Is there a hard rubber that can look like copper and steel?

[Atarian]

Not with a reflective chrome finish, or anything, but shiny enough to look like real copper and steel? I'm thinking something that comes in sheets. I'm looking to make, or have made, a Freddy Krueger glove that is safe for costuming and parties, and wont get me in trouble. I have a great metal replica, and the blades aren't sharpened or anything, but I'd like something I can pack in my bag and not get stopped at the airport with, lol.

Let me know if you guys have any ideas, or contact me if you are interested in taking the job on!

 

[sycor]

You would probably get stopped at the airport anyway. At least until they figured out it was resin.

 

[Atarian]

I'd prefer it to be all rubber (except the leather glove)

 

[motman241]

Why rubber specifically? There's plenty of other materials that are safe and not rubber. Wood, plastic, resin, foam, cardboard, etc.

 

[Atarian]

I don't want it to be at all dangerous. No poking hazard. I figure rubber is harmless, I don't want it to be confiscated for being "dangerous", or something.

 

[JDarko]

if you end up using a sturdier material than rubber, you could always do some layers of rub n buff. That would work fab on a freddy glove.

 

[motman241]

I don't want it to be at all dangerous. No poking hazard.

Go with the craft foam sheets (Foamies).

 

[Coz]

Craft foam is the way to go, I think. Rubber adhesive sticks this well, and superglue works too - tho some might react to either, so test first.

Thought about this myself, actually. Painted up one of those terrible novelty ones (Horror Claw, etc) for my brother in law for a halloween party. I considered tossing the whole thing at the time & starting over!

My plan was this: Use a cotton glove (purely for comfort), foam sheets & brass paper fastners for rivets. Grey foam for the blades, brown for the fingers & handplate (tho for accuracy, maybe yellow would be better! ;D ). Painting 'em anyhow, but if they get scratched it won't look so bad.

You could core the 'blades' with thin styrene or card, but two layers of foam might be plenty stiff enough without flopping around.
If you get the self-adhesive (peel & stick) foamies this is a cinch. Make 'em oversized a little, maybe - they'll look a little thick otherwise.

You can also use the self-adhesive on the handplate & fingers, either two layers (one sticky, one not) or use card to add a little body to it. Add the 'rings' onto the fingers & glue to the glove.
Also, use small strips of foam at the finger tip splits to reinforce it.

Slop some brown acrylic paint on the glove - a few coats to loose the fabric weave. Best to do this befor applying the fingers. If you've already cut the palm hole & frayed it a little, the acrylic paint with stop it fraying further.
Add a dirty black wash & smudge & dirty up.

Use a mix of a copper base coat, dark brass & pewter for the fingers & handplate, plus a hefty dirty brown / black wash. Bright silver for the blades & a brownis wash for that 'is it old blood or rust? look.

Here's a pattern I made up, no particular movie, but similar to FvsJ.

Print each at 6" wide and it should be the correct scale. You might want to make it slightly oversized for comfort.

Hope that helps!
Coz.

 

[Atarian]

Thanks for the info, guys. I may just end up shipping the glove to the hotel.

 

[Scottyknuckles]

Well if you are checking a bag just pack it in there. I just flew to sweden and then back with two freddy gloves packed in my checked in lugage... it was very easy and no one even questioned me once.

 

[PTK]

looks like you have everything under control, but just in case you are curious, i've worked on film projects that we were able to build foam body suits that looked like real chrome, its pretty simple, but expensive.....here's the jist of it.

build your piece out of L200 foam (not really something you can find at any craft store, you might have to order from a place that specializes in foam, luckily there are quite a few here in california)
L200 is great, comes in a variety of different thicknesses, comes in either black or white, i recommend black for "metal". It can be cut, shaped, sanded, even vac-formed.....the cell structure is so small that it doesn't leave a super spongy surface when you sand it, it acts more like a more solid material.
Once you've sanded your pieces as smooth as possible you can get it even smoother by just barely hitting it with a butane torch

now for the paint, i recommend using the flexible clear coat by Alsa corp....this adds a smoother glossy metal texture to the foam, but still lets the black foam show through, then just barely mist the surface with alsa corp's mirra chrome........if you wanted something more like steel or copper or gold or something you can use their candy colors on top of the chrome to alter the color, but still maintain that metal look..........if the piece won't be handled or bumped too much, then you are finished, but if you expect lots of wear and tear, go over it again with the flexible clear coat........this will bring a tiny bit of the chrome luster down, but that won't really matter unless the effect you are going for is a true high polished chrome look

and that's how you do metal foam stuff

but if you don't have hundreds to blow on a project, , just make supports for the blades out of some thin styrene, put a layer of black fun foam over it, hit it with some metalic spray paint, then bring out the edges with rub n buff


oh yeah, and if you were still interested in a rubber glove, build your model pieces and sand them glass smooth, mold them in silicone, then dust the mold with a super fine metallic powder (most good/specialty paint store carry it) and pour in a flexible black urethane, it'll pick up the metal and you can usually even buff the piece if you need to.


ok, i'll stop typing now

 

[Ham Salad]

This stuf sounds great! What do you glue it with? Will it take sewing?

 

[Atarian]

Wow, very informative! Thanks for the post, I'm sure it will come in handy!