a light fiberglass coating before it becomes a mannequin maybe...

 

[Laffo]

Paper Tape and thrift store Longjohns, scrap wood Armature, stuff with Newspaper, shellac with Poly. Like a rock, $15.
Careful with the pantyhose or tights, leg hairs and such go through them and then get taped down. It sucks. Longjohns are much thinner and tighter than sweatpants, but stop the hair creepage.
Laffo.

 

[jackdoud]

I helped a friend make a duct tape torso a year or so ago. Standard old sweatshirt setup. Just be sure and get enough layers everywhere. Multiple colors of ductape could help, just cover each color as you go.

 

[The Wook]

Sweat pants may make your double's legs too big.

That's true. The most accurate way to do it is naked, just make sure to spray your hole body with Pam so it don't rip all your hairs out. My cousin Frankie did this and it worked out great except that there apparently wasn't enough Pam on his nutsack.

 

[coofunkcurly]

Is this the "paper tape" of which you speak?
http://www.dickblick.com/zz230/13/

 

[decaturvader]

Hmkay....decided on abandoning the duck tape. The Mrs. and I talked and talked last night and we are hitting the craft stores today for the paper method. I am assuming we can wet the tape, apply, and speed the process with a blow dryer.
Then the shellac coating...I envision a brush on application to give a reasonable shell-type coating....would a spray on application work as well I wonder....

 

[Darth Mule]

Is this the "paper tape" of which you speak?
http://www.dickblick.com/zz230/13/

That looks like the stuff.

Hmkay....decided on abandoning the duck tape. The Mrs. and I talked and talked last night and we are hitting the craft stores today for the paper method. I am assuming we can wet the tape, apply, and speed the process with a blow dryer.
Then the shellac coating...I envision a brush on application to give a reasonable shell-type coating....would a spray on application work as well I wonder....

Just remember to smooth it out well while you're working. You don't really even need the shellac. Paper tape dries pretty hard, but still lets you stick pins in it, which may not happen after shellac. If you ever want to be able to use it to fit costume pieces, the ability to stick pins in is a must.

 

[desolate]

i did this on my torso and arms..i caped the bottom and arms, then left the neck hole open.. i took a 30 pound weight and taped it to the bottom then i bought 3 bags of pillow stuffing and filled it until it was stiff everywhere then caped off the top with duct tape..

here is what i sculpted on it

i never finished it but it is a ongoing project still..

i hope that helps

 

[decaturvader]

well, leave it to Decatur....
My wife and I went out to buy a bunch of that paper...went to Hobby Lobby, JoAnn Fabrics, Walmart, etc.....

We felt like one of Jeff Dunham's puppets when they go, "mah-halla, mah-halla, mah-halla.............boom". LOL

These people had NO IDEA what we were talking about. I brought up the Dick Blick's webpage on my iPhone to show em and they were all like, "Ohhhhhhh, sorry we won't have anything like that".

Well good grief Charilie Brown.

So...ticked me right off. Three hours of driving around and wasted time....when I coulda been doing duck tape.

So that's what we did. While at Menards, bought 6 rolls of duck tape, parts to do a pvc skeleton....and after much debate....went to my original idea of foam in a can.

We figured we'd experiment and build just the waist-down and see how it goes. I used a tight pair of longjohns and got into pose.

They wrapped me in three layers.

Felt kinda weird...

My wife started using scissors to start cutting my escape, and ouch...she had an idea to use our little plastic letter opener that's shaped like Pac-Man. She worked one side of the opener between me and the material and walla...just like unzipping your coat!

As it came undone, it felt like a blood pressure cuff being released from your arm.

It taped back together very well, both inside and out and the darn thing nearly stood on its own. Amazingly cool for just being a bunch of tape.

I closed off the feet and we started filling it with foam....didn't go quite as expected.

I started by snipping a small hole in the calves, insert the straw and blast away. The stuff doesn't really "fill-up" like I thought. It kinda puddles up. As I moved away from making the smallholes, I just started to shoot foam downwards into the legs. Now, that worked pretty darn cool. The foam had a farther distance to go and really built up fast. Once we got up to my butt, we had went thru about 6 cans of foam so far...and the idea was quickly becoming unrealistic since we still have the upper body to build yet.

Then the problem. It got heavy. Yeah, real heavy. I stood for about an hour just supporting the darn thing...the foam just was not setting up as I thought. it was like I filled the duct tape pants with pudding.

We ended up getting a couple clamps and hung the thing.

After 3 hours, not much of a change in the foam...

Got up this morning and the foam had grown...it rose like bread in an oven and is now just a few inches from overflowing the pants.

BUT, the legs still feel soft.

I'd imagine since the duck tape is so tight, so airtight...the foam cannot cure. This was an unexpected side effect, or this stuff just takes this long to get hard.

On a good note, the foam did do as expected and the duck tape did keep shape where the foam got hard.....if the legs will just cure, it will be perfect.

Since this was moreless and experiment, I didn't bother trying to mess with the pvc mannequin.

I ought to start poking some small hole in the legs to let air in and if foam creeps out of the holes, just cut it off.

If it cures, then we'll proceed on the upper body, but I will fill it a much different way and use foam in a can sparingly.

 

[decaturvader]

ummm...update to my post this morning...
I decided to make some slits in the legs to let air in, to hopefully cure the foam.

Found a great deal of NO FOAM in the areas I thought were just uncured. LOL

Soooo, learning experience...I used my last couple cans and added more to some of these voided areas. If I baby it over the next couple days and fill the hit-n-miss spots, I can use these legs as a strong base.

I did slide my Iron man thigh pieces on it to see fit...whoa, fit really neat.

 

[MaulWalker]

If you ever want to be able to use it to fit costume pieces, the ability to stick pins in is a must.

You can always slip a T-shirt over the double and pin to that. It helps is the T-shirt is a size too small.

Lynn

 

[General Anesthesia]

Do you have to be taped in the exact pose as you want your mannequin to be in or can you adjust the pose after you have been taped up and cut out? I guess my question more specifically involves the upper torso than the lower.

 

[decaturvader]

I stood in a basic military pose for mine.
Seems I have to ditch the legs. This foam is simply not working out.
I got ticked off the other night...slit the back of the legs all the way open and used two more cans...it filled the cavity perfectly and I anticipated overflow from the seam that I'd just knock off. I put a few pieces of tape on it to keep it together, while still letting air out.
Next day when i got up...yup..as expected, I knocked off some overflow....but the legs were STILL soft!!!
I cut em open again to see what the heck is going on and the foam simply is not curing. What was full of foam (again) is no devoid...all that remains is some brown syrup crap.

Kinda at my wits end...it shouldn't have turned out to be such a fiasco. I'd love to know what is occuring that is making this foam only work in certain areas in this pair of duck tape legs...makes no sense.

I am gonna redo the legs and start building my pvc skeleton...and find a new method of packing it.

 

[UFO]

the brown syrup crap is the foam that didnt expand. the reason your stuff isnt curing, is because you used too much at one time. no matter how much air you let get to the stuff, its still trapped in a small space, with the weight of 6 cans of foam on top of it.
all you have to do, is use the foam in moderation. fill a little bit of the form, maybe an inch or two.... let that expand and cure, fill another inch or two, let it cure... lather, rinse, repete. it might take forever, but your deisred effect will be there.