What kind of latex to make a mask

Bam its a blank, ready for color. Now you have your blank have fun. Paint each one different ways expierment. Add moss, bugs, glue gun drool, taxidermy eyes , stitch up like skin. Remember try to use latex paints they stretch other paints may crack or chip off with wear. Have fun creating, and have a happy Halloween!! One very critical point that the original poster seem to have missed, or didn't explain, is that plaster materials have a tendency to move slightly as they dry.

It is vital that the new mold be secured together and stored that way until totally dry months later. You can pour the mold before it has completely dried, just allow a slightly longer time for the latex to remain in the mold. Drying and storing the pieces of the mold together will help maintain a good seal at the parting line.

Reply 7 years ago on Introduction. I had this same problem intially, but after doing the oven bake of the mold I have no problems with cureing the latex. But after a full dry it does adhere the latex and the rubber dries much faster. Great point. Have worked with latex casting for years learned this working at Don Post In and since. If you are planning on making this mask for yourself you might want to do a little testing on yourself to see if you're allergic to latex as some people are.

Having this next to your face if you are allergic to latex could prove uncomfortable. Also there are some after market coatings you can line the inside of the mask with if you have sensitivity. I have never had to use them, so im not sure how well they work. Excellent job! My passion as a teenager back in the 70s showing my age was to make masks and do horror make up.

I'm gonna have to give this a whirl again. I confess back then I used a styro wig head for my modeling and made a couple molds from it. I was a huge Planet of the Apes fan at the time and made my own ape appliances to glue on. I want to make a Ballchinian half mask Im on a budget and its just for a friends party I dont have the space to do this yet but would love to see it done. Reply 7 years ago on Step 5.

From what I can see, the mask is a lot bigger than it looks. Participated in the Halloween Costume Contest Great instructable! Leatherface is spot on. I've seen others use cheese cloth to strengthen latex masks. Is this what the T. P is for, or is it more for texture?

Reply 5 years ago. Hi there, I used a basic pink, with a tiny bit of yellow acrylic paint. Then I did the makeup with bright blue and dark pink and smeared it all over. I hope that helps!

Pick a design for your latex mask. Before you begin creating your mask, you will need to know the general shape that you want the mask to be.

You can stick to either a human head shape, or accentuate the features if you are replicating a character or fantasy being. Some design options for your mask include a regular human face, a favorite popular culture character, or something Halloween related. For example, you could make a mask of your friend to pull a prank on them, your favorite superhero, an alien, a witch, or a scary zombie.

Tape foam pieces onto a mannequin head to create the basic shape. The foam mannequin head will be the starting point for your mask. Cut pieces of foam to the desired shape and length, and tape these on the foam mannequin head firmly to accentuate features. Around 2 pieces of tape for each foam piece will do. You won't see this in your finished product, as all that matters is the general shape. The clay that you will use next can hide any minor imperfections. Try adding foam pieces around the ears to create bigger ears, over the nose to make it larger, or extending from the top of the mannequin to create horns.

Use foam to create only the larger features on the foam mannequin head. Smaller features can be added on later using the clay. Duct tape is ideal as it is sturdy enough to hold the foam in place. Cover the foam mannequin head with modelling clay. Place modelling clay over the entire foam mannequin head, making sure that all of the tape and foam pieces are covered. The clay will soften with your body heat, and it will be easily malleable.

Pull off a small chunk of modelling clay and roll it into a cylinder. Bend the cylinder in half. If the cylinder cracks and breaks, add more water. If the cylinder bends smoothly, then the clay is good to use. Shape smaller facial features with the modelling clay. Once the whole foam mannequin head is covered, add smaller features with the clay too. Use your hands to mould the clay into pieces, and stick these to the clay on the mannequin.

Smooth petroleum jelly over the clay. Use your hands to cover every part of the clay with petroleum jelly. A thin layer will do. Paint multiple layers of liquid latex over the clay. With each cast the defects gets progressively worse. The same erosion effect happens with UC30, but it happens at a much slower rate. Given these problems, you may be wondering why anyone would choose WH for a mask mold. There are two main reasons: First, if only a few casts of the mask are required.

And second, as silly as it sounds, some mask designs actually lend themselves to an eroding mold. So what kinds of designs are perfect for WH? How about Zombies, Corpses, and anything where defects will not detract from the mask. They might even help! In fact, most large mask companies will use WH and will simply make a large number of molds and use them for production until the quality of castings is no longer acceptable. When the mold reaches that point, the manufacturer will use a stored, thick latex copy of the mask known as a production model , to make as many new molds as they need.

Half masks are especially suited for WH since they only require a one piece mold and they can be easily replaced. To sum it up, if you only need to make a few copies of your mask or if your design lends itself to mold erosion, than White Hydrocal is a good choice.

If however, you have a highly detailed mask that you plan on making a couple dozen copies or more, than the clear choice is Ultra Cal The extra time and effort you put into the mold will be worth it in the long run. Rubber Cement Paint When I first started making latex masks back in , there was very little info on how to paint a mask.

At the time, the conventional wisdom was that rubber cement was the best option. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered, acrylic paint is water based and rubber cement is a chemical solvent based product. So no matter how hard I tried or how many mixtures I made of this recipe, I could not get it to work! I was so bummed out. As it turned out, the book had a typo and the proper pigment was not acrylic paint but rather oil paint. For me, the great lesson there was if you read it in a book, it might still be incorrect.

Typos do happen. Fortunately, my persistence and frustration eventually led me to try the oil paint, which made much more sense. And of course it worked! Once I got it going all I needed to do was experiment. I also discovered that rubber cement is toxic!

What is rubber cement paint and how is it made? Rubber cement paint RCP is a simple mixture of 1 part oil paint to about 5 parts good old off the shelf rubber cement. The result is a paint that sticks like glue to rubber and flexes with the mask without cracking or rubbing off. The real benefit is that rubber cement actually bites into the mask and gets into the pores of the latex. The solvent causes the Mask Making rubber to swell slightly which opens up the rubber pores and allows the rubber to get in.

Once the solvent flashes off, only the rubber cement remains, which is now tightly locked onto and impregnated into the latex rubber. This is the reason why the bond is so strong. The answer is simple. And unless you work area is unbelievably well ventilated, you use chemical resistant gloves, and you have an enclosed air supplied ventilation suit, I do not recommend using this as a general purpose paint medium for your masks despite its effectiveness.