Komfritten's Moulding & Casting Corner

I think I'm ready to try something new, to me, in the hobby; moulding and casting.

This is the initial setup:



I will update when I do something and hope to get advice as well as giving them.

1: First things first. I build a moulding box, with lego.



2: Then covered the first cm with myDough, and stamped it flat with my LegoStamper(C)



3: Next I fitted the elements in the mouldbox, and pressed them halfway down the Dough.





4: Then I mixed the rubber with 5% hardener, and poured it in the mouldbox. I made a hole in the bottom of the cup, and placed it on the table, so the rubber strethced out as far as possible. This removed most of the air-bubbles.



5: Then I played the waiting game for about 24 hours.

6: When completely hardened I took out the mould, and it looked like this:



7: I removed the remaining Dough, with a toothbrush and VERY hot water - easy.

8: Then I placed the mould back in the mouldbox, and brushed the rubber with a release agent (only the rubber. I read that if you did it on the elements, they would loose details).



9: When the mould was firmly in place, I repeated the process.



10: Then i played the waiting game again for about 24 hours.

11: After, impationally, having waited a VERY long time, I broke out the mould, and found out that I had not applied enough release agent. But fret not! I took my trusty knife and hacked away, 'till the moulds split apart.







12: I cut out some plates from some wood I had in a box, to fit around the mold.



13: Using some rubber bands, I put it all together again. At this point I was VERY happy I had made "pilot-holes" in the corners, by pressing a pencil down the myDough. I applied rubber bands 'till I found that the two mould bulged out, and removed again 'till it exactly stopped again (hope that made sense).



14: I used a 20ml syringe (without the needle) to suck up some resin, and - rather fast - spray it down the entrance hole. I applied, until it came out of the air-ducts, I had cut in the mould at strategic points..

15: I waited for about 20 min, and took it apart.



16: There you have it, a replica of a TL Lascannon

This looks quite exciting!?

I've never done any casting myself, but the props department at my work does every now and then and I'm always super intrigued. I can always ask my co-workers if you have any trouble and no one else around here happens to know.

-rhuntar

Well that look's strangely familiar

Looking forward to see what you come up with.

are you casting up bitz? a mini? or terrain?

I am keen to see how it goes and how easy/hard it is to do...

LGW

I'm also interested to see how this goes.

Very interesting. It's something I always wanted to try out but figuring how badly I assumed I'd screw up versus the cost and hassle of ordering the product I kept putting it off. Watching eagerly; I'd like to see this in action. Many questions to follow.

A little bit of everything actually. Right now I have a lascannon in the mould, and some lead-roof from Hirst arts.

the resin is fantastic

The lead-roof was an utterly failure, I did not apply enough hardener.



But the TL lascannon was a huge succes!

Komfritten: Great work! I might have to discuss something with you about a possible project. I will work up some details and work to PM you about it.

The cast of the cannon came out very clean. What happened with your mix ratio on the tin roof? I have a product called flexane I could do some nice molds with but all information was in weights rather than ratios (even online). I don't have a precise enough scale so I'm SOL until I rustle one up. Did you agitate after the pour? The absence of air bubbles on those casts is very impressive.

Very curious about the mold themselves. It looks like you set the channels/vents well because the parts look complete. Fantastic work!

I have taken pictures of most of the process, so the first post will be updated eventurally when time allows it.

The lead / tin roof, just did not have enough hardener in the mix - it will never cure unfortunately.

First post updated.

Very nice!

It look's like you did a great job with the air vents.

Very nice. The lascannon details look nice and crisp. I am interested to hear about your plans for the casting. It is making me think of some different ideas for casting sculpted bits. Any sculpted bits you are interested in casting, Komfritten? I'd love to sculpt some bits and see them in resin.

@ Narc: You just send them over.

Darn! This looks great!
Now you can have thousands of lascannons!

I have quite a lot of rhinos which could be nice to have the opportunity to be razorbacks too.

horrid wrote:

Very interesting. It's something I always wanted to try out but figuring how badly I assumed I'd screw up versus the cost and hassle of ordering the product I kept putting it off. Watching eagerly; I'd like to see this in action. Many questions to follow.

Go to a food store or walmart most of them carry cheap $20 food scales.

Latest endavour:

Darn! Those sure look crisp!
Great work!