Chasing My Tail

This weekend I set out to build Rocky’s tail. It’s quite long/tall (extends above his head in many animation frames), and I want the costume to be generally huggable, so I needed it to be soft.

I detailed previously my decision to laminate NuFoam stabilized fiberfill with an inner piece of EVA to give it more vertical stability. The first part of the process was to do that lamination.

I already knew the tail would need a tether to my upper body to actually stand up. First I laminated the EVA with contact cement, using a heat gun, and got the two layers to stabilize the curve I wanted. The lamination process I added a patch of leather glued to the EVA (as a “washer” or keeper to keep the tether from cutting through the EVA and Nufoam) and cut slits for the elastic through the EVA.

After laminating the upper layers (4″ of NuFoam) with 3M Super 77 spray adhesive, and then the EVA to that, I threaded an excessively long piece of transparent elastic through the keeper slots and worked it out through the top layers of NuFoam. Then I glued the lower layer of NuFoam over the back side of the EVA with more spray adhesive.

This gave me a giant wedge of foam to start with. I shaped and tapered it down to the shape I wanted with shears (I experimented with multiple tools; good sharp sewing shears proved most effective on the NuFoam), then used quilters grid to block out a pattern for the fur.

I had some Oscar the Grouch colored fake fur in the garage (inherited from someone else’s stash or the PenWAG Stash Exchange) so I used that as a dry run for the tail fur. It was quite close, but showed me where I needed to tighten things up slightly. I then cut the final pieces out of my good grey fur, stitched it together (just a zigzag over the raw edges) and brushed out the seams). Once I was happy with the shape, I carefully cut two slits for the elastic to emerge.

Now came the hard part — managing the mount for the tail. It will be detachable from the main suit for ease of packing (and cleaning). During lamination I cemented a flap of leather to the underside of the EVA so it can be used as the base attachment point. I also knew I’d need a belt and shoulder harness inside the suit to support the weight. My first attempt at the latter with an elastic harness was far too stretchy and the tail sagged almost horizontal. I took some of my heavy leather and built a backplate to which both the tail base and upper tether could be attached, and after a few iterations, the tail now sits where and at the angle I hoped for.

It needs a little bit more stiffening across the shoulder blades, but it’s close enough that I’m confident it’ll ultimately work. Almost time to start the main suit!