Starting Rocky’s Tail
One of Rocky’s signature features is his giant fluffy tail (it often rises taller than his head in the cartoons). After finishing his head and flying cap, that tail is my next major construction challenge (and I only have 4 weeks left! eep!).
I investigated several ways to make the tail free-standing and self-supporting, but having experimented with such things for both my Unicorn King and my Unicorn Pride Merman costumes, that often involves a moderately-to-very uncomfortable belt/hip harness under the costume to supply enough leverage to hold the tail up in the air. Psychette Cosplayer did build a free-standing fox tail but in addition to the aforementioned leverage problem it is made of rigid foam, and I want Rocky to be huggable, including his tail.
I settled on using Fairfield’s NuFoam cushion/batting to fill the tail; it’s a stabilized fiberfill that is moderately stable along two axes and very compressible along the 3rd, so it can be used to make cushions that hold their dimensions but are squooshy to sit on, without the density of a regular foam. It is very porous and lets water (and some air) pass through!
After some measurement help from Andy, I’ve cut out 3 identical blanks that are about 36″ tall, 13″ wide at the top and taper down to a 7″ base. Each layer is 2″ thick, so that will gives me a 6″ thick form for the tail when laminated together.
While the NuFoam is moderately stable along the “grain” dimensions, that shape is long enough that the foam will probably sag/buckle if I just try to stand it on end, so I am going need to stiffen it slightly. I had considered using Rigilene like I did in the Merman’s tail, but Andy suggested I use some of the EVA foam I have left over from building Rocky’s skull. Brilliant idea! I’ve cut two pieces of 10mm foam that I can laminate together to hold a base curve, then sandwich into the NuFoam as I glue it together. The support is about 30″ tall, so it should support most of the tail shape while letting the upper end curl naturally, and also give me a place to attach a transparent elastic strap to bring out of the upper surface of the tail and clip to a matching piece coming from a chest/shoulder harness under the main body. That will keep the tail upright without requiring all the cantilever work at the hip. Attaching to a harness under the fursuit will keep the strain off the fur itself. Ooh boy, I get to hand work a buttonhole in Rocky’s shoulders!
