Rerclusiarch
New member
ahahahah poor pile of Junos XD
Good job pal!
Good job pal!
The Casting of Flash Juno
- Thread starter PegaZus
- Start date
SkelettetS
New member
same here, very interesting!
PegaZus
Stealth Freak
Glad everyone is enjoying my pain and suffering.
No, that wasn't sarcasm. I'm enjoying it too. I am hoping that I'll get to start making some decent copies shortly, which I'll post up as well, but that hectic schedule looms. If only those lotto ticket numbers would hit! Course it would probably help if I actually bought a ticket now and then.
No, that wasn't sarcasm. I'm enjoying it too. I am hoping that I'll get to start making some decent copies shortly, which I'll post up as well, but that hectic schedule looms. If only those lotto ticket numbers would hit! Course it would probably help if I actually bought a ticket now and then.
zombiesincorporated
New member
Are you chilling your resin? If not, put it in the fridge overnight. Cooling it will extend the curing time. I've used Micromark resin with good results (I believe it had a 2 minute working time), but it looks like what you are using can do the job fine. Also, air vents will help. Air bubbles will happen, so you just have to give them a better place to go. Best of luck and continued success!
"He's got a bit of flash" -- you did that on purpose, didn't you?
"He's got a bit of flash" -- you did that on purpose, didn't you?
PegaZus
Stealth Freak
I'm not chilling the resin. I can see how that would slow things down, but it also seems to conflict with the instructions to heat the mold. And I could put in air vents at the back of the knees, but I would have to hack up the mold pretty harshly to do that now. But both suggestions are filed away, and I may even try the chilling once with this mold. Only costs me a few ml of resin.
"He's got a bit of flash" -- you did that on purpose, didn't you?
No, no, no. I wouldn't do that. I'm not that clever, jou know?
PegaZus
Stealth Freak
Well mold #1 is kaput. Tried casting up a couple today with little success. Air bubbles in various spots, which didn't cause the demise. But it was the chunks of mold that the casting trapped and ripped out. Started out with little pieces around the edges which would have been okay until the chunky triangle under the helmet arm decided to go. Plus it started to develop cracks where I was flexing everything to get it to pop out.
So Mark II mold will be coming done the line at some point. I think a big problem with this mold was that nearly all the mold features are on one side. That made it hard to remove, and maybe led to the recent problems. So I'm going to sit down and review what I've got to get a better mold for try two. Suppose if I got really ambitious I could make a three part mold. Nah.
In any case, the saga continues!
So Mark II mold will be coming done the line at some point. I think a big problem with this mold was that nearly all the mold features are on one side. That made it hard to remove, and maybe led to the recent problems. So I'm going to sit down and review what I've got to get a better mold for try two. Suppose if I got really ambitious I could make a three part mold. Nah.
In any case, the saga continues!
PegaZus
Stealth Freak
Really neat idea for a thread Pegazus. The engineer in me is enjoying this "work". And I do not see any failed casts, just a lot of diorama victims for you bits box
True. Son is plotting a deformed zombie clone army. Couldn't hurt I suppose. I have kept all the rejects save one, and it was so deformed it looked like a Star Trek transporter accident.
PegaZus
Stealth Freak
Of all the things that my mind could worry about at 2AM, making a mold isn't something that I'd have guessed. But it did. Kept me awake thinking about it until 3AM when I rolled out of bed and down to the desk. Spent nearly two hours on Flash Juno Mold vers 2.0. After I took the picture below, I smoothed out the area around his head, and put in the precision alignment markers (aka pachinko balls). Those of you who followed my previous attempts may notice the addition of some sprue near the previous problem point. The more I looked at the green, the more I realized that would be a weak point regardless of what I do. So this was an attempt to get it to work right. Well, righter.
Wait... "righter"? I'm going back to bed.
Oh, and the mold is poured for part one. Might get to the second half on Sunday.
Wait... "righter"? I'm going back to bed.
Oh, and the mold is poured for part one. Might get to the second half on Sunday.
PegaZus
Stealth Freak
Mr. Juno has been flipped over and most of the clay removed in the below picture. I wanted to post this rather than a nice clean shot to illustrate that I've probably killed this mold already. Notice the nice big chunk of blue clay around his arm? I've got some worries that it'll be the same way with the silicone mold. However, rather than redoing it, I'm going to press on for now. Who knows, maybe things will work out. I doubt it, but there's always hope.
Anyway, before I go to bed, wanted to pass along a bit of molding advice of my own. Always have a secondary thing to mold up. That way any extra material that's mixed up doesn't really go to waste. I forgot this myself this evening, so rushed to find something before the goop started to harden. Looking through the bits and pieces of my trays, I found only one thing that interested me. A big wood screw. The thought is that it'll be some strange piece of electrical equipment, and be like a spiral post thingy. However, I didn't have the foresight to make that a two piece mold as well, so I'm going to have a bunch of screws stuck in silicone, and any casts I do will be the same. Think I'll put some toothpicks or something in the ends of any casts so I can just unscrew the copies out of the silicone. We'll see how that goes, however!
Picture picture:
Anyway, before I go to bed, wanted to pass along a bit of molding advice of my own. Always have a secondary thing to mold up. That way any extra material that's mixed up doesn't really go to waste. I forgot this myself this evening, so rushed to find something before the goop started to harden. Looking through the bits and pieces of my trays, I found only one thing that interested me. A big wood screw. The thought is that it'll be some strange piece of electrical equipment, and be like a spiral post thingy. However, I didn't have the foresight to make that a two piece mold as well, so I'm going to have a bunch of screws stuck in silicone, and any casts I do will be the same. Think I'll put some toothpicks or something in the ends of any casts so I can just unscrew the copies out of the silicone. We'll see how that goes, however!
Picture picture:
SkelettetS
New member
interesting hope for better luck with this mould!
hope for better luck with this mould!
PegaZus
Stealth Freak
Thanks. I separated the two halves this morning before heading to work, and couldn't see any issues with that arm pocket. It didn't look nearly as bad as I thought it would. Meaning the overhang/undercut looked manageable. Proof will be when I make a first pour with it.
The wood screws came out rather easily, by the way. Silly, but I'm a little more excited to see how that turns out.
With my traditional Monday Night Football tonight (aka falling asleep in the third quarter on the couch), it may be tomorrow before I get to see any progress on either cast.
The wood screws came out rather easily, by the way. Silly, but I'm a little more excited to see how that turns out.
With my traditional Monday Night Football tonight (aka falling asleep in the third quarter on the couch), it may be tomorrow before I get to see any progress on either cast.
Bloodshovel
New member
Peg, can I make some suggestions? I've got a bit of casting experience. never full bodies at one time though.
1) make a vibration table, and shift to longer cure time resin so you have more time to get the air bubbles out. the 3min oomoo stuff is great for 1 part molds where you can see the air bubbles and manually lance them, but kind of suck any time you have to sift air out. You can make a small one cheap.
(pictured upside down)This is just a PC fan, with a piece of sentra bolted to the top, a bolt in 1 fan blade to make the fan shake, and some rubber tubing to use as legs so that it has a surface that it easily shakes on. Just hook it up to a 9 volt battery to operate.
2) when your using putty or clay for backing while you cast the front side, smooth it out as much as possible. having a smooth surface will allow you to carve additional channels to get air out if you find a place that's getting air bubbles. just make a small v shaped channel in one side of the mold with an xacto knife.
3) You don't need those giant ball bearings. You'll be better off just taking the back of the brush, and pressing it into the clay before you cast the first side. it's a bit smaller than the ballbearings and you can do it all around the mini to make sure that lines up all the way around. (I'm afraid your mold is going to shift by his feet and give some crazy mold lines.
4) run your air pipes all the way to top of the mold and out of it. you'll wind up with resin pipes to trim off instead of air bubbles.
1) make a vibration table, and shift to longer cure time resin so you have more time to get the air bubbles out. the 3min oomoo stuff is great for 1 part molds where you can see the air bubbles and manually lance them, but kind of suck any time you have to sift air out. You can make a small one cheap.
(pictured upside down)This is just a PC fan, with a piece of sentra bolted to the top, a bolt in 1 fan blade to make the fan shake, and some rubber tubing to use as legs so that it has a surface that it easily shakes on. Just hook it up to a 9 volt battery to operate.
2) when your using putty or clay for backing while you cast the front side, smooth it out as much as possible. having a smooth surface will allow you to carve additional channels to get air out if you find a place that's getting air bubbles. just make a small v shaped channel in one side of the mold with an xacto knife.
3) You don't need those giant ball bearings. You'll be better off just taking the back of the brush, and pressing it into the clay before you cast the first side. it's a bit smaller than the ballbearings and you can do it all around the mini to make sure that lines up all the way around. (I'm afraid your mold is going to shift by his feet and give some crazy mold lines.
4) run your air pipes all the way to top of the mold and out of it. you'll wind up with resin pipes to trim off instead of air bubbles.
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PegaZus
Stealth Freak
Thanks for the advice. It is welcome from any and all. I do plan on doing some cuts to get the tubes to vent to the top of the mold, and didn't smooth the clay because I was probably way out of it when I did the first half. And your absolutely right on the balls. I'll probably want to go with something larger than my brush handles as the tend to be thin. Probably use the knife handle.
The shaker table is something that would be nice, but I'm being absolutely cheapskate on that. However, I've got a small table top jigsaw that might work. It's not well balanced to begin with, so I might strap a box on top of that to put the mold in. Good thing about that is it'll stop annoying my wife when I pound on the table!
The shaker table is something that would be nice, but I'm being absolutely cheapskate on that. However, I've got a small table top jigsaw that might work. It's not well balanced to begin with, so I might strap a box on top of that to put the mold in. Good thing about that is it'll stop annoying my wife when I pound on the table!
PegaZus
Stealth Freak
The first pour of Mold 2.0 has finished! While it isn't a figure I can sell, it's a good bit better than the first cast of Mold 1.0. Sorry, but no picture yet. Did the pour before heading to work, then unmolded at my desk. Ill grab one when we get home.
I did too much squishy-squishy to the mold to help remove air bubbles, so he's doing a Han Solo impression with a full flash layer all around. But! The only defect other than that is an air bubble in his right foot. That can be fixed like last time by cutting another air channel for that foot. The other foot appears to be at an angle that won't really trap air easily. It was more balanced between the halves.
Another thing that likely helped was clamping it to the side of the jigsaw and turning that on for a minute. I was pretty worried that it would be too violent, but without anything to cut, it was a very gentle and rhythmic vibration. So I'll be certain to use just that and not the squishy-squishy on the next pour.
The positive side of this is that I've managed to get something that I believe I can get a paint job up on. I've one perfect cast from the previous mold, but don't want to use it for the "studio paint job". But with the minor amount of trimming and repair that this one needs, I think it'll work out. Just a little ball of putty and a minor sanding of that will give a good figure.
I did too much squishy-squishy to the mold to help remove air bubbles, so he's doing a Han Solo impression with a full flash layer all around. But! The only defect other than that is an air bubble in his right foot. That can be fixed like last time by cutting another air channel for that foot. The other foot appears to be at an angle that won't really trap air easily. It was more balanced between the halves.
Another thing that likely helped was clamping it to the side of the jigsaw and turning that on for a minute. I was pretty worried that it would be too violent, but without anything to cut, it was a very gentle and rhythmic vibration. So I'll be certain to use just that and not the squishy-squishy on the next pour.
The positive side of this is that I've managed to get something that I believe I can get a paint job up on. I've one perfect cast from the previous mold, but don't want to use it for the "studio paint job". But with the minor amount of trimming and repair that this one needs, I think it'll work out. Just a little ball of putty and a minor sanding of that will give a good figure.
PegaZus
Stealth Freak
Picture time!
From Left to Right:
1) Cast from this morning, with the bad toe.
2) This afternoon's first cast. Tried specifically keeping the toes down to try to get the air bubble out, along with the vibration machine. Results were better... but still the same toe had a bubble. Went in and cut some vents to help cut down on that problem.
3) Second afternoon cast. No problem with the toes! But there's one mid calf now! Wha?!
And, as you can see, all three have a lot of flash to begin with. The mold leaks so badly, I'm glad I'm doing it out on a workbench and not at the painting table. However, the hardened resin does clean up easily, so there's that. To correct for the leakiness, I used a spring loaded clamp rather than the rubber bands. Oh, for those of you new to this thread, and I'm not sure I mentioned it anyway, I've got the mold between two pieces of wood to distribute the force and squeeze the mold together evenly. Third cast of the evening is hardening as I write. It did not leak, but I did notice the upper vents were being squeezed shut almost. Hope the clamp doesn't cause more problems than it solves.
From Left to Right:
1) Cast from this morning, with the bad toe.
2) This afternoon's first cast. Tried specifically keeping the toes down to try to get the air bubble out, along with the vibration machine. Results were better... but still the same toe had a bubble. Went in and cut some vents to help cut down on that problem.
3) Second afternoon cast. No problem with the toes! But there's one mid calf now! Wha?!
And, as you can see, all three have a lot of flash to begin with. The mold leaks so badly, I'm glad I'm doing it out on a workbench and not at the painting table. However, the hardened resin does clean up easily, so there's that. To correct for the leakiness, I used a spring loaded clamp rather than the rubber bands. Oh, for those of you new to this thread, and I'm not sure I mentioned it anyway, I've got the mold between two pieces of wood to distribute the force and squeeze the mold together evenly. Third cast of the evening is hardening as I write. It did not leak, but I did notice the upper vents were being squeezed shut almost. Hope the clamp doesn't cause more problems than it solves.
PegaZus
Stealth Freak
And still a problem with the heel. So, cut some vent holes on that one as well, and did one last pour for tonight. I'm almost to the point where when this mold goes bad completely, the end of the next mold will be just millimeters from his feet, and should ensure that it doesn't trap air there. Or, I go get a vacuum chamber. Eh. No. I'll edit this post when the fourth one is done.
EDIT: Got a good cast! Sort of... there's no air bubbles this time, and it may have been too early to remove as it was a bit rubbery. But the flash around the outside, while not as bad as the photos above, is pretty constant. I can get most of it off with a fingernail usually, but Juno did lose a thumb that way once (on the bad copies). Still, good enough to make one more cast tonight. Won't write about it until tomorrow tho!
EDIT: Got a good cast! Sort of... there's no air bubbles this time, and it may have been too early to remove as it was a bit rubbery. But the flash around the outside, while not as bad as the photos above, is pretty constant. I can get most of it off with a fingernail usually, but Juno did lose a thumb that way once (on the bad copies). Still, good enough to make one more cast tonight. Won't write about it until tomorrow tho!
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Bloodshovel
New member
You need to be careful about how hard you clamp those molds. usually I just cut 2 pieces of corrugated cardboard to the size of the back of the molds and sandwich it with 2 rubberbands. It also depends on what silicone compound your using. the harder the silicone, the harder you can clamp them.
PegaZus
Stealth Freak
I think the issue was that my rubber bands aren't strong enough. They're very thin ones, and don't provide much force other than just simply holding things together. Might have to grab some thicker ones. I don't think adding more would work as I would have to add about ten to twenty of them.
But, did get two good casts out last night. The rubbery one I was worried about did harden up, so even though it has bubbles in the poor replacement for a slotta base, it's usable.
The one thing that I worry about is the fringe of flash around the figure. This is loads better than what it was before the clamping, but still says to me that I'm not getting a tight seal. Then again, this is the thinner, slower reacting resin too. I may switch back to the 1 minute resin to see if its just a matter of it seeping into the gaps during the vibe.
Course, I could just call it finecast and double the price I plan to ask. Sorry, love me a GW zinger every now and then.
Anyway, picture time then off to the day job!
