Vacuum forming your arm for armor?
- Thread starter Xillra
- Start date
Make a duct tape dummy.
DO NOT vac form your arm. I assure you, you will suffer some nasty burns.
DO NOT vac form your arm. I assure you, you will suffer some nasty burns.
If your follow up question is "What's a duct tape dummy" or "how do I make a duct tape dummy" allow me to save you some time.
The RPF has a search feature, and there's also google
The RPF has a search feature, and there's also google
oota goota
Sr Member
PLEASE dont vac form your arm. get a mannequin arm or something
saxe coburg
Sr Member
Don't listen to Munson... Vac-forming actual body parts is fun... and educational.
Mostly educational. :lol
Dang, you mean I can't vacuum form my junk and make a reusable condom and ED device all in one? :lol
clonesix
Master Member
You really can't vacuform over your arm, as there would be loss of suction due to it being attached to your body. That being said, DO NOT ATTEMPT!
All you need is a ruler, and possible a pair of calipers. Your arm is nothing more than a cylinder, and the important measurements are the distance between the wrist and elbow, and the elbow and shoulder.
Use a piece of PVC to approximate your arm. Measure the width at the wrist, forearm, and bicep, and make sure your sculpt is wide enough for these parts to pass through.
The ONLY reason that you would need a lifecast, is for a body-hugging piece that must match the contour of your exact shape in order to fit.
All you need is a ruler, and possible a pair of calipers. Your arm is nothing more than a cylinder, and the important measurements are the distance between the wrist and elbow, and the elbow and shoulder.
Use a piece of PVC to approximate your arm. Measure the width at the wrist, forearm, and bicep, and make sure your sculpt is wide enough for these parts to pass through.
The ONLY reason that you would need a lifecast, is for a body-hugging piece that must match the contour of your exact shape in order to fit.
Actually, this would not work at all, unless you are going to cast a SOLID resin copy of your arm, which would probably be about fifty bucks in resin. Even worse, pouring resin into a mold made of plaster bandages would be like using screen doors on a submarine.
That is, of course, assuming that you want to vacuform your armor on TOP of the buck. (that's the actual name for it, not a plug
)However, if you were to make a plaster bandage mold of your arm, then fill it with plaster, that would make an AWESOME buck, and you could probably do it all for under 40 bucks.
Though I'm going to guess that fifty bucks is out of the budget, which is why a duct tape dummy was my recommendation. It's literally a roll of duct tape and an old long sleeve shirt.
robn1
Master Member
If you try it you'll end up needing it :lol
If I read it right, you don't want to go through the expense of vac forming.
There are 2 methods that I know of:
1. Form armor out of foam mat and coat with plastic resin.
2. cover body part with thick towel to help insulate and wrap heated plastic (use oven and a wood frame to evenly heat styrene or ABS plastic sheet) around body part (you'll need a couple of helpers to handle the plastic) to form armor (should be cool enough to remove after 20 seconds). DO NOT USE WET TOWELS - this will create steam and scald the model.
There are 2 methods that I know of:
1. Form armor out of foam mat and coat with plastic resin.
2. cover body part with thick towel to help insulate and wrap heated plastic (use oven and a wood frame to evenly heat styrene or ABS plastic sheet) around body part (you'll need a couple of helpers to handle the plastic) to form armor (should be cool enough to remove after 20 seconds). DO NOT USE WET TOWELS - this will create steam and scald the model.
I did a pretty cheap and easy mold of a friend's legs once for some greaves.
Started by wrapping her leg in a trash bag, then wrapping with several layers of clear packing tape to hold the shape. Once this was layered up enough, I cut the tape off and removed the form. The seam was taped back together.
I filled this with expanding foam, then removed the tape and trashbag once it cured.
The final part with the foam was pockmarked with a bunch of air bubbles, so it was skimmed in bondo and sanded flat.
End cost on these was probably $20 or so. I ended up sculpting over these then cutting them in half for vac form bucks. Not perfect, but they worked great for my purposes.
Started by wrapping her leg in a trash bag, then wrapping with several layers of clear packing tape to hold the shape. Once this was layered up enough, I cut the tape off and removed the form. The seam was taped back together.
I filled this with expanding foam, then removed the tape and trashbag once it cured.
The final part with the foam was pockmarked with a bunch of air bubbles, so it was skimmed in bondo and sanded flat.
End cost on these was probably $20 or so. I ended up sculpting over these then cutting them in half for vac form bucks. Not perfect, but they worked great for my purposes.
greatzombiehunt
New Member
What type of expanding foam did you use?
They have a couple now that is supposed to be self skinning. I keep trying to think of a reason to use it.
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