Topic: spudafett's casting table

[spudafett]

well I tried something new today... I didn't want to waste my silicone but I needed a chest piece of mando armor...

so what I tried was something I thought would work but was unsure about.

I took a wad of modeling clay and layed it out smooth on my casting table and pressed the chest piece of a figure into it.  when I peeled off the figure I was amazed to see a perfect impression.  I didn't know however how this would translate into the resin.  I mixed up some resin and poured it in and let it set up.

the resulting piece actually turned out realy well.  Perfect for what I was needing it for actually... the only problem was that the resin copy pulled out with coloration from the red modeling clay.  I think with some neutral color clay this could be avoided.  I think that this tecnique could be used by anyone to make some interesting parts and maybe even weopons...

I'll try and get some pics up tomorrow.

[narceron]

better idea mode, ON!


Or pieces that can be flat, like tech panels, controls, contoured monitors.

Good discovery, my man, I'll be trying it out.


did you have to use any sort of release agent?


did the clay need to cure, or anything/

[spudafett]

nope, no release agen, no curing.  it realy only works once, then you have to ball the clay back up and  press the master piece back in it again....  this is cuz when you pull out the resin copy it deforms the soft clay...

Im sure you could let the clay cure and it would hold up a little better...  idk

[customclone]

hey spudfett i have a big reqest for u is it ok if u can make a part shadow trooper and half of it clear that would be awsome

[spudafett]

customclone that has been an idea I've wanted to try for a long time.  The problem I have run into is that you can't realy mold the joints.  any arms or legs that I mold would be either solid with no articulation or have regular SOLID COLOR original parts mixed in to make up the joint. 

The easiest way to probably do this is find a holographic clone trooper figure and splice your own figure together.  It would look a little different than the storm trooper but hopefully with the parts from the clone trooper being clear it won't be as noticable...

[spudafett]

GAH.... I'm about ready to chuck this silicone crap in the garbage.

I mixed up about 5 onces of this silicone, per instructions.... and have waited for 3 days for it to cure and it never cured!  I followed the directions to the letter this time.  Why is it not working?

So my big old mold, full of good parts, is ruined.  The silicone turned into this sticky snotty blob that is sticking to everything.  I pulled the parts out but there is unhardened silicone stuck in every nook and cranny of ever freaking piece...  is there anything I can use to soak the parts in and disolve the silicone?  Washing them in water isn't working...

I swear after I use up this batch of silicone I'm through... it's too much trouble and way to expensive to keep wasting like this! 

[Clonehead]

Hmm, 5oz of silicon should take 2.5 of those little included measuring cups full of the catalyst. I have used too much catalyst in the mixture before in the past and had the silicon try to harden up on me before I poured it.  Sometimes, when I don't mix the silicon with the catalyst well enough, some areas set up slower than others. It is usually closer to the bottom of the pot where it is harder to mix. Sometimes, when I am pouring, after the initial mix of silicon and cataylist,  I will pour out half of the silicon and then stir the mixture up again before pouring the rest. You could try rubbing alcohol to try to cut the un cured silicon but be careful as over time, exposed to alcohol, the plastic parts could start to break down as well.

[spudafett]

I'm pretty sure I measured it wrong...

I was trying to use a measuring spoon half the size of the catylist measure scoop that comes with it, so that I would only have to mix up one oz, or one measureing cup full of silicone at a time, instead of the 2 cups to one catylist scoop....  does that make sense?

anyways I think my measurements were wrong and it didn't get enough catalyst.

I've figured out a way to do it now though that has given me perfect results.  So I don't think the silicone itself was bad.

[Commander_Kurgan]

YEAH !
Looking forward to seeing your cast parts, buddy!

[narceron]

that stuff is just too expensive to mess around with,

[spudafett]

well, it's been a while since I realy posted anything in here about what I've been up to.  I know the last post I made I was frustrated with the way one of my silicone pours turned out... since then though I've had excellent results with every mold I've made (except one I did of a boba jet pack).  I've been promising two guys who loaned me master parts that I'd send them a sizable collection of cast resin duplicates of any molds I make as payment for using their parts as masters...

One guy is a guy from deviantart who goes by "Knomad" and has done some good mando customs and the other was comander_kurgan from on here.

so this is some shots of the parts I put together for both of these guys.  I split the lot between them evenly and tried to put at least one of every part I've ever made a decent mold of in the bag.

heres some pics:
this is the entire lot, mostly everything I've cast in the last few days.  Most of the parts are plain white resin but I did a few clear resin casts and let them set up over night (since they take longer I havn't done as many)

In the next shot you see primarilly some GI-joe figure hats and mando armor pieces.  The back plate is from a regular figure that I popped off the back, the chest plate was molded from the "FX backpack" jango.  there are also some misc. star wars and gi-joe helmets mixed in there

in this shot you can see several coppies of boba's forarm gauntles and hands.  These are teh same pieces that I used on the arctic mando.  There are also some pretty bad copies of the hand claws that come with "the docter" rex lewis gi-joe fig.

[spudafett]

Here are some closeups of mainly the mando helmets.  Some of them came out with some bad air bubbles but I'm sending them anyway hoping that the guys can use them as "battle damaged" helmets or something... some of the air bubbles just happened to come out in the perfect spot to be a "dent"... lol
there are also some closeups of small accessories I've done, packs and pouches, scopes and hand scanner things

Here is a shot of mostly pauldrons, there is also a few other misc. helmets in the image (notably a paraviper helmet, and several gen. veers helmets.)

Here is a close up of several packs and pouches that i've done.  Dead center there is a pouch that is off a vintage gi-joe nurse figure that is supposed to be a pack with needles and injections on it... unfourtunately they are hot spots for bubbles.

another angle of the mando helmets and pouches

here are some clear resin helmets that I've done.  Most notably I used the custom cammo airborne trooper commander_kurgan sent me to make a mold of it.  Oddly enough the clear resin cast of that helmet is the only REALY GOOD cast of that helmet I've gotten.  It likes to hold air bubbles in all those grooves and the clear resin, taking longer to set up lets the air bubbles bubble out. 
BTW I think the only helmet I've made that actually truly benefits from the clear resin is the x-wing helmet with the visor



one last shot of all the parts divied up

[wraithnine]

wow! thats a lot of parts!

[Clonehead]

I think that your casts look good, Spud. I am really liking those bags and pouches. Little details like those make it easier to equip up a figure. Man, I really need to find a master for that one Mando chest piece that you have.

[spudafett]

the pouches are some of the easiest parts to mold, and they come out the best too.   But i'm sure you know that clint.  I'm still a little frustrated at some of my helmets, I'm still haveing a big bubble issue.