Making and Sanding Foam Noses

[batjimi]

Hey everyone I remember seeing a video of making a foam nose, where he cut it out of a foam block then sanded it smooth on a belt sander? He also dyed it the color he wanted has anyone done this and knows a few things about it? . such as what type of sand paper to use on the belt sander? any help you can give on this technique would be great thanks

 

[Goochman]

that seems like a lot of work... why not just use model magic?

 

[MuppetLabsBoy]

Carving a nose out of a block of foam is sometimes time consuming but looks extremely good in the end. To do it, first determine how large and what shape you want your nose to be. Draw the shape onto a piece of foam. Cut a block of foam out around the shape. You can use an electric knife to cut out the generic shape out of the block, but to get it smoother you are going to need to use a scissor. Small little snippets eventually make the nose round. For sanding it, a die grinder w/fine, abrasive tips works well. Just be careful because it can sometimes pull the foam out of your hands and cut a big chunk out of. I suggest that you just use some old foam laying around to practice using the tool before constructing the actual nose.

As far as dying the foam, check out this thread:
http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=52990


Model magic can be used but it isn't the best because when you mold it, you often get little lines and finger prints on it from your hands.

Hope that helps
-MLB

 

[Animal31]

As far as dying the foam, check out this thread:
http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=52990


Model magic can be used but it isn't the best because when you mold it, you often get little lines and finger prints on it from your hands.

Hope that helps
-MLB

I wanted to ask you about dyeing foam or antron, something as small as the tongue, how much dye did you use? I only want to do 2 small patches of fleece for a few noses....


Thanks!

 

[MuppetLabsBoy]

If you are using Rit dye, your best bet is to just follow the instructions on the back of the bottle (I recommend the liquid, the powder sometimes doesn't 100% dissolve and it gets stuck in the fibers of the fleece), because changing the amounts of dye to water can change the final color. If you want a different color than the standard bottle color, you can:
A) Just add more or less dye w/ other colors (a little bit risky)
B) Use
http://www.ritdye.com/colorit_color_formula_guide

Lastly, just a tip, dye a little bit extra antron for every puppet. I have a big bucket of scraps of antron the perfect size for noses and other parts. That way, I can pin of different colors onto the nose to see which one that I like or if I forgot to dye something or want to see how something looks, I don't have to go dyeing again.

-MLB

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Model magic can be used but it isn't the best because when you mold it, you often get little lines and finger prints on it from your hands.

I used to use that a lot years ago, but I've realized that it's a horrible material to work with.

BTW, I know it's popular to sand sculpted foam with a belt sander, but you can also do it by hand with a piece of sand paper very effectively. It just takes a little more patience, but it's cheaper and there isn't the danger that exists when you're trying to sand foam on a belt sander.

I have a Dremel Stylus and I've often wondered if it (or a regular Dremel) could be used to sand foam. Has anybody tried this?

 

[Goochman]

I haven't tried mine yet, I only use it for eyes so far. I know you can use a dremel on L200 type foam, not so sure about styrofoam... but I'd guess if your dremel has a low setting then you could use it carefully.