Latex and Casting products

CookFX Productions

CookFX Productions

Well-known member
Its about that time! Halloween! I and another friend make pull on masks each year, and usually get supplies from a theater shop in town. Tend to be pricey. Whats the best place to get liqued, and foam, and a good casting agent? I know i could search, but I like the opinion of people who do work with it more than I do. I only make hands and the occasional mask, and face appliance and so on. If you got some good places drop me a line on where to head to.

Sinister.
 
Without thinking outside the box at all, I'd say art supply stores. Specifically ones that caters to a local art college. For me, theres one near the Ontario College of Art and Design, and as long as you befriend a student, that discount is yours.
 
Latex and Casting products

Where are you located? Location has a lot to do with price aspects on these things because of the outrageous shipping costs. MonsterMakers is good, but theres also Smooth-On, The Alcone Company in NY NY. Do a search but you'd probably be better off getting the stuff from an FX company, they sell in bulk as well as smaller quantities and the smaller quantities don't cost so much...
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I live in north western michigan not a lot around me. THe theater shop im lucky enough to be close to and have is an hour or so away south towards Grand rapids. I'm really looking for a place online with some real credit behind it. If someone by chance knows of some place here in Michigan. WOw let me know, I know of some places in Chi-town but im not paying chicago prices when i can get it on-line.


B-Sinister.
 
Yes this is fun stuff. I never made one-piece latex masks too much but know the process. Different grades of latex for different things. I always liked foam latex for the stuff I did when I was a kid, but its very difficult to use. Masks need a good tough "casting" grade of latex with some body to keep their shape well.

Paramount latex has always been been good but mostly a soft grade for small items like noses:
http://www.alconeco.com/products/prosthetic/latex_products_foam_latex_extras/paramount_liquid_latex

Burman has a great selection of lots of kinds of latex from tough to softer:
http://www.burmanfoam.com/estore/SearchResults.asp?Recordset1_Action=Filter%28%22Category+%3D+%27LATEX+%26+ACCESSORIES%27%22%29&Recordset1_Position=PAR:

For the really serious stuff like silicone, silicone gel, etc. Factor II:
http://www.factor2.com/

For painting the masks, nothing quite like PAX which was originally invented by the great SFX artist Dick Smith. The recipe uses 1/2 part of an adhesive called pros-aide and 1/2 part of acrylic paints of the appropriate colors. Or you can just buy some:

http://www.fxwarehouse.info/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=PAX

Pax can be used on skin too and is every day in prosthetics use.
 
Well I used to be really serious about this stuff. I obtained quite a level with sculpting and did some complicated old age stuff, planet of the apes pieces and even a quasimodo partial mask with one eye lower than the other. That's a fun one to do because requires a lot of different skills especially in the making of an artificial eye and how all that is incorporated into the mold. Making molds and sculpting are the chief skills to get good at really.

There are even more good resources I've got too. One that shouldn't be discounted and could be very interesting for experimentation is foamed gelatin and just plain gelatin too:

http://www.makeup-fx.com/gelatinefoam.html

Gelatine and foamed gelatine are about as harmless as it gets and can even be reused. Foamed latex or silicone, in their raw state is about as toxic as it gets and is also incredibly hard to mix, pour into molds in a limited time and get right in the baking process and can't be reused at all.

If you're going to use foamed latex though, there isn't a better formula then GM Foam:

http://www.gmfoam.com/

Which can be bought in many of those prior links too. Burman foam is okay but I think the GM foam is much better and easier to mix. Both have a really long history in Hollywood and can be traced back to same the original formula that was being used and sold as long ago as the forties.
 
All the resources should be turned into a sticky. I think that there is a lot of good resources that prob still would keep building took. Im getting a kit from Monstermakers.com


I've used GM, krloan I think it was called microwavable foam blocks those are never ment to try to combine and used for big appliances, Mine melted when the gum hit it.
 
GM Foam is made of creamed rubber and is about as good quality as it gets. It comes in a 4 part kit of all the ingredients in either quart or gallon size. You have to mix them up in a mixer with the timing on when the ingredients are added just about perfect or it doesn't work. Kryolan Polyfoam is made by Kryolan -- a German company which does have some great products. They may also have some scar plastic too so I'm not sure which one you had. Forget the polyfoam kinds though--the kinds that foam up when two parts are added together. They are no good and incredibly toxic too when you're mixing them. Stick with real latex products like foamed latex or regular latex, silicones and gelatine or foamed gelatine.

If I get time in the next day or two I might post all the different sites I've had in my bookmarks for this kind of stuff.
 
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