PegaZus
Stealth Freak
Decided to split apart this little WIP from my regular one since it current doesn't involve painting. I purchased the green & rights to Flash Juno from Mike Jenkins (zombiesincorporated here on CMON). Poor Flash has been drummed out of all the various fleets (ie he didn't fit into any company's current mini lines), and so he's at my door reporting for duty.
This thread will contain the process of getting him prepped, molded and cast. I've already got a couple of people who've said they would like a copy, and I'll be more than happy to oblige for a small fee and S&H of course. But I'll make that a separate thread on the Trading Post topic group rather than put that in here.
I've done a few molds and casts before, notable the Hershey's candy bar from my Kit & Kat mini, and some bases and such. And I've really, really enjoyed it. Still trying to figure out how to cast a hair clip into the resin. My wife makes hair bows for craft shows and such, so a resin figure on a metal clip would be welcomed plus I'd have fun; check out her Etsy site if you'd like to see some of her ribbon art. I know I did some sort of mold for a kid's project possibly for school, but for the life of me I can't recall what it was. Hmm. But this will be the first opportunity to cast something that needs the more complex, two part mold. Should be a simple process. Just have to do it twice. Right?
Heh.
So here's a quick photo study of Juno. Let's start with the front and back. And I apologize for the focus. I do the phone's camera for my WIP, and it's hard to tell when I'm in focus. Think I just need to back off further. The details should be there.
Here's the biggest problem I can see that I'll have with the casting. That thumb is going to be a bit tricky. If I don't mold this right, air is going to stick right there on the tip of his thumb, and every cast will be an amputee. And if I simply flip him upside down, that other hand is going to be a trouble spot.
Let's take a look at the sides.
Going down his right side, I'm going to want to avoid putting the mold line straight through the elbow and knee pads. I've always struggled with cleaning seams across textured items like that, so it's probably best to make sure I go along one of the hard edges. Especially since I get to pick where they'll go! I'll also want to go around the pads on his chest. The boots are another problem area, and I'll want to avoid going through the buckles. I believe I'll try to put the seam on the backside of those, just to hide things better from the front.
To make the two part mold, I'll have to imbed one half of him in clay, then pour the RTV silicone (Hobby Lobby 40% coupons FTW). The half of him getting the least amount of mold area will be the back, so that's probably the part that will go into the clay. The Alumilite molding kits that I use did come with it, and quite a bit of it is embedded with former pieces of other molds. Usually around the edges of the mold to seal it. I'll not be using that, but will be using virgin clay that will still be very clean. I'll go with my standard swipe of the son's Lego set to build up the sides of the mold.
Let's take a look at what that will eventually look like. Here's how I think I'm going to put him in the box.
If you imagine the photo as the silicone, this is how I believe he'll be poured. Well, except I'll flip him over so he's face up. The thumb is going to be at the very bottom to ensure a good cast there. The green areas that I've drawn will be the slotted base that I'll have to work up, and a vent line coming off of one of his fingers. I think a old piece of sprue, thinned out a bit flat then carefully placed onto one of his fingers will provide an adequate vent path to keep that hand from being a problem. In addition, it should be a simple filing to get that back smooth compared to trying to do the same for the thumb. My original plan was to do that from the helmet surface, as it is nice and flat. But, I don't think it will cause much problems for that very reason. So I'll go with the finger vent.
My plan is to just use white glue to attach the base and the vent. When I did the candy bar, it melted a little bit around the edges. I didn't think the silicone would do that, but it may have been the white glue I used to secure it that caused it too. Problem there was I don't think it had any way to actually dry, so it just dissolved the chocolate. If I give it a good time to dry, I don't believe I'll have the issues. And I want to use the white glue so that Flash can take a nice bath afterwards and the glue will release without damaging the sculpt itself.
So there it is. The pre-planning stage of the process. Had to go buy some new silicone molding stuff tonight, so he'll be getting fresh compound. Turns out I had a bottle of mold release too (needed for keeping the second part of the silicone from fusing to the first), and its never been opened so it'll be good to go as well. Writing this all out, I realized that I've got more than a little bit of work to do before I even start trying to pour a mold. That could be a good thing as I get more time to ponder it. But here goes nothing!
This thread will contain the process of getting him prepped, molded and cast. I've already got a couple of people who've said they would like a copy, and I'll be more than happy to oblige for a small fee and S&H of course. But I'll make that a separate thread on the Trading Post topic group rather than put that in here.
I've done a few molds and casts before, notable the Hershey's candy bar from my Kit & Kat mini, and some bases and such. And I've really, really enjoyed it. Still trying to figure out how to cast a hair clip into the resin. My wife makes hair bows for craft shows and such, so a resin figure on a metal clip would be welcomed plus I'd have fun; check out her Etsy site if you'd like to see some of her ribbon art. I know I did some sort of mold for a kid's project possibly for school, but for the life of me I can't recall what it was. Hmm. But this will be the first opportunity to cast something that needs the more complex, two part mold. Should be a simple process. Just have to do it twice. Right?
Heh.
So here's a quick photo study of Juno. Let's start with the front and back. And I apologize for the focus. I do the phone's camera for my WIP, and it's hard to tell when I'm in focus. Think I just need to back off further. The details should be there.
Here's the biggest problem I can see that I'll have with the casting. That thumb is going to be a bit tricky. If I don't mold this right, air is going to stick right there on the tip of his thumb, and every cast will be an amputee. And if I simply flip him upside down, that other hand is going to be a trouble spot.
Let's take a look at the sides.
Going down his right side, I'm going to want to avoid putting the mold line straight through the elbow and knee pads. I've always struggled with cleaning seams across textured items like that, so it's probably best to make sure I go along one of the hard edges. Especially since I get to pick where they'll go! I'll also want to go around the pads on his chest. The boots are another problem area, and I'll want to avoid going through the buckles. I believe I'll try to put the seam on the backside of those, just to hide things better from the front.
To make the two part mold, I'll have to imbed one half of him in clay, then pour the RTV silicone (Hobby Lobby 40% coupons FTW). The half of him getting the least amount of mold area will be the back, so that's probably the part that will go into the clay. The Alumilite molding kits that I use did come with it, and quite a bit of it is embedded with former pieces of other molds. Usually around the edges of the mold to seal it. I'll not be using that, but will be using virgin clay that will still be very clean. I'll go with my standard swipe of the son's Lego set to build up the sides of the mold.
Let's take a look at what that will eventually look like. Here's how I think I'm going to put him in the box.
If you imagine the photo as the silicone, this is how I believe he'll be poured. Well, except I'll flip him over so he's face up. The thumb is going to be at the very bottom to ensure a good cast there. The green areas that I've drawn will be the slotted base that I'll have to work up, and a vent line coming off of one of his fingers. I think a old piece of sprue, thinned out a bit flat then carefully placed onto one of his fingers will provide an adequate vent path to keep that hand from being a problem. In addition, it should be a simple filing to get that back smooth compared to trying to do the same for the thumb. My original plan was to do that from the helmet surface, as it is nice and flat. But, I don't think it will cause much problems for that very reason. So I'll go with the finger vent.
My plan is to just use white glue to attach the base and the vent. When I did the candy bar, it melted a little bit around the edges. I didn't think the silicone would do that, but it may have been the white glue I used to secure it that caused it too. Problem there was I don't think it had any way to actually dry, so it just dissolved the chocolate. If I give it a good time to dry, I don't believe I'll have the issues. And I want to use the white glue so that Flash can take a nice bath afterwards and the glue will release without damaging the sculpt itself.
So there it is. The pre-planning stage of the process. Had to go buy some new silicone molding stuff tonight, so he'll be getting fresh compound. Turns out I had a bottle of mold release too (needed for keeping the second part of the silicone from fusing to the first), and its never been opened so it'll be good to go as well. Writing this all out, I realized that I've got more than a little bit of work to do before I even start trying to pour a mold. That could be a good thing as I get more time to ponder it. But here goes nothing!
