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The main reason I didn't make the whole suit out of rubber was cost. Latex rubber is about $60.00 a gallon, and I didn't
have the money to spend on 10+ gallons of latex. I don't know how to work with the foam rubber used in the movie, nor do I
know where to obtain this.So I needed to find a product that was flexible, able to be painted, water resistant, and sculptable....
...this turned out to be Dap Dynaflex 230 Premium Elastomeric Latex Sealanttm, used for doors and
windows (available at Home Depot for $3.00 or so a tube)!!. I do like the gray best, but had to use dark bronze in some areas
due to them being out of the gray. The only problems I have run into with this material is that I have used a lot of it, it
takes a week or more to dry, it's REALLY heavy, and it may not hold to cloth too well. So, underwater pics of the creech suit
may be minimal, and then it's off with the suit to let it dry out before the scales start to slough!!
Patterning was really quite easy. The sealant was applied thick at the edge of the scale and spread back, to give the
illusion of overlapping scales. With wet fingers and a mist bottle, this sealant can be smoothed to the look of glass. Several
small stick candles were used for individual scales. The blunt end was carved into different scale shapes, and then dipped
in water and pressed into the wet sealant. The sealant skins over in a day or so, and the suit was then moved to the warmest
room of the house for further drying.
After every time the suit is worked on, and it is almost totally set, it must be put on and moved around in. If totally
dry, the thickness of the scales would not stretch, and the suit would no longer fit. And that would be bad!!!
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