Duct Tape Dummy

Making your Own ‘Duct tape dummy’ Mannequin

The advantage of doing it this way is that you will end up with a mannequin that’s exactly the same size as you. That way, any costume you fit onto it will fit you, and any costume that fits you can be displayed as if you are wearing it. A ‘duct tape dummy’ is also much cheaper than buying a retail mannequin.

There is also a YouTube video about this below,

I started with a roll of ‘duct tape’ / fabric tape / gaffer tape, and a roll of ‘pallet wrap’ which is like thick cling film. In all, two rolls of tape were used. Click for bigger pictures.

You’ll need an assistant for most of this. I am also wearing old clothes which don’t matter too much. First you will need to cover yourself with something, I used the pallet wrap:

Once that’s done you need to cover yourself with the tape:

Now it’s time to cut the whole thing off:

And that will leave you with a ‘second skin’ which fits you perfectly:

The idea is that you tape this up again and stuff it to produce a dummy the same shape as you. You’ll probably want to make a frame for the dummy so it stands upright. I used 40mm PVC water waste pipe for this, although you could use wood or metal etc:

Now you need to get the skin back on and stuff it. I used bubble wrap, but you could use foam, newspaper etc

I used more duct tape to tape up the seams as I went:

Once that was done, I decided to make a wooden base for the dummy, because it made it a lot more stable for hanging a heavy costume on such as Iron man:

I put a one piece suit on the dummy which I’d had a while, but it was a little tight on me to be comfortable. I also used a polystyrene head for the head which is just taped on with more tape. I had to extend the neck with a piece of polystyrene board to give it human proportions:

You can see the dummy in use in my Iron Man MkVI project.