Wednesday, February 15, 2012

W.I.P. Howling Hounds: Press Mold for Swords

I needed a sword for each of member of the gang so decide to make a press mold to replicate them in order preserve consistency in their appearance and to save myself some redundant work.


The press mold was made using Quick-Sil, a RTV jewelry molding rubber:

It's easy to use; just mix the two part putty-like material at a 1:1 ratio, press over the originals in a metal frame, stack up some books to weigh it down and let it cures for 15 minutes at room temperature.

This mold was then used to make castings of the weapons by pressing green stuff /brown stuff  into it.


The green stuff didin't turn out well; it had air bubbles and was a bit too soft to get a clean impression.

The brown stuff worked great. Though it was bit tricksy getting the epoxy into the mold since the mold material won't stick to anything but itself.

I made eight castings for each side of the four swords I was going to need along with the two swords for the pack leader. 


Then the back of each blade was filed down to make them thinner. The two sides were then stuck together using brown stuff. You can see the length of metal paper clip placed as support in four of the 8 castings in the pic.


And here's one of the Hounds proudly holding aloft his newly acquired sword:


Now all he needs is the pistol for the other hand. I plan on making a two-sided press mold and casting it in brown stuff again once the sculpting is done.

 
The sword for the Pack leader's single edged blade is asymmetrical though, so I'm going to have to do it the old fashion way and sculpt the other side by hand.

3 comments:

  1. Great job on these! Hound figure too!

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  2. Very nice man. Its great to see these come to life.

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  3. Thanks guys!

    It's taking way too long though; I blame our dog for constantly distracting me ;)

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