Well, Here I Go...

[D'Snowth]

Well again, really, the sneer wasn't occurring as I was fabricating the mouth, it was happening as I was attaching the plates to the foam.

But you are right, I do usually tend to make the bottom plate slightly smaller than the top, always have, it really makes the puppet's head look better that way... but I think I will try adding an additional half-inch of space next time.

 

[Melonpool]

The same thing will happen if the mouth plate is too large for the foam. You may have to add a little more foam to take the tension off a bit.

 

[D'Snowth]

Before I attempt this again, I'm wondering, does having any kind of lining on the back of the mouthplate have any affect on the process? That was one mistake I learned from when using cardboard mouthplates and having no protection on the back of them from sweaty hands, thus causing the cardboard to deteriorate, so I started lining the back of the mouthplates to prevent that from happening. I always use felt for the mouth itself (mouth, throat, tongue), and as such, just simply used felt to line the back of the mouthplates as well... so I'm wondering if it's necessary to do that with gasket rubber (like, would it deteriorate similar to cardboard with no protection, or maybe try using a different type of material or what)?

 

[D'Snowth]

One more question: based on what I have seen of some people's WIPs and tutorials, would it help eliminating the sneer if there was some kind of a slight curvature to the edges of the foam that would be glued to the mouthplates? And if so, should those edges being glued to the mouthplate be concave or convex?

 

[D'Snowth]

So... could somebody offer some insight to my previous two questions before I actually continue with the construction process?

 

[D'Snowth]

Well, since nobody helped me out, I went ahead and tried adding a slight curve to the edge of the foam that would be attached to the mouthplate (a convex curve to be exact), and that did seem to work quite well, I haven't fabricated the head yet, but so far, I haven't had any of the sneering problems I've had before.

But MAN, that red rubber does NOT like glue of ANY kind... I mean seriously, I had a time trying to fabricate the mouth AND attach the foam to the head, it wouldn't take hot glue, and it barely is taking fabri-tac... didn't have these problems with the black/gray rubber, but then again, its surface wasn't quite as smooth and slick, which probably explains it, but the red was all that was available.

 

[kumakami]

contact cement?

 

[D'Snowth]

I'll keep that in mind.

That or try to avoid the red rubber altogether.

 

[NextJim1225]

If that doesn't work, I'd recommend bathing the red rubber in alcohol. It shouldn't affect it texture and it makes the glue actually stick to it.

 

[D'Snowth]

Interesting note, thanks.