Tails.
 

As you might know, I did a Na'vi costume before (should make a thread here with my photos of that), but it was very improvised (got it together the day before :P ), and now I'm thinking about what I'll do differently next time... An actual tail is definitely needed, wondering if people had an idea on making one or where to buy (in the UK) one that looks right (or could be made to look right)

Well, you could always become a foster parent to a lemur. Then have them walk around on your back, shave its tail except the tip, and paint it blue ^.^ (I kid, PETA would eat you limb for limb) lol :p

I doubt you can buy a tail for your costume...
I guess you could try and make one, shame it would be a static tail :/

Lol, add hydraulics and some electronics and go for random tail movement :D

Some wires? Some kind of... plastic material or something... then paint it blue.

What I thought of when it comes to tails was to have some kind of poseable wire, (like the wires found in pipecleaners) to wrap it in some kind of padding or material, and then to paint it accordingly.

This, of course would make the tail poseable, but it would obviously not be controlable. (something virtually impossible for the regular cosplayer to make I think)

As for buying a tail, i'm not sure. I seem to remember having one myself many a year ago for a fancy-dress party, maybe you can pick one up from somewhere...

Yeah they sell cat tails here and there, not the right colour though and usually short (children's size).

Mine I made from a thick piping cord (sold at fabric store) which is like a very soft fabric rope... almost like a rope but more like a very thick cord... and wrapped it with fabric of similar colour to my bodysuit. This way it had the right thickness and weight to it. I've also seen other Na'Vi though use the wire technique with stuffing, so it can hold a certain pose.

An idea for making a more 'live' looking tail is making an armature out of wood disks.
I have a picture in my head of what it would look like, its' difficult to describe but think of how a dinosaur tail is constructed, or a spine. Multiple disks with cushions in between all strung on a ligament. To make it stay up, a fine fishing line attached to your waist is one way, but making the curve at the bottom of the tail static and the end more mobile is another idea. (Really hard to write down the visual in my head.)
I have seen snake vertebrae beads, but they are tiny, but fit together in a wavy pattern. It keeps them static in a line but allows movement in all directions.
::sigh::
Hope that helped other than making you confused.

I had a wooden snake toy that used a similar principle of motion using spaced disks. If you could get it to be light enough, I think this would indeed make a cool free-moving tail design.

Here is what I'm talking about, note how the upper ones retain their horizontal structure, but the one below shows how flexible this is.
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/4218/762656311250.jpg

Ahh yes, I remember these.

With enough skill and time, I think you could probably learn to control a tail constructed in such a way fairly well. Horizontally at least, vertically would be slightly more difficult to achieve. Great idea! ;)

Some amazing ideas here :)

Little update on this.

We've been having a number of car-boot sales recently to raise some money for my trip which involves getting rid of a lot of stuff. Anyway... I came across an old toy snake I had. It's about 70cm long and it's completely poseable. I'm thinking of possibly cannibalising it for a potential tail.

I'm not entirely sure how it works but I think it has some kind of plastic skeleton with stiff joints which allow it to be posed as you wish. Kind of similar in construction to the pictures above except it won't move freely about.

lol, what, r u guna use a cobra for a tail then?

No, i'll paint it or something ya fool. :P

That or i'll cut it open and just take out the skeleton and put something over it. I have a few ideas.

Nice, I'll have to look into that :)

Looking to start production on that tail idea I had in a few days. Pics included, ;)

My tail is probably just going to use a piece of wire :(