S1 Silicone Puppet Body Casting Tutorial 

First you should always consider your design so if you just need arms and legs then just mold and cast those. Now as for seams. You can completely get rid of them but you'll need to practice removing them to really get it to work. What I've found is cutting them a little so they indent slightly into the puppet and then fill it with a new mixture of the silicone and then smooth it with Bestine. Also, some master puppet fabricators that I've worked with have used green plastic scrubbing pads or various foams attached to a Dremel to remove the seam and smooth it out. Lots of different techniques, but the Bestine smoothing is my personal favorite.

+Emanuel Wiemans Yep! Good guess.

gordontarpley I did! It's called Kit Kraft in Encino....

Awesome! thank you!

gordontarpley Call them in advance. They run out of stuff.

What is vestine?

Michael type your question into google. You'll find ur answer

+YCM ** Looks like that's an additive. You add it to the silicone to thin it. Contact them directly and see if they can suggest a good silicone for your needs. They're really nice and should be able to answer your questions. Tell them Stop Motion Magazine sent you. ;)

+stopmotionmagazine thanks I went to polytek and found some tinsil gel A 10.

+Eva Margon No, that requires a slightly different method. You can build the mold roughly about the same except you'll need exit holes. You'd paint in a few layers of liquid latex, let it dry and then strap the mold together and then pour in expanding urethane mold into a pour hold you made when building the mold. Thats the basics of how to do that, but I have to warn you that method is not easy and a lot of things can go wrong. I would highly suggest using a buildup method when making puppets out of liquid latex. Good luck.

+stopmotionmagazine Ok, thank you very much!

+stopmotionmagazine What about this way: I first pour liquid latex in first mould, wait to dry and then pour latex in the other half and put the first one (dry one) on top of this one? You think it's possible? Would they "glue" together?

Pouring latex into a mold will create a puddle that will never cure properly. You could also use a Slush-casting method were you actually pour your latex into the mold, let it sit there for an hour, drain your excess latex into a bucket (you can reuse it later) and then close the mold and let the remaining rubber to cure. And what happens is that the ultracal absorbs moisture out of the latex and forms a skin inside.

+spinocroc123 Yes that will work.

+CessJf The list of supplies is in the description.

Hi, Honestly I'm not sure. I haven't been there in awhile and they change formulas year to year. I would suggest calling them and asking about their tin based silicones for casting puppets or animatronics.

Either one. I give you the email address at the end of the video.

stiina jersey Hi, the silicone used for casting is called TinSil Gel. It is a Tin Based Silicone purchased through MotionpictureFX.com. Let me know if you have any more questions.

stopmotionmagazine Which shore (hardness) is it in the silicone?

Off hand I can't remember. I can tell you that Tin-Sil Gel can be found on the internet and you can control the hardness with different additives. Also, Tin-Sil Gel is very similar to human flesh. So it is very fun to work with.

+stopmotionmagazine if I use tinsil gel 10, can I change skin tone with the pigment from peachy to brown?

Tin-Sil Gel comes in either peach or clear. Go for the clear and order the pigment that you want. I would suggest looking up Polytek and getting TinSil Gel-10. That should be translucent clear gel silicone that you can tent.

adrien mcphadee It's closer to 1/9th and 1/8th. Mego action figures are usually about 8-inches tall. This puppet is about 9 inchs.