Just a quick 'How To'

[SpookywoodsFX.com]

Thought some of you might be interested in seeing the process of creating a latex piece, start to finish. We all see finished products but few get to see how it was made..

For a piece that was sculpted on an armature, you need a two (or more) piece mold. First thing you will need to do is sculpt a dividing wall to divide the two halves of the mold so you can pull the sculpture out. In that, you will need registration keys (so both halves fit back together nicely) and pry points (to pry both halves apart).




The first coat of stone (I use UltraCal 30) is applied being sure to get all the detail without leaving any air bubbles trapped in the stone. Looks yummy!



Then finish off the mold with more stone and a product to reinforce the mold (I use burlap).

[SpookywoodsFX.com]

Once cured, the clay dividing wall can be pulled away and the first half of the mold cleaned up. Before the second half is made, the first half needs to be cleaned and a mold release used (here, I used Vaseline) so that both halves will not bond together. Here are the cleaned first halves.




Complete the second half and let it cure. Pry both halves apart (thanks to those handy pry points), clean both halves well and pour up your first latex casting.

[SpookywoodsFX.com]

Trim, clean and paint. And now you have a finished product!





This is not intended to be an instructional post, just entertaining to those that may be curious.
These are the new gloves for the corpse costumes.

[FrightProps]

Nice

What a great sculpt! Amazing detail.

[SpookywoodsFX.com]

Thanks! Hopefully, someone will be able to take some inspiration from the pictures or, at least, a little more confidence to give it a try

[IF YOUR 555]

That is awsome, thanks for taking the time, thumbs up.

[The Mad Hatter]

Love the sculpting, I wish I was more artistic and was capable of doing this type of work. I will try one of these days though. You are a truly inspirational artist!

-Frank Balzer

[Kevin Dells]

Great Sculpting work man!

I tried it and did pretty good with the sculpting part but the cost of the materials to do all this just killed me!

This is something i would love to pursue more but just can't afford to do so.

[Gore Galore]

Kevin,
You just answered the question as to why vendors charge as much as they do just to be able to produce product for this industry. The material cost is outrageous, the time invested is just as high, plus all the other overhead that goes into being in business.

[Spookyfinder]

Those materails aren't that expensive... the only "expensive" part of this how-to was the mold material, it looks like silicone to me. There are other, CHEAPER, ways to get the exact same product... and it's still cheaper than to do it yourself than pay!

Alot of our masks, foam prosthetics, and some props we're making ourselves and SAVING!!! (Cue music: "Somebody's Watching Me" by Rockwell)

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This is a very nice sculpt... you guys are def. extremely talented! What was the finished product made of? -Tyler

[IF YOUR 555]

Nightgore, it says that it is latex in the first sentence. Why dont you post some pics so we can see what you got. I just started sculpting about a year ago and this kicks my ass on anything I can do. Again, great work SW.

[Gore Galore]

Tyler,
Sorry, if my explanation was not clear. It is a bit more complicated than just this project.

To do it yourself for personal projects and/or your own attraction is fun, but the moment you move to the vendor arena it turns into a whole new ball of wacks (yes, this pun was intended).

To be a legit vendor brings things to a much higher level.
Just ask any vendor who has employees, and treats them right with workers comp, health insurance, liability insurance etc.... Things become much more complicated and expensive just to stay in business.

I am not going to talk about this anymore on this thread. It is off topic.

Mark,
Beautiful work as always. Keep it up.

[screamline studios]

Tyler,

Apparently you don't do much mold wall work or molding out of ultra cal 30 plaster!!!! If you can do this work very cheap we at screamline will send all our sculpts over for you to mold!!! however my friend this work is not that cheap there are people to pay and bills that stack up. So if what you do on a haunt level makes you a expert on mass production level i would love to see what you have to offer..

Your friend

Jason Blaszczak

http://screamlinestudios.com

[brad]

The pics look really good. And I like the level of detail put into them!

Thanks for sharing!

[drfrightner]

Nice work brother... I hope you are feeling better than ever these days! Larry