Full Face Prosthetic Help! :\

[Jack of All Trades]

Frends looks AWESOME!! I'm definitely checking them out this weekend! Nigel's I read bad things about... But then again, never been there. MY WIFE AND i just MOVED to LA so it's kinda nice to find places like these. Thanks so much!

 

[SonOfPumpkinhead]

I've had nothing but GREAT experiences at Nigels and Nigel is often there himself and ALWAYS ready to jump in and help out. I've also heard from an industry professional friend of mine that they're mask making latex is THE best. Don't know where you read anything bad about them... I love Frends though as well and can get stuck looking around both places for far too long!

 

[Jack of All Trades]

Hmm, maybe I'll check them out too then... I read it on some yelp review or something like that online. Frends got great reviews but most of Nigels weren't very good. Especially for someone like me who is kinda new to this and has a butt load of questions.

 

[ptgreek]

Our studio is in Burbank and frequent all the available supply houses from Burmans and Silpak for more industrial supplies. Nigels has been our "go to" place for years, but I gotta admit that lately they have been slipping abit. Gotten bad batches of latex on numerous accounts and recently a polyfoam that ended up more of a rigid foam...locked a core into the casting ( sucked cutting that puppy off). As for makeup supplies, friends and Nigels are very comparable ...Friends seems to be upping their FX supplies lately, while Nigels shelves seem to be getting smaller. However, Nigel is the nicest of guys and always takes back or refunds product that may have gone bad...it's hit or miss, but living out here has it's benefits when gearing up

 

[Jack of All Trades]

I think I'll start with Frends and then make my way over to Nigel's depending on what I find. Based on browsing their websites, Frends seems to have more. But you never know til you go. Are the prices pretty comparable between the two?

 

[ptgreek]

Depends on the product ..some are very comparable ..in other cases Friends can be up to ten dollars more. Their product lately has been very reliable so the price is negligable

 

[Jack of All Trades]

Cool. I'll definitely be hitting up Frends then. They seem to have more too based on their website. So you have a studio in Burbank huh? What do you guys do?

 

[ptgreek]

EFX and MUFX studio for film and TV. Credits include Last of the Mohicans, Dogma, Requiem for a dream ..and many many others

 

[Jack of All Trades]

That's pretty sweet. It must be great doing something you enjoy for a living. Lol!

 

[Jack of All Trades]

Well, I did it. I went to Frends in North Hollywood. It was AWESOME! Like a kid in a candy store. I wanted everything! And they were so helpful! Above and beyond what you could hope for. Thanks for all the input everyone! I'll be sure to post some pics of what I did with my research as soon as I'm finished.

 

[ptgreek]

Right on ! ..pretty fun browsing all the potential materials, huh?

 

[Jack of All Trades]

Heck yeah! Makes me wanna try some of my own too. Also on my "To Do" List or "To Try" list is my own face life cast... I'd like to try my hand at making my own prosthetics...

 

[jp3rks]

Wouldn't spirit gum work for this?

 

[Jack of All Trades]

Spirit gum would probably work, however, I need it to stay pretty much all night with RIGOROUS activity. Almost like an all day performance.

 

[SonOfPumpkinhead]

Let me know if you decide to have your lifecast done.

 

[ptgreek]

Wouldn't spirit gum work for this?

ugh ..spirit gum? pancake syrup in a bottle. stick with prosaide

 

[Jack of All Trades]

Yeah, having done stage and various events which required beards and mustaches but real life required a freshly shaven face, I hadn't had the best experiences. Particularly with all day usage.

@ b89 - I'll definitely be asking for some pointers once I get around to life casting. I want to make a master mold so I can make a couple. It might scare the wife to have a few decapitated heads around the house, but it could also be fun.

Another question, as mentioned earlier, I plan to do some base coating to the prosthetic before actually gluing it to my face complete with freckles and texturing and so forth. I purchased some pre mixed PAX and it was suggested to me to first airbrush a layer of pros-aid and then my base coat of the pre-mixed PAX, then my detailing with alcohol based paints. Once dry powdering the whole thing. Does this sound right? If I plan on using an airbrush for the first part, should I cut the PAX or Pros-aid with anything?

 

[SonOfPumpkinhead]

This is a question I'm not POSITIVE on BUT when I do it, I just use the pax without a pros-aide layer (I'm pretty sure the principals of the pax and pros-aide are the same in this case), THEN powder, THEN AA makeup... ptgreek, correct me if I'm wrong?

 

[Jack of All Trades]

so then, do you powder again after the AA detail makeup to set it? And then set with a spray after it's applied?

 

[Jack of All Trades]

This weekend is "Prosthetic Painting Weekend" so I figured what the heck? Here's a bump for the road. Any other suggestions before I scamper off?

Just picked up this book too which looks pretty cool.

Amazon.com: Special Makeup Effects for Stage and Screen: Making and Applying Prosthetics eBook: Todd Debreceni: Kindle Store

Found out later that the FX Lab Forum had some suggested books posted on their site... This ones pretty informative tho.