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07-29-2015, 08:07 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 1,140
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So let me begin by saying I'm no expert. I mold and customize as a hobby and by no means think my ways are the best or only way to do this. They are just the ways that produce the best results from my many trials and TOO MANY ERRORS.
Hopefully after this tutorial you will be able to successfully make a two-part silicone mold that will produce countless resin copies. Things you will need: Silicone Mold base (I use Amazing Mold Rubber) Two Part Epoxy Resin OIL Based Clay (Must be OIL BASED if it dries in the air it is not what you need) Petroleum Jelly Cotton Swabs Cups and Popsicle Sticks Digital Scale Legos and A Lego Base Plate Rubber Gloves Something to mold You can mold pretty much anything, but you will learn that the thin/small parts will always be difficult. Molding heads are the easiest but still have a number of challenges. Keep in mind most stuff you need to mold is much smaller than you would think. Plus molding supplies start to add up when they are being used in excess. Here I have made a box for the head that has the minimum space required around the edges. You will see that you will need a little room around the edges in order to "Key" the mold later. Using your OIL BASED clay mold about a quarter inch block slightly smaller than the box you just made for the head. Press that into the box and level it out, while making sure to fill in the corners. Now place your part into the center of the mold, but there is a bit more to it. Make sure when pressing into the clay that you are happy with where the seam will be. Here I am trying to make the seam along the chin and bottom of the ear. I also prefer to create my spout on the back of the mold (which I will show you later), but because of that it plays a role here. You want to make sure there are no "High Points" between what will eventually be your spout and any spot on your part. Here if I would have pushed her head straight down (instead of at the angel of the jaw) there would be a high point from her chin and a seam along her mouth. This is the hardest thing to try and explain, but eliminating high points will be what separates a good mold and a bad one. It is something you will understand more and more as you mold, but it will probably take a couple of unsuccessful attempts before it clicks. You will notice I also placed holes randomly around the head. These holes will ensure that each side of the mold lines up properly, this is the "Keying" I referred to earlier. I used the back of a thin paintbrush to make the keyholes. Once your part is properly placed you are ready to pour. Mix your mold base according to the instructions. I used 25g of base for this side, but I may have only needed 20. I usually make the first side larger than the second. When pouring I use a technique known as a high pour. I think the methodology is that the thinner the better, since there will be less air traveling into the mold and produce less bubbles, but there will always be bubbles. When you are pouring start in a corner and let the silicone flow around your part. If you pour directly onto the part you might trap some air and ruin the mold. Once I have poured my silicone I usually will break surface bubbles with an airbrush for a few minutes, I'm not sure if this step is needed because there is really no way to get rid of all the bubbles... The Amazing Mold Rubber takes about 3 hours to set up. Once it is firm to the touch you can remove it from the lego box. You will notice that some parts flowed into the cracks and I overpoured slighly, all you need to do is remove anything extra and it should just peel off. You can also remove the clay. Always work slowly and the clay should come off easily, if you do remove your part from the mold, just make sure you get it firmly back in place before proceeding. Now build up another lego box that is roughly the same height as the mold (2 rows in this case), and then take a cotton swab and cover it with petroleum jelly. At this point I like to heat the petroleum up with a heat gun so that it goes on thinner, but if you don't have access to a heat gun just make sure you don't leave any large build ups. That being said you need to be thorough with the application. Make sure you covered every bit of the silicone mold, every corner, the "key" points, nooks and cranies. Once finished flip the cotton swab over to the dry side and wipe down your part. It isn't the end of the world if you get some vasoline on the part, but if you don't remove it you will notice it in your casts. Now is the part where my method will differ from almost everything else you see or read, when it comes to casting. If you see a technique that might be easier for you then by all means go for it, but I have learned from trial and error that my way works for what I am looking for. Some people will create the pour spout on each side of the mold so that when placed together the spout will be along the seam. Every time I do this I get bubbles in the nose as well as around both sides of the spout. Other people say it is best to mold each side without any spouts and then cut them in later. When I do this I struggle to figure out which way will work best as top or bottom and this often creates high points that I can't pour into. So my technique is to create a small "Wedge" out of the clay, that will be used as the spout. As I mentioned before you want the spout to be at the highest point of the part and as you can see in pictures the bottom tip of my parts hair is the highest point which is what I was going for. Now take the "wedge" and place it firmly against the highest point on your part. After the petroleum jelly and placement of the spout you are ready to pour the other side of the mold. Again follow the instructions for your mold, I only mixed 12gs for the second side. Before high pouring, I like to make sure the peg hole will fill in properly. To do this I simply take a popsicle stick with a small amount of silicone and rub it into the peg hole. Make sure it flows into the hole and doesn't just cover it, making this hole function will save a lot of extra time when trying to fit your parts on future projects. Once you are satisfied that the hole is filled do a high pour and fill up the mold. We again have to wait 3 hours for the silicone to cure. Once firm to the touch we can remove the legos and remove the clay spout. Very slowly work your way around the mold, separating each side before trying to open it up completely. Hopefully the peg hole will be fully formed and you can remove the original from the mold. Well there isn't much to do now other than pour your part. Heads are tiny so you need far less resin than you would think. The resin I use is mixed 1:1 and I only mixed 2.5gs of each so 5gs total for this part. When mixed the resin I use is a yellowish color and once cured it becomes cream. Most Casting Resins cure very fast, but keep in mind the smaller the part the longer it will take to cure. Since my spout is on one side the part it will be "stuck" to that side. To remove the part I simply streched the mold over the spout, I did not push the head through the pour spout as that would most likely rip the mold. I promise there were no smoke and mirrors here, this it the first cast from this new mold and it turned out flawless. Hopefully yours will turn out this good as well. After very little cleanup I was able to get a perfect copy. I hope that this tutorial helped you out. If you have any questions I will gladly answer them on this thread. All that being said.....Anyone need a Maria Hill head cast? $5 shipped? Last edited by K Dubious; 07-31-2015 at 12:27 PM.. |
07-31-2015, 05:41 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: U.K
Posts: 1,342
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Dude this is amazing I can't thank you enough. I was going to do this way but on a bigger scale and have 5 - 10 different heads but make valves for air to escape. I've got to pick up a set of scales tomorrow and going to do my first set tomorrow ight so ill keep you posted dude
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08-01-2015, 12:55 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: United Kingom
Posts: 4,295
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Very informative! Cheers for sharing.
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08-03-2015, 06:19 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Kansas City Metro
Posts: 1,230
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Thanks a ton for sharing this! I have been thinking about doing some casting as well and have been looking around for tips.
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