Well, this is such a basic fact of construction, that I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I don’t clearly know it: what material, typically, has been used to “skin” daikaiju suits, before the rubber is painted on? In other words, the suits are built of urethane foam, but then an outer layer must be applied to seal the foam, both to achieve a non-porous look (if that’s what’s called for) and so that the foam won’t just keep endlessly drinking in any rubber and paint. Anyone know the answer, and , moreover, details of application? Is it tissue paper, slathered with rubber and applied almost papier mache-style? One person has told me that the only treatment to the foam is latex and paint; if that’s truly the case, and no “skin” layer is put down between those layers, then I’m thinking there must be some critical difference in materials between what I have been using and what the folks working in Japan are using.
To explain: when I constructed the Garamike head, I used upholstery foam purchased from JoAnn Fabric. Once all the spikes were ready to go, I coated each of them individually and the base headpiece separately, brushing on two thick coats of MoldBuilder Latex; then the whole piece was assembled. The surfaces all remained very porous in appearance- which was actually fine by me, as I think it well-suits the spikes of a meteorite monster. The headpiece was then finished by my mask designer, who airbrushed over two quarts of pigmented rubber cement onto it (yes- that much was required- even after the MoldBuilder, the porous foam kept drinking in the spray, and it was hard to get solid base colors built up). Even after that, the porous finish was pretty much unchanged.
Currently, I’m busy constructing the hands (the ones from the GARAMANIACAL appearance were just off-the-shelf placeholders, the 2nd gen Gara-hands are coming out freaking awesome, I’m pleased to say
), hoping to soon move onto the arms, legs and feet. The hands are mostly made from rigid plastic elements, so these foam concerns don’t apply there, but for the rest (which need to appear solidly bony but be flexible for wear), I want to achieve a non-porous surface. If you look at the work of Pico Pico, for example, most of his suits seem to have this sort of surfacing (and I curse that I didn’t manage to save an old link, from many years back, interviewing Pico Pico about his full process, with tons of pics; I do have his email (thanks, Andy! ), but I thought I might see if I could get some less language-barrier-challenged help first). Could it just be a matter of just a different sort of foam, for starters- closed-cell instead of open? A different brushable rubber? Any insight would be most welcome… any links to articles or tutorials would be amazing. Thank you in advance!