4.0 - Materials and Tools
==========================

Nicodemus' site on Materials and tools, in some more detail - http://www.nicodemus.org/fursuit.cgi?red

Interestingly enough, the alt.gothic.fashion.faq is of interest - http://www.ice-princess.net/gothfash/faq.html

4.1 - Fur
==========
An anonymous submitter wrote a rather interesting article describing fur and fibers, and how they are made.

4.2 - Latex
============
This is a very interesting thing to use, as it's got quite a few uses. It can be in liquid form, for you to spread over something, or already in sheet form, for you to create something from it.

There are those who are allergic to latex, in its various forms. Sometimes it doesn't take much contact for that person to react to it. Reactions can be as mild as a rash on the skin, to as severe as anaphylactic shock, requiring a hospital visit. This is when the body reacts so violently, so severely, that it just shuts down. It is your responsibility to communicate with the other person about this issue. If in doubt, go to a doctor who can test you for this allergy. It may be expensive, but compare that to an emergency room visit.

In its sheet form, people have been known to make rubber catsuits, rubber sheet covers, etc, out of it, as well as using it to cover things. It comes in various thicknesses, from 1/8" and up.

The liquid form is the most fun to work with. You can easily find this in most craft stores, some fabric stores, adult stores, and at times in hardware stores. It does help to have a bit of ventilation around, as the ammonia in it can be a bit strong. Makeup grade, also known as cosmetic grade, can be found, though a little harder to find. This can be found in the costume shops, if you ask. It's also known as Duo, found in most beauty supply shops. If not Duo, then look for eyelash adhesive. This is nearly the same as Duo, allowing you to apply fake eyelashes.

Those who love liquid latex have at times been known with their partner to cover themselves in the stuff, from the neck down. This is a very time consuming and messy job to do.

This same stuff has been known to make facial and full-head masks.

Coloring it is sometimes a patience-testing job. It's usually a mixture of one part of liquid latex and one part of colored acrylic paint. If you don't wish to do that, head to your local adult store, and they'll usually have the colored ones, though a bit overpriced.

However, once the latex has dried, that's it. You cannot make it liquid after this. It's now impervious to most things out there, though there will be some oils that will eat and destroy it. Mineral oil, vaseline, and related petroleum products will do this. However, castor oil, silicone oil, and water won't, thus the use of castor oil and water based makeups.

4.3 - Body paint
=================
Kryolan has Aquacolors, Ben Nye has Magicolors, both of which are excellent quality. Not all costume shops have these. You can use Kryolan's color wheels, which are good. Mehron also has large tubes, looking like lipstick tubes, meant to be directly applied or with other applicators.

From Nightsky Bluewyrm, after a comment about the water based makeup they used at AC3;

For what it's worth, Tilde~, Hazmat, and I put on our Ben Nye Magicolor makeup around 3-5 pm, and wore it all through the day and night, dancing at the Masq, dancing in that little alcove, and shaking our collective booty at the Purple Nurple til 3:30 or whenever, and the three of us kept looking at each other, saying, "I'm sweating like crazy... how's my makeup? It must be sliding off..." Yet the answer every time was "No." I had pawed my face a bit, so I had a tiny orange streak on my cheek, and I'd even daubed some of the sweat off gently with a kleenex from time to time... but the makeup held and did not run.

We applied it, powdered it with the Translucent Ben Nye Powder, put the black lines on, powdered it again, and then I used a damp washcloth laid on my face for a minute, to set it. Or I could have spritzed water on my face if I'd had a spritzer.

Bottom line: that's serious stuff!

4.4 - Dyes and paints
======================
- RIT
- acrylic
- airbrush

4.5 - Tool box
===============
What should the well-stocked toolbox have? Better yet, what sort of toolbox should contain all this? Various department stores have these tackleboxes, which are GREAT for holding all this stuff, and it's cheap!

- hot glue gun and lots of glue sticks
- vinyl/latex gloves
- household GOOP / E6000
- measuring tape
- white glue
- scissors
- markers
- colored chalk
- razor knives
- ruler
- pen
- safety glasses

4.6 - Foam
===========

Foam sources - See section 99.18.

Interesting info about foam - http://www.customfoamfab.com/files/foamsol3.html

Types of foam
=============
From: Ivan Repin
Subject: Technical: Foam and plastics suitable for fursuit heads

Here is some data on some of the species of foam and plastics suitable for head construction in no particular order.

EVA foam.
Available in thicknesses from 5mm to 50mm in many colours (most useful grey and white), and in different grades of hardness from 30(very soft) to 360(very hard).

I use grade 30 for harness sweatbands and 60 for general head construction. It is very lightweight but will be effected by excessive heat. It can be cut and shaped easily and can be glued with contact cement. It is of closed cell construction and floats. If you have difficulty obtaining this from a plastics house, they use this plastic for making cheap camping mats (usually blue in colour). 10mm seems to be the usual thickness. one mat is about right for a small head. The hard grades can be used for foot soles. Try a footwear industry supplier.

Polyurethane foam.
This is the most readily available foam and is in several grades and colours.
The grade I find most useful is black MEO30, a very open foam (I think you guys call it air conditioning foam ). it is used for air filters and on the front of speaker boxes. this shapes extremely well and can be cut and glued easily. It is available in several thicknesses (the most useful is 50mm(2')). It is heat resistant but dont burn it! Plastics and foam suppliers will have this.

Polystyrene Sheet
A useful plastic with a low and sharp melting point. mainly used for vacuum forming. black and white seem to be the most useful colours. Cut with a slow speed jigsaw or by handsaw as it will melt back together along the cut otherwise. easily cemented to itself with model cement. Can be used with my simple method of vacuum forming but watch the heat.

Acrylic sheet
AKA perspex. I use this for vacuum forming eyes using the simple method. Has a high and indefinite melting point, preferring to gradually soften over a range of temperatures. Available in many colours but the most useful are clear (for dual layer eyes) or smoke (for single layer eyes). easy to cut using a jig saw or score and snap. 1.5 to 5mm is the thickness range but 3mm seems to be the best compromise between strength and workability. It does however go brittle at low temperatures. Needs a special cement to glue to itself. Available from plastics suppliers.

Polycarbonate Sheet
AKA lexan. Used for the same purposes as Acrylic sheet but it performs better at low temperatures. It requires more heat to soften than Acrylic and is harder to cut. Available from plastics Suppliers

High density Polyethylene Sheet
Tougher relative of normal polyethylene. I use this for my harness system and other structural parts of my fursuits. it is easy to cut and shape but impossible to glue. It can, however, be riveted or bolted together. the most useful thicknesses are 3mm for general structural work and 1.5mm for ear cores etc. Available from plastics suppliers.

From: Lex Nakashima
Subject: Re: Tech: Foam translations...

Re: Ivan Repin's nice FAQ on foam & plastic materials:

Boy, I thought that the regional names for foams could be confusing! Ivan's descriptions and uses for the various foams was good enough not to repeat, but a couple of 'Stateside names might make it easier to find these materials.

EVA foam--from your description, I'm guessing that this is what is called L-200 foam out here. L-200 is a fairly dense, closed cell foam with no discernable "bubbles"--it's got a very smooth grain. Lately, this foam has been used in making heads and body pods, but it does not breath very well. I believe there is also an L-300 (very dense--almost rigid) and an L-100, but I've never seen it. Another closed-cell foam people have mentioned recently are the very bubbly, light foams that have recently been used for pool toys (those rods and tubes).

What Ivan refers to as one type of polyurethane foam (speaker foam/air conditioner filter foam) is known locally as "Scott Foam" and more generally as "reticulated foam". It's almost more like a 3-D mesh than a traditional foam. Unfortunately, they've changed the recipe again (AQMD regulations, damn 'em) and the most recent version of the foam is mush squishier and less rigid/form-holding that before. The new stuff feels almost like regular foam rubber (if you can find the old stuff, grab it if you can!).

Regular foam rubber (also a polyurethane) has a wide variety of densities, but be careful--the more rigid the foam, the more brittle it is. The soft stuff you can stretch-heck out of; the '90 or higher stuff will rip with just a little pull.

I'm less familiar with the Vacuum-forming plastics, but the common names out here are PETG (what soda bottles and CO2 bombs are made out of:very clear and strong) and styrene (cheap and comes in white, black and probably other colors I'm not familiar with). I've never worked with Lexan (great name, tho) or acrylic in VF'ing, thought that's good to know.

To get upholstery, call upholstery shops and find one that will sell it to you w/o ripping you off:

(I couldn't get real foam rubber, but I purchased 1210 polyfoam from an upholstery shop and it seems to be just fine - much better than the abrasive stiff foam they try to sell you at Minnesota Fabrics) The upholstery shop told me that no one has used real foam rubber for 15 years because it is so pricey.

Here is their system as I understand it:

Polyfoam type (density)   Properties
1210                      Super soft - rarely used - pillow density
1815                      Safest cushion density
1825
1835
1845                      Firmest cushion density

An electric bread knife (carving knife) is great for big cuts, but useless for fine work - good sharp scissors are a must.

Cutting and Shaping foam
========================
From: Ivan Repin

Cutting foam.
Use an electric carving knife or another knife with a sharp blade. A smear of soap as lubrication is useful. I use a tool called a Bosch foam cutter. It is expensive but the best I have tried. The harder grades can be cut with a jigsaw.

Shaping foam
The above tools can also be used for rough shaping but abrasives seen to be the best for final shaping and finishing. A panel beaters hand panel sanding leveling tool with a coarse grade of paper fitted is one useful tool. Another is a hand held belt linisher like a Black and decker powerfile (be careful, this tool works quickly). Hand tools have more control than power tools and there is less likelihood of an accident. Use the good ole sanding block for that final touch. The harder and denser the foam, the more accurate the final shape will be.

- electric knife
- sharp kitchen knives
- hot knife
- razorknives
- scissors

4.7 - Mesh
==========
The most common kind of mesh that suiters use for making heads is the plastic kind, most commonly found in craft and fabric stores. WalMart usually has them in the fabric department. There's two major sizes that can usually be found. First is the large legal-sized piece, which is a stiffer kind of mesh, but great for using with heads. The second is a smaller standard paper-sized kind of piece, which is less stiff. Some craft stores sell variations of sizes and colors, so this could be good.

All these plastic meshes have a mesh size, which is how many holes per inch. You can find 5, 7, 10, and 14 mesh. For 14 mesh, that means you have 14 holes per inch/per 2.54 centimetres. The most popular is 7 mesh, though 5 mesh can also be used if you can find that.

For the cloth kind, you can find this in fabric stores. It can look like 5 mesh, all the way to a fine mesh, like cheesecloth.

You've heard about people sewing the mesh. This can be done with kite string and a large-eyed needle. This allows for exceptionally STRONG pieces when done this way, though it will take time to do.

Another way to put mesh pieces together is to use nylon cable ties. This will allow you to check the look of the head before you sew it, and you WILL go through the ties like water, correcting your goofs, etc. You can find these ties at any hardware stores, in bags of 25, 100, 500, and 1000, since this stuff is so cheap.

4.8 - Airbrushes
=================
Courtesy of an anonymous submitter

An airbrush is a versatile precision instrument capable of producing finely detailed illustrative paint work. It was developed originally in the 1920s from a tool used to retouch monochrome photographs. The airbrush works by passing compressed air over a reservoir of paint, which is sucked out in a fine spray and atomized or broken up into tiny droplets.

Regulating screws and levers on the airbrush are used to adjust the paint texture and fan profile as it leaves the nozzle cap, so that a range of effects can be achieved. The paint is diluted with thinners, and the airbrush body has a valved adapter through which compressed air is supplied, either from an aerosol can or an electrically driven compressor.

The simplest type of airbrush works by a single action trigger lever. When the lever is depressed, it allows compressed air to escape from the reservoir, pass through the body of the airbrush and out through a fine nozzle at the front. The gas jet blows across the opening of the paint pot and draws paint up through it. Thus an atomized spray is produced which is directed on to the workpiece, controlled by the amount of pressure applied to the trigger.

The more sophisticated type of airbrush has a double action trigger lever, which allows a flow of gas when it is depressed and a flow of paint regulated by a needle when it is pulled back. The operator can control these actions to vary the thickness of the paint spray to achieve any desired pattern of spray and regulate the desired finish of the work with a high degree of precision.

The type of colorant to be applied will depend on where the finished result will be used. Normal or acrylic lacquers are best suited for a car or bike. Other mediums include ink, water color, gouache and enamels, each giving a different effect and used on different products. The height of the airbrush from the surface will also determine the density of the medium sprayed over the area to be covered.

Most airbrushed designs are made by progressive masking, which is blanking off the areas that are not painted with tape, masking paper, stencils, and frisk film. Narrow masking tape is used for intricate designs. Stencils can be made by cutting a design in a piece of card then spraying through it to lay the design on the surface to be painted.

Frisk film is transparent plastic sheeting with a slight adhesive on one side. The design is drawn on the area to be painted and the frisk film applied on the top. Areas to be sprayed are carefully cut out with a sharp blade, taking care not to score the underlying surface.

4.9 - Adhesives
================

An anonymous submitter wrote an article on adhesives.

From: Steve Swope
Subject: Hot Glue and Foam (not a hot idea)

> but very quickly get too dull to work well). But now that I have foam, I
> need a hot glue gun. Being new to the whole hot glue concept, I was
> wondering if there's any special glue that works best for foam, or is it
> all pretty much the same? And do I need to brutally slobber the glue
> over every square inch, or would a more conservative approach work just
> as well? I know, I could figure it out by experimenting, but what the
> heck. I'm on the mailing list, I might as well use it, eh?

My advice is not to use hot glue at all. Look for something called Super Weatherstrip Adhesive (both 3M and Permatex make varieties; the 3M stuff is a little more expensive, but also a little better; either will do in a pinch). It is relatively easy to work with, and remains flexible when set.

IMPORTANT WORD OF CAUTION!!!! This stuff is toxic. You MUST have adequate ventilation, and I cannot stress stongly enough the importance of acquiring, using, and *MAINTAINING* an OSHA-approved respirator. Your liver will thank you.

By maintaining as mentioned above, the filter cartridges must be changed periodically, or the filter loses effectiveness.

From: Ysengrin
Subject: Hot Glue

On 21-JAN-1995 12:05:54.2 penhgwyn said to YSENGRIN
>now that I have foam, I need a hot glue gun. Being new to the whole
>hot glue concept, I was wondering if there's any special glue that
>works best for foam, or is it all pretty much the same? And do I need
>to brutally slobber the glue over every square inch, or would a more
>conservative approach work just as well?

Hot glue really doesn't work that well on foam - especially the harder foams. We use the amber 'ultra strength' hot glue, and I usually have to apply one layer on the foam and rub it in with a hot glue pad to make a bondable surface, or apply the glue twice. If you have the time to allow it to set (and don't need much flexibility) we've found that Weldwood works very well. That goes for fur-to-foam, too, but it's usually too stiff for costumes.

> -- Brian "picking bits of foam off everything in the house" Hagen

{gryn} just wait until you start furring ...

4.10 - Workplace lighting
=====================

See section 7.7