Hands for mannequins that can hold things?

[Hecubus114]

If the mannequin is going to have gloves on - anyone know a good way to make decent looking hands that can hold smaller items? Thanks!

 

[Risu]

I'm starting to make a duct tape mannequin and while I don't need the hands to hold anything, I wanted them to look like real hands and hold potion inside the gloves, so I was thinking of rigging something up with wire from a hanger bent into the shapes of the fingers and maybe wrapping them in tape until they're the same size as fingers. That way you should be able to get the look of a real hand and pose it any way you want.

 

[nzjedi]

You could try poseable artist's reference hands

they come in a few different sizes.

 

[Skaught]

I made hands using MDF, clothes hangers and tubes. The MDF is cut for the main part of the hand and then wire clothes hangers are cut for fingers. I put rubber tubing over the wire to give the fingers shape and hot glue them at the tips.

Scott

 

[hankey01]

I'm starting to make a duct tape mannequin and while I don't need the hands to hold anything, I wanted them to look like real hands and hold potion inside the gloves, so I was thinking of rigging something up with wire from a hanger bent into the shapes of the fingers and maybe wrapping them in tape until they're the same size as fingers. That way you should be able to get the look of a real hand and pose it any way you want.

Exactly what I did.

 

[Hecubus114]

Thanks guys - I'll look into that stuff. I thought about the artists' hands, but I dont think they have any kind of tension in the fingers, so holding an item with those probably wouldnt work...

 

[noble]

I design gloves, and we have these display hands at work that work well.

They are more poseable than the artist hands.

Could post some picts next week.

 

[TD2878]

I use flexible copper wire with cork to replica each part of the finger and a hard foam piece for the palm. I used these on my vader mannequinn and they turned out great strong and flexible and very life like.

 

[robertrios10@msn.com]

Handiboy.com make some very realistic latex hands, some pre-formed as gripping - or some wire hangers and spray harded foam works too.

 

[RoCKo]

i found these pictures on the web, maybe they might help...

 

[Guardian Devil]

The pictures RoCKo posted are almost exactly what I did for all my displays. My Van Helsing is able to hold a pistol and a tojo-blade, Indy holds a whip and a sandbag, stormtrooper holds his blaster with no trouble at all...and so on!

I tried those artists hands originally and tried everything I could think of to get them to grip something, but short of glueing them in a fixed position (which kind of defeats the object) they're just so posable that they just wont keep hold of anything, they do their job too well! :lol

 

[noble]

Here's some picts of the hand display I use:







Can't find an online source, but I could ask our marketing person if
someone is interested in the source.

 

[yodakiller1138]

Ask Wampa. His site sells the foam mannequin hands with the wire inside so you can bend the fingers. Might be useful for what you need.

 

[Hecubus114]

noble - I would be very interested in knowing more about that hand.

yodakiller - I will cheeck his site, didnt know about those!

everyone else - thanks for the tips!

 

[Bothan Jedi]

i found these pictures on the web, maybe they might help...

Nice blast from the passed - those last three photos are of a mannequin I made 5 or 6 years ago.

The hands are still in use in a Vader mannequin I put together, they will grip stuff like saber, but the big problem is the weight and the arms sagging - just something to keep in mind when working on the overall solution.

 

[RoCKo]

ahh, glad to see the original builder, Bothan Jedi!
i hope you don´t mind i showed your pics here...

 

[darthwhitey]

Any updates on this?

Looking to find good strong hands that could grasp objects.

The DIY thing is always an option, but I wanna make sure I cover all the online options first.

thanks

brad

 

[rogue82]

Hi there. This subjuct is something I'll be looking to work on in the future but for now heres my thoughts. Create a mould of your hand then before you cast it, place a wire frame inside the mould so that when you pour the Gel silicone in it sets around the wire and the hand is now poseable. The wire frame could be made from coat hangers and would need to be roughly pre bent to the shape of however your hand was posed whist making the mould.

This Video shows the process. I'd be interested to know what you guys think.

 

[vaderdarth]

I'd be interested as well.

 

[Bothan Jedi]

There was a real cool Animatronic hand in the Instructables newsletter this week. Worth checking out

Simple Animatronics (robotic hand)