Nice Body…Can I have a Copy?

Alright,so you’re cruisin’ through the con and you see a fine lookin’ lady coming towards you…and then walk right past you…so you think to yourself, “Dang, I’d love to have a copy of her at home.” Well, you’re in luck, because this week I’m showing you how to make your very own body cast! I personally made a Tally (Cosplay Girl of the Month for November 2010) to keep at home!

Yeah, ok, I’m such a liar. Really, Tally and I are making Rescue armor for her for Comic Con this year, but isn’t my intro way more interesting!?! Aaaannnnyyyyway, so here’s a bit of a step-by-step on how to do a body cast, and as the months go by Tally and I will be showing our progress on making her a brand spankin’ new Rescue armor.

Now the step-by-step of how to cast your bits and pieces (I hope I don’t forget anything…)

Step 1: Get your supplies ready, you’ll need:

• Drop cloth (unless you like a mess all over your apartment)
• Scissors
• Markers
• Plastic wrap and/or Vaseline
• Plaster strips
• A pan full of warm water (no one wants to be covered in cold plaster and you don’t want to dip your hands in cold water the whole time)

Step 2: Prep your supplies and your subject.

• Cut up your plaster strips so you don’t have to do that as you’re working
• Cover your subject in plastic wrap if you’re doing a larger area, possibly using tape to contour better to the person’s body. Or if the area is small and detailed like a face (don’t wrap your friend’s face in plastic wrap) use Vaseline. It’s really only in places like a neck or a torso that you’d need tape.
• 

Step 3: Get your plaster wet, squish it around, and put it on your subject.

• Take a pre cut strip (you should have a pile of them right now sitting in a pan)
• Dip the strip into the warm water (be a good human being and use warm water)
• Twist the strip around a bit to get the plaster spread
• Apply it to your subject. When doing something like a torso or a head, I suggest doing your cast in a shell style. Upper arms and upper legs for the most part can just be pulled off, but in an area where curves get in the way (or a hand or a foot) you’re going to want to just be able to lift the plaster off. Do this by drawing a line at the half way point on the plastic wrap and then put plaster up to that point, leave a small gap, and then start in on the back side. Then when the plaster is dry you just lift it off.

Step 4: Let dry, and make sure your subject doesn’t die

• The plaster doesn’t take too long to dry, but it all depends on how wet you got the plaster and how many layers you did. If you have a hair dryer, use it on a low setting to dry the plaster quicker.
• This is also the point where your subject may pass out: standing still for a few hours wrapped in plastic wrap and cold plaster. So watch your person! If they do pass out, take the plaster off them and lay them down, let the blood go back to their head. I know when I pass out I enjoy a cold cloth on my head and some water, so be there with that if your person passes out. If you’re doing a full body cast on someone, try to have two friends there. The process will go faster and an extra person is great when your subject passes out.

And that’s it; you now have a full body cast and a mess!

So instead of cleaning have a drink and celebrate your awesomeness; it has been a long messy day!

Now, I know there are many, many, ways to do a body cast, but I have found this method to be the simplest, safest, most cost effective, and least harmful to everyone/thing (my floor) involved. This is also just a tutorial on how to make the negative of a person, if you’d like to make the positive…well…to sum up; Vaseline up the inside of the thing you cast and then fill that with plaster (not bandages, actual liquid type plaster). Once again, there are a lot of different materials/methods to do this, but you can find these supplies for cheap at a craft store and they’re relatively safe to the novice costumer, so we’ll just go with this method!

So, this has been Step 1 in building the armor for Tally’s Rescue.  The next step, which I’m currently working on, is drawing up the different armor pieces that we will then sculpt onto this negative cast, but that’s a post for the future…

Kit Quinn
Kit@ComicImpact.com