How does one mount Mannequin heads on a standard tripod without buying an expensive specialised mannequin mount? Who invented this infernal mounts which don’t fit any standard kinds of tripods? I never quite figured out what was the normal way so I made up my own way of producing a mount using tinfoil, hot water, and polymorph – a kind of thermoplastic which often has a material finish that doesn’t work for the exterior of a project, but definitely works for an internal part which no one is going to ever look at.

Here is this offending mannequin mount hole that I can’t seem to find a way to fit on the tripod.

Using tin foil I covered the inside of the hole so that my thermoplastic would not accidentally bond to the plastic of the mannequin head itself

I bought a bag of assorted tripod screws / adapters / converters online. There were 30 of these mixed screws in a bag and they are always handy to have!

Next I just heated up the polymorph with hot water. I bought a few bags of these several years ago, this particular thermoplastic fuses at 60 degrees celsius making it easy to handle and mould into the form you want after it is immersed in boiling water for a short while.

The tripod screw is embedded into the thermoplastic in the hole.

And a perfectly functional, custom-made mannequin mount for a standard tripod is made from things found around the house!

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