JFcustom's FOAM files

[laellee]

I've been a Lair member for many years now, and have made four separate Pred suits, all on a small budget, for use in making fan films. We at the Lair are always happy to help with any Pred questions.

There are two basic ways that most people make their Pred dreadlocks......

....Hope that helps.

Great post on the dreads. They look great, and beat the heck out of paying what I've seen some places asking for them (as in $200). :thumbsup

 

[lordchammon]

I've been a Lair member for many years now, and have made four separate Pred suits, all on a small budget, for use in making fan films. We at the Lair are always happy to help with any Pred questions.

There are two basic ways that most people make their Pred dreadlocks. The first is to cast them in foam latex. That is pricey and takes some skill. The other way, which takes less skill and is cheaper, is to use "backer rod", also called "caulking tube", which is lengths of foam-rubber rope that are used to seal the cracks in walls before plastering or spackling over them. You can find backer rod online, or in most hardware depots. When I use it, I cut a long taper into each end; some people use hot water to melt them into a tapering end. Some people coat their backer rod dreads with Plastidip; some don't. Some people use the same size backer rod on all their dreads; some make the dreads at the sides of the mask thinner and shorter, and the ones at the back of the mask longer and fatter.

For the rings that slide up onto the dreadlocks (known as "dread beads") I have cast my own from resin, made them from PVC pipe or copper plumbing connectors, and cut them from a Halloween "skull/spine beer tube".

Photos of my Pred masks, to make all this clearer:

View attachment 254812

Pred mask made from posterboard, with dreadlocks made from backer rod and cast-resin dread rings.

View attachment 254813

Pred mask made from posterboard and foamie sheet, with dreadlocks made of thicker backer rod, and dread beads made from PVC pipe couplings decorated with three-dimensional fabric paint.

View attachment 254815

Pred mask made from a modified pepakura coated with fiberglass resin, with dreadlocks made from thinner backer rod, and dread beads made from segments of a Halloween "skull/spine" beer funnel.

View attachment 254816

Pred mask made from the plastic "blister pack" of a Halloween demon mask, with dreadlocks made from thin backer rod and cast-resin dread beads.

View attachment 254817

Pred face mask made from a modified Rubies Halloween mask--I added dreadlocks made from backer rod and dread beads from cast resin, and also added inner teeth made from a Halloween "werewolf" set and mandible fangs cast in resin.

You can see three of my complete pred suits in action in one of my fan films, here (the 3 preds show up at the 6-minute mark):

Predators: The Hunt - YouTube

Hope that helps.

Great tips, great helmets and great suits ... thanks

The conclusion for dreadlocks is: build them as you want... lol

 

[Lflank]

Great post on the dreads. They look great, and beat the heck out of paying what I've seen some places asking for them (as in $200). :thumbsup

Well, the $200 ones look great too. But it is indeed possible to make good-looking dreads on a budget.

 

[Durkness]

I've never spent $200 on a suit let alone some dreads. Thanks for sharing.

 

[JFcustom]

1000 thanks Lflank for your post !:love

Well I've nowhere found any sewed dreads filled with anything... so, I'll try that.
And the diameter question will find its answer by itself : from my sewing skills I have no way to get so many identical dreads anyway.

 

[Mig407]

thought this video might help.

Make predator dreads!! - YouTube

i found this stuff at homedepot.

 

[Lflank]

thought this video might help.

Make predator dreads!! - YouTube

i found this stuff at homedepot.

Yes, those are backer rods.

I wouldn't recommend heating them over the stove like that, though---it's a lot safer and less messy to use hot water instead.

- - - Updated - - -

1000 thanks Lflank for your post !:love

Well I've nowhere found any sewed dreads filled with anything... so, I'll try that.
And the diameter question will find its answer by itself : from my sewing skills I have no way to get so many identical dreads anyway.

I think that method will present two problems:

1. how to attach the dreads to the mask (backer rod can just be glued into place)
2. how to make a zillion individual dread beads that fit all those different-sized dreads (backer rod makes it easy since the dread beads are just 1/8 inch narrower than the diameter of the rod)

I look forward to seeing what solutions you come up with.

 

[JFcustom]

... and also what to fill them with that won't cram down the tip of my dreads AND won't give a lumpy surface.
But these are false problems. In fact the only real problem here is the much too wide range of solutions. (how snooty I am ^^)
Stay tuned.

 

[Z0M8I3]

... and also what to fill them with that won't cram down the tip of my dreads AND won't give a lumpy surface.
But these are false problems. In fact the only real problem here is the much too wide range of solutions. (how snooty I am ^^)
Stay tuned.

I'm not ENTIRELY sure here but sounds like a good idea in my head...What if you filled the sewn dreads with the same filling from bean bag chairs? I know you said you wanted it not lumpy but what I was thinking was some kind of fine foam beads or shavings. Anyways, Just a thought.

Thank you for all the great files/unfolds, I unfold lots of models too and I know just how exhausting it can be

 

[cavx]

I think I found the right foam for the dreads today. The stuff looks the same anyway, just it is flat and I will need to cut it to length, slice is diagonally (to give the taper) and roll it to form the shape. I also bought a can of spray on plasti-dip and whilst I will need a 2nd can, am getting pretty good results.

 

[lordchammon]

I think I found the right foam for the dreads today. The stuff looks the same anyway, just it is flat and I will need to cut it to length, slice is diagonally (to give the taper) and roll it to form the shape. I also bought a can of spray on plasti-dip and whilst I will need a 2nd can, am getting pretty good results.

Did you find it in an online store? Can you share some photos including packaging for reference? thanks

 

[cavx]

Did you find it in an online store? Can you share some photos including packaging for reference? thanks

Sure, here is picture of the label. I bought this stuff from my local hardware store for $6 for a 10m [33ft?] roll.


When you squeeze it, the surface appearance changes quite a bit and looks quite neat. I think this with some PVC bits will look pretty good. What I discovered tonight was superglue won't stick it together, so I will have find that hot glue gun now and give that a go.


And here is the Pred Bio after the Plasti-Dip has dried. I was told to give it a light coat first, then after 20min or so, give it a heavy coat and the product will build up. Whilst it was wet, it certainly did that to the point where the little ridges on the surface of the foam were almost gone. Yet, it seems it just soaked into the foam. I think I would have been better off using the PVA glue method documented my X-Robots a while black. Not sure if I should re-do the surface with the PVA and then get a 2nd can just for the final finish.

 

[azureglade10]

Hi mr JFcustom just want to ask if you could make a foam friendly gypsy danger from pacific rim?

 

[JFcustom]

I'm sorry I won't have enough time for anything new before next year.

 

[Jynx Knight]

how do I open the roar files on pepakura designer sorry I am really new

 

[cavx]

how do I open the roar files on pepakura designer sorry I am really new

I found file called "file opener" and that allowed me to unzip and access the files to be opened in PEP Viewer 3.

 

[JFcustom]

Pepakura program opens *.pdo files.
The file you've downloaded is a *.rar file. It's an archive format. All the *.pdo you need are inside this archive.
Open the *.rar archive with any archiver software such as

WinRAR: winrar.com

7Zip: 7-Zip

WinACE: WinAce - your archiving companion

PKZip: PKWARE, Inc. - Data Security and File Compression Solutions

WinZip: WinZip for Windows, Mac and Mobile - Zip Files, Unzip Files

File Opener, or so on...

 

[Jynx Knight]

Thank you for the quick response will be trying my first build soon.

 

[cavx]

Cool, what are you building?

 

[JFcustom]

A quick easy test from a bit of foam tube I had left in my shed, and an old remaining yellow piece of foam mat (that I've thinned down to 2 or 3mm thick) :



It looks good on the picture, and is pretty flexible, but because of its lightness it still moves like a stick. :cry