Plast'r Craft Mannequin

[yccars]

My ODST armor has been on hold for a bit (haven't gotten farther than chest and shoulder plates) due to other pressing projects like my advanced drawing and fabrication classes. I am, however, working hard to finish my helmet in two weeks for homecoming week



Anyway, we all want mannequins so we can see our awesome work even when we're not wearing it, right? Of course I've seen Sean Bradley's tut on expanding foam molds, but I just don't have time to do a full-body one. I could PROBABLY do one or two layers of the foam a day...



So I discussed this with my teachers and came up with this. It's called Plast'r Craft, made by Pacon and sold by United Arts at $60/20lb. It's basically gauze impregnated with plaster of paris. In a nutshell: soak it and wrap it around yourself.



This is appealing to me because it has far fewer steps than Sean's saran-wrap method, and hardens itself. I'm afraid that it's going to be brittle, dusty, rough, and heavy. If anyone has ever worked with this before, I'd appreciate some input.

 

[Vampyredh]

go check out the pep mannequins thread both souless sin and myself started I can make you a body double in your size and then you just need to harden it.

 

[LeytonInTheNet]

WOAH! BAD IDEA! DON'T DO IT!

This is a serious danger; if you wrap this around yourself, you'll be slowly BURNT TO DEATH!

The reaction creates enough heat to give you a severe third degree burn. A stupid colleague of mine said,



"Hey! This stuff is like a plaster cast!"



He wrapped it around his finger, left it for a while and came back from the hospital with no finger...

So seriously, DON'T DO IT!

 

[Achille]

It's perfectly safe to use. I don't know what =Ω24= Leyton is talking about, there is no "reaction" going on in this, just the addition of water to plaster. If anything, it will make you colder, since as the water evaporates, it wicks heat away from your body. I've wrapped my little brother's head in it, and he was perfectly fine.



Onto some specs.



Brittle: I used about two or three layers on my brother's head, and, while I wouldn't call it sturdy, it doesn't break easily. It flexes a bit, though.



Dusty: Very dusty when dry, although if you spray over it with a primer or sealer, it should be fine.



Rough: Surprisingly, no. You can run your finger along the outside of the gauze while it's wet to create a fine layer of plaster. It's not like a baby's bottom, but it's also no like sandpaper.



Heavy: The weight varies depending on how much water you add while putting it on, but once it's dry it will be it's original weight. For example, if you make the mannequin with one 20lb bulk bag, once it is all dry, the mannequin will weigh about 20 lbs.



As for using for a mannequin... not if you want the mannequin to last forever. This stuff wears down pretty easily, but it's fine for a temporary stand.

 

[carnage]

Ok I have personal experience in this.

Firstly wrapping someones head in this is not a good move trust me ...your lucky no-one got hurt. Also the reactions you get from plaster bandages is firstly heat...as it goes off it heats up..then it cools and draws heat from your body...and if your fully enclosed its gonna get very very cold. I personally know a few people have had to be broken out of the molds before it had time to fully set due to the cold reactions to their bodies.

on another note its also possible to get a smooth outer coat from plaster bandages I know this for a fact as I've done this myself.



If you are serious about doing this then you will need a team of people who all know what they are doing.

Also a plaster cast of your body is really just for taking a mold of your body so that you can then make cast's from it.

2-3 layers in no where near enough it will be to thin to hold its shape properly.

I'm not going to go into the full details on how to make a plaster mold of your body simply because you are not wanting to make a mold

 

[Achille]

Firstly wrapping someones head in this is not a good move trust me ...your lucky no-one got hurt.

Let me clarify, I wrapped the plaster around his hairline. The plaster never went down past mid-forehead.



And I'm wondering if we are talking about the same item. Both Carnage and =Ω24= Leyton have mentioned a reaction. In the plaster bandages I used, no reaction was taking place. I simply wetted the cloth and allowed it to dry. I understand the concern with the cold, although it seems to me that placing a number of heat lamps near the person would keep them warm enough.



Yccars, are you looking to do a full body mannequin with this, or just a head bust?

 

[LeytonInTheNet]

Maybe I'm thinking of something different then...



I know it was both made with a mixture of gauze and plaster of paris, and only requires water. It also has the same end results Achille talked about, but the product was a UK variant, and may have been made differently I guess :lol



Sorry for the possible false alarm, just thought I'd put my own experience with similar products here just in case it has the same effect. Hope it goes well for you!



Please be sure to upload pics afterwards; I'd be quite interested to see the results.

 

[yccars]

Sorry, I've been away for a bit without internet access.



Yes, I too am unsure about what the heck you were talking about with the heat reaction...sounds more like your friend tried to wrap his finger in fiberglass lol



I do plan to work with the help a small team of experienced members of my high school art department, including the 3d art teacher. For now, I'm just planning on making a bust. I planned on perhaps wrapping it tightly with cloth or something, and then maybe reinforcing the inside with some braces.



I do eventually want to build a full body mannequin, though. I just thought I'd explore some less orthodox methods of going about that. Thanks for the advice/suggestions everyone.

 

[Achille]

And I'm wondering if we are talking about the same item. Both Carnage and =Ω24= Leyton have mentioned a reaction. In the plaster bandages I used, no reaction was taking place. I simply wetted the cloth and allowed it to dry.

I know this is a pretty old topic, but I feel justified in making this post. I AM COMPLETELY WRONG IN THE ABOVE STATEMENT. There definitely is a reaction that takes place, and, if enough plaster is used, it can generate sufficient heat to do severe harm. I do not know the specifics, but it is not just the water evaporating which dries the plaster.



I came across this article today, and definitely thought that this should be shown to everyone. This shows both the safety concerns of using Plaster, and the importance of following directions.



I apologize for both the necro post, and for misleading anyone. Carnage, =Ω24= Leyton, you guys had it right and I am sorry for contradicting you.

 

[Dani Girl]

Agreed, this is not a good method. Anything to do with plaster will cause a heat reaction (that's what makes the plaster harden).



I've done a full body cast, however, it was done with a layer of alginate, with a plaster jacket. The alignate kept the heat off my skin (see my gallery)



If you want to do a cast of yourself, I suggest doing the many other methods that has been presented thus far.

 

[guido666]

Ok, just so that there is no voodoo speculation, here is how plaster works (and it's not like a thermoset plastic). The gypsum is dug out of the ground, and the material naturally has water molecules bonded to it. They bake it in an oven, and the energy of the heat breaks water molecules off, and they go away in the exhaust. So the plaster is sitting in a high energy state (because all that energy was added to push the water away, and the water is gone, so it's waiting anxiously to rejoin the water). When you add water, the water molecules happily rebond to form gypsum and the energy is released as heat. So the burns you get from plaster are purely mechanical (heat), and can be extremely dangerous. To top it off, plaster expands while hardening, then contracts at the last minute in the final hardening stages. So people that put body parts in buckets of it, like the guy in that article, get trapped in under pressure right at the worst possible moment.



On a "cool" note, this reaction is how they make a lot of fireproof safes. They fill the hollow walls with plaster (ever wonder why they are so heavy?), and when the fire gets to it, the plaster absorbs a lot of the energy while the water bakes out. This slows the advance of the fire.