Superpants
New Member
I am soon going to embark on a build of a Tron Legacy light suit, and have therefore been considering my choices of materials to use. I am an Engineer by day, and trained as a Material scientist, so I tend to be interested in looking to see if any alternative materials to the norm might give me benefits in my project.
Please excuse me if this has been covered before- I have carried out a search but not found anything relevant!
As silicones are available as a sponge form in sheet. It occurred to me that it may be preferable over the more usual Plastazote or similar foams for some costume applications where flexibility is important for the following reasons;
It is self-skinned, therefore there would be no need to coat the surface
As no coating is needed it could require significantly less work to make multiple copies of a part- just cutting flat sheet out
More flexible, and is elastomeric and hence may be more suited to costumes such as Tron where the foam needs to be stuck directly onto a Lycra/Spandex base to conform to a body
Potentially will conform better to compound curves
Potentially better tear resistance than foam and hence may be more durable
The downsides would seem to be;
Less available and more expensive than Plastazote
Reduced colour availability
Unlikely to take paint easily
May be more difficult to bond- certainly limited adhesive choice
Won’t thermoform
I am therefore wondering if anyone has any experience of using sheet silicone sponge for making costume pieces- particularly if you can address any of the points raised above, as well as generally is it easier or more difficult to work with compared to Plastazote?
I have requested some samples to trial and am awaiting these.
I’d welcome any thoughts.
Please excuse me if this has been covered before- I have carried out a search but not found anything relevant!
As silicones are available as a sponge form in sheet. It occurred to me that it may be preferable over the more usual Plastazote or similar foams for some costume applications where flexibility is important for the following reasons;
It is self-skinned, therefore there would be no need to coat the surface
As no coating is needed it could require significantly less work to make multiple copies of a part- just cutting flat sheet out
More flexible, and is elastomeric and hence may be more suited to costumes such as Tron where the foam needs to be stuck directly onto a Lycra/Spandex base to conform to a body
Potentially will conform better to compound curves
Potentially better tear resistance than foam and hence may be more durable
The downsides would seem to be;
Less available and more expensive than Plastazote
Reduced colour availability
Unlikely to take paint easily
May be more difficult to bond- certainly limited adhesive choice
Won’t thermoform
I am therefore wondering if anyone has any experience of using sheet silicone sponge for making costume pieces- particularly if you can address any of the points raised above, as well as generally is it easier or more difficult to work with compared to Plastazote?
I have requested some samples to trial and am awaiting these.
I’d welcome any thoughts.
