How to foam my skin

[mortenharket]

Ive been looking through all the various threads on foaming and found a few on masks but none on skin (sorry if im missing an obvious thread) was just wondering if I could get some poniters before I start foaming my skin to make sure it fits right. Now, I was thinking of making a duct tape dummy and inserting it into the cavity of the skin, zipping the skin up, sealing the bottom of the arms and pouring polyurethane foam in. Or is there an easier way to do it? Can I just mix little bits at a time and pour it into the chest area for example and using a tool to spread the foam into the required areas as it expands? How long does it stay workable for (Its soft 1.2kg polyurethane foam)? Basically I need to foam the chest a little and the whole of the arms.

Any pointers would be really appreciated

Thanks.

 

[xdmray]

man i would just put in upholstery foam instead. you would just glue in the pieces as needed.

does anyone use expanding foam for the body suits?

 

[afedorniak]

i basically cast my body to get a tighter fit,i now have the moulds so will be doing another skin next year as my first prototype is a tad on the heavy side,but i also used upholstry foam to aid in places!!!

 

[4505marcel]

THe only thing id say about upholstery foam is when the skin is rinsed out after use the foam soaks up the water. I was thinking about pourable foam this time also for my next skin so it can be washed without soaking up water, as the porabe stuff seems to be water repelant.
I was just gunna pour in a little at at time as you mention and tool it in, not sure if it will work though

 

[hez1]

I was thinking about pouring polyurethane foam into mine too, but gave it up as excessively complicated. The stuff only stays workable for 20 seconds or so, and unless you have the skin still in the mold, there is the possibility of distortion if the foam doesn't end up quite where you wanted it to be. I'm debating now between upholstery foam, or wearing a Mr.I suit under the skin for padding. You could easily attach upholstery foam with velcro if you wanted to avoid the problems Marcel mentioned about it absorbing water when you rinse it.

 

[xdmray]

i think paul has the best answer, use a Mr I suit or something comparable. you can take it out and wash separately .

i said upholstery foam because having worked with the expanding foam a lot i know how difficult it can be. and trying to do something as big as a body seemed like way to much work to me.
plus just trying to rotate the suit around with the rest of it flopping around...... no thank you...

 

[ptgreek]

Ok ..here's the deal with two part expanding foam. First it is an adhesive by nature ..that being said, if you stick anything inside as a core or that needs to be removed, it needs to be coated in foam release. It can be poured in small batches on to your skin, out of the mold.... but it's work time is fast ..only spread it right after the pour ...then let it expand to run into itself ...if you touch it too long after it begins to kick, it will collapse on itself and the end result will be a hard area that wont conform to your own body. Now ...for the upholstery foam idea ..it works just fine as well ..cut the desired pieces and use super 77 spray adhesive to both the foam side and to the skin ..let it air dry for about a minute to get tacky ..then apply. If the foam gets saturated with sweat, etc. you can always pull it out and do it again.

 

[TuaCathach]

uphoalstery foam .. glue it in... then latex over it... ta da.....

 

[mortenharket]

thanks for all the excellent tips everyone. I've ordered some foam as I need to adjust my medkit and foam my mask anyway. But i have an old muscle suit that I can try before anything else. Just wasnt sure on what the pro's do.

 

[4505marcel]

I brought one of the uber expensive muscle suit from Ebay that some comic costume guys sells, it looked great but cost me over £400 ( i know silly amount of money) as my last set of skins were huge, couldnt pull the skin on while wearing the suit as the muscles seem to snag and pull. So I sold the skins on as I thought thats that, but my mate has told me since that the batman guys use talc can stop that problem and to aid getting on. So I may go back to that solution, but it looks like Scott new P1 and Bobs mr black are more average size fit so maybe I wont need nothing when I get my hands on those bad boys

 

[mortenharket]

Thats all great advice everyone, thanks again. I dug out my old spidey muscle suit and it fills most gaps nicely. But I will put a little foam in the biceps to fully fill them and its all good The skin creases in very few places now.

I just didnt want to try and re-write the book or do something over complicated