Foam Skulls

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You can never have enough foam skulls for your home haunt. The problem is finding the clay molds. Paul from Bone Yard Bargains gave me the info I needed, I could find them at Nowell Clay Molds (). He also gave me tips on which type of foam to use and how to prepare foam skulls.

After obtaining my clay molds, I purchased some MINIMAL EXPANDING FOAM, (Don't use Great Stuff, it's not great stuff) I used RONA's brand of Minimal Expanding Foam. One can of Rona's Minimal Expanding Foam costs about $7.00 and you can typically get 2 large and 3 small skulls out of one can, providing the nozzel does not clog. In total I've gone through 11 cans. Then I discovered FOAM IT from Sculpture Supply.

Foam It & Flexfoam It are 2 products made by Smooth On.

These products are used all the time in the Special Effects Industry.

"Foam It" is a rigid polyurethane foam and "Flexfoam It" is a flexible polyurethane foam.

Now you can use your plaster molds, but you must seal them well. Dynise from Sculpture Supply can hook you up with a can of Krylon to coat your molds with. Apply a couple of coats and that's it. Otherwise she recommends you use a rubber mold instead of plaster. (Rubber mold making will be in the next OHC Newsletter). Since plaster is porous, water can be easily absorbed, and the foam it & flex foam will not cure properly resulting in a real gooey mess.

After your plaster mold has driend from applying the sealer, you spray 2 coats of Realease Ease 1700 on to your mold, using a small paint brush to get the release agent in to all the nooks and crannies.

Now comes the fun part. Basically you mix 2 solutions together in a disposable container according to the instructions, mix like mad & throughly for 30 seconds and then pour the mix in to your mold.

You have a limited time frame to mix and pour before it starts to expand. Once it begins expanding, it goes like stink. After about 5 minutes it's finished expanding.

Depending on the instructions, the curing time can be 2 hours or more.

The plus side of these 2 products is the end result, it's a better looking skull, there is no skrinkage, you can knock off a lot more skulls in a day since the curing period is substantially les, and you use a lot less product.

Personally I like it a lot better than the can's of spray foam. I haven't worked out the dollar factor. But the pint size kits of the Foam It & Flexfoam series range from $30.00 CDN to $37.00 plus taxes.

Foam It & Flex Foam come in a series of densities.

I like to use Foam It 5, and Flex Foam 10.

Pictures to be added shortly...