Does anyone here know a little about prop/costume making?

[Bizarro Amy]

I'm looking for information on using latex to make masks, headpieces, and other prosthetic-type stuff. I've had decent results sewing nylon pieces for some of my costumes, but I was looking for something that would be a little more permanent, and hopefully easier to apply. Is the latex used in these anything like the liquid latex you can get for mold-making? How do you go about molding it and coloring it? Is it safe to apply directly to the skin? If it's different from liquid latex, where do I get it and what kind of cost am I looking at? Any help would be appreciated.

[ABMAC]

You might want to consider silicone instead of latex. Latex is organic and will deteriorate.

I've seen paintable silicone online, but I seem to have lost the bookmark.

[Bizarro Amy]

I found a few hints in a Star Trek forum, but it looks like most of the stuff they make are just thin pieces that they glue onto their heads, such as Klingon foreheads. What I need is a lot larger than that, so there might not be a reasonable way to do what I want. It looks like I'd need to make a mold of my head, then sculpt the pieces I want, then make a cast of those in latex of silicone. And I still don't know if I'd be able to color it the way I want. I did a project before, where I made a headpiece out of tights and stuffed them. Then I just painted directly onto it. I wonder if I could just coat the already existing piece with that paintable silicone. It might be more lightweight than one made completely out of silicone.

[noelani72]

I belong to, The Replica Prop Forums .
I've personally not doen what you are attempting, but I have seen several threads. A dude even sculpted his own reproduction Alien suit, Alien suit and I have seen this site, Monster Makers talked about from time to time.

[Bizarro Amy]

Cool, thanks for the link! I'll check them out. I have a few ideas try for now, once I'm able to get some supplies. I was mostly thinking of latex, because at San Diego, there was a girl walking around dressed as a Twilek from Star Wars, and her headpiece(including tentacles) was perfect. She said it was latex, but that's all the time I really had to talk to her.