Thread: What to fill a prop with?

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I bought a upper part of a zombie waist up all one piece. It's latex and is about 1/8 of an inch thick. I want to attach this to an air cylinder which is 1.5 inches in dia. What would you use to fill the prop and then encase it within the cylinder. Some sort of expanding foam?

Thanks

That's what I was thinking at first, but that might be a bad idea. Isn't expanding foam (such as Great Stuff) an exothermic chemical reaction that generates a lot of heat? It could damage or event melt the latex. It might also stretch your zombie if too much is put in.

Maybe you could cut some sections of pink styrofoam and glue them in?

I've used great stuff foam to filll a latex prop before and it doesn't melt the latex. However, it does stretch it, so you have to be really careful when filling it. Just put a thin layer in to begin with, cover everything lightly and leave it for a day before adding more. Even at that, you may get some stretching or distortion.

a lot of people use those styro foam wig head from the beauty supply store. I
ve found that some masks are too big for the wig head. Might also try newspaper, grocery bags, foam peanuts or foam rubber peices.

2 part expanding foam will very likely do the job well...
The first kit on this page fills about 2 cubic feet, which may be about the size of your zombie torso.
Expanding Foam

There may be better prices out there, but hope this helps give an idea.

Depending on how long your cylinder is and how you plan to set up this prop I would run a length of PVC pipe with a cap on the end inside the bust to accomodate the cylinder rod and maybe come back down over the cylinder. Hopefully this very crude drawing helps explain what I'm saying




I would think that it would be better to have a cylinder long enough to go completely through the prop, that way you could fasten the head of your torso to the cap of the PVC and cylinder shaft.

Is this torso one of those by Twisted Visions being sold on eBay?



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If you fill a latex prop with an expanding foam without the mold it will distort. Even with the mold using great stuff your latex cast will somewhat shrink, this actually looks pretty cool though. I'd try what sheepies666 suggested or maybe plaster bandages as an understructure that may give it some body.

Good luck.

"Is this torso one of those by Twisted Visions being sold on eBay?"

Yes it is.

Maybe I'll just make a PVC frame, add wire, then cover and slip the torso over this. Could be easier.