Molding sculpts - multipart or single

[Cerridwyn1st]

When designing a sculpt, how do you know if it will need to be cast as one piece, or if it can be cast as multiple parts? Or is that something that is usually determined by the company casting the fig?

How smooth does the outer skin of the fig have to be? For intance, if there is a faint line where putty was added to a feature, how likely is the molding material to \"read\" this and transfer it to the final mold?

 

[SJB]

Whether a mini should be sculpted as one or multiple parts will be dictated by the company commissioning the figure.

Most of the time companies will want figures in as few parts as is workable. This is because the cost of production goes up a lot every time you add a component.

And you have to be pretty smooth. The mould rubber will pick up very fine detail. A joining line in putty will usually show up. One tip there is, assuming that it\'s very faint to start with, to use a scalpel to gently scrape over the surface and smooth it out.

Steve B

 

[Garyo]

It really depends on a lot of factors, bur most companies that do pewter cast in a two part spin mold. This means the figure should be in relatively flat plans. The CMON amazon is a good example of this. any part that breaks the plane you sould consider making it a seperate piece. Additionally the molding process is a heat cure; so all parts of your original figure need to be able to withstand that heat. Most resin and epoxy like green stuff can. Styreen can\'t.

As far as detail most mold rubbers will pick up even slight finger prints. So make sure you file and smooth anything you don\'t want to appear in the cast.

Garyo