How do I make latex alien hands???

Ok, it looks like there's a few people here who know a bit about this kind of thing, so does anyone know how to do this?

I know I have to make a lifecast of my hands, make a positive cast of the mold, then sculpt the hands off of those. Then I make a mold of the sculpture, correct? But how do I make the latex cast so that it's hollow? Do I make a second cast of my hands and suspend them in the mold when i pour in the latex? This is the only thing i can't figure out. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

(for the curious, theyre going to be hands for Plo Koon. I was him for Halloween, but I just made claws for my middle fingers, which looked great except that the makeup i put on my hands wore off by the end of the night, so I kinda just want a set of gloves to take off when I eat and stuff.)

Also, I'm assuming you do the same thing (as far as making the latex hollow) for a mask, right?

 

Well, the latex hands that you would mold to your hands wouldn't be the kind of thing you would be able to take off at will. If you want something like that, I would actually build the hands around a pair of gloves.

I don't really know about the actual process though, so I can't help you there.

 

You pour the latex into the mould and wait a few minutes. The latex on the mould will form a skin and then you pour the excess latex back into the container. This is how you do it in mask-making anyway, and I would imagine it's the same in hands.

Here are two great websties that sell supplies for this, as well as carry training books and videos and have lots of good info:

MonsterMakers
FXSupply

 

Thanks, JediToren!!!

It always seems so simple when someone points it out to you. I can't believe I didn't think of that. heh

 

im thinking of making one of my kids a "yoda" costume. i will make the hands and feet by making clay molds of the hands then making a plaster cast of those.then i can fill that cast with latex to create a glove of sorts.it will have to be painted after that.if you made a plaster cast of your hand then used clay to build the molds on that you could then make the plaster cast of the hands.do more research and start playing with it.you will mess up the first few trys so take your time.
skip

 

JediToren, do you have any links for mask-making how-to? Those sites are great, but does someone with no idea need to shell out for a book or video, or are there places with tutorials like costuming? Thanks.

P.S. If you have a second more to spare, you could send me the all powerful PM of costuming truth, if you wanna...

 

Take a look at these hands here::::

[image=http://members.aol.com/strahd27/celebration21.jpg]

or here is a view further away

[image=http://members.aol.com/strahd27/images/saber%20good%20light1.jpg]

In certain times and places, we get carried away and say we "Must" do things the hardest way possible. A trap to avoid.
This was my Plo Koon at Celebration. And I made the hands by buying an off the shelf pair of green monster hands at the local costume shop. I painted them yellow and orange myself, covered with a clear layer.

The only difference with this and what you propose is that these were not form fitted to my hands, but as the picture with the saber shows, I can hold anything I want. And in that hot convention center, I was very glad to have a airflow going thru my fingers.

Do you have pics you can show us of what you have done so far?

 

yeah, there's a picture at www.geocities.com/ugnaught7/jedi.jpg but u cant see my hands very well. Besides, I just made a big talon for my middle fingers and put makeup on my hands.

Your hands fit your mask well, but I was looking for a more accurate look. Plo Koon has 4 fingers instead of 5. I bought some 4-fingered alien gloves, but they were really big and looked goofy, plus they had no nails and had suction cups on the fingers. Believe me, I always try to go cheap (u should see my Chewbacca costume), so I looked all over for possible solutions. But this seems like it would be a good learning experience and ive been meaning to test my sculpting skills for a while.

By the way, check out my Chewbacca costume:
www.geocities.com/ugnaught7/chewbacca.jpg

it's got stilts but u can see i used a don post mask and used fake fur instead of gluing hair to a suit. But for $150 i thought it wasnt bad. it needs resurrecting sometime soon.

 

Not half bad for $150, but like I said, those Don Post masks really are fur explosions. How was visibility in that thing? I can't even see your eyes.

Did you build some kind of arm extension on there?

Where were these photos taken at, BTW?

That looks like one of the older masks (early 80's I think when they actually had one with an open mouth)

 

Thanks, JediToren. The visibility sucked in that thing. i had to cut the eyes bigger cuz they poked me in the eye. it was also so small it took me 3 tries to get it on every time i wore it. i couldnt get my chin in there. i think it was made in the last couple years, but based off the mold from the 80s.

and yeah, i had arm extentions. i figured since i was making my legs 16" longer, i needed my arms to be about a foot longer to compensate, so i bought 2 of those toy robotic hands, made them a bit longer with some tubes and stuff, and rearranged the fingers on one to make it a left hand (they only made right hands of this toy). so the fingers move, which everyone thought was pretty funny. i couldnt hold my crossbow though.

i'd do a few things differently if i did it over. for instance, i made the bandolier in proportion to my own body, but when i made my limbs longer, the bandolier looked small in comparison. oh well

but at any rate, those pix were taken in my college dorm from 2 years ago. thank god i dont live there anymore. lol

 

Is that the official Don Post Plo Koon mask? Or was it homemade?
I think I know which 4 fingered gloves you are talking about. I did a lot of looking at fake hands before I settled on what I chose. I kept 5 fingers as to get gloves that went down to mid forearm (so I can lift my arms over my head and not expose human skin). Its not a big priority to get 4 fingers unless you are attending a SW perfectist convention (not that they dont exist).

 

Yeah, it's the officially lisenced Rubies mask. Seeing that mask made me want to be him in the first place.