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.

Exorcists Icons cast by Coyote1066

Here are pics of the Exorcists shoulder pads and icons cast in resin by Coyote1066 (a.k.a. Coyotius on Dakka Dakka and Warseer); he's casting them for me in exchange for his own personal use :)

I'm so glad he's taking care of the mold making and casting for this project. The quality of his cast is so much better than what I'm capable of.

The casts look so much better in grey than as greens.

I can't wait to get my hands on them so I can start working on my Exorcists army at last!

Thanks Coyotius!!

W.I.P. Howling Hounds a.k.a. Manshee: Weapons

Work in progress pics of the weapons for the Manshees.

I used Kneadatite Brown/ Aluminum Expoxy Putty (aka Brown Stuff) this time to sculpt the weapons instead of the usual green stuff I work with.

It is much more harder than green stuff when cured and is much more suitable material for carving, scraping and sanding; green stuff tends to be too soft and flexible.

I find it much easier to get sharper edges and crisper shapes with this material.

Happy Chinese New Year!! 2012 Year of the Dragon

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

 龍年行好運

    

May the Year of the Dragon Bring you all joyous prosperity!

More adventures in Casting: Shoulder Pads

The first cast with this mold:

The bottom of the  two part mold wasn't clamped together tightly enough. This made the resin leak out the bottom and failed to cast one of the shoulder pads entirely.

Fortunately, enough of the resin got through the mold to cast 3 of the 4 shoulder pads.

There are still some holes from air bubbles but they are fine overall.

I should of injected water into the mold to see if and where it leaks. I'll be sure to test it first from here on.

Here's my second attempt:

I'm fairly pleased with the result :)

 

Needs some clean up, particularly the goofy balls in the eye sockets, but otherwise it's a clean cast with only one air bubble hole in the lot.

More Adventures in Mold Making: Shoulder Pads

Here's my attempt at casting shoulder pads.

I got careless and forgot to spray the release agent before pouring the second half of the mold. 

I had to cut it at the edges and tear it apart by hand; with any luck I should still be able to get usable casts.

Further Adventures in Casting

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Another attempt at casting:

This time I managed to get the resin to travel through the mold and out the top.

Lots of air bubbles in this one. But at least I have a miniature figure of sorts :)

The figure with the arms is missing her left hand and all the faces and helms suffer from air bubbles.

So I cut more vents into the mold to let the air escape, with the following result:

It is better than the first cast but there are still too many air bubbles.
 

I used green stuff on one of the figure to fill in all the holes left by the air bubbles. The air bubbles on the heads are particularly problematic since it disfigures the face. I had to re-sculpt the nose and mouth.

I made several further attempts at casting with similar results. I tried vibration, rotating and talc powder to no avail :(

I think I got too ambitious with getting all the parts in a single mold, resulting in a mold that doesn't allow proper flow of  resin (and air) through it.

I ran out of the mold making material since I wasted a lot of it during these lessons. When my order arrives I'll I'll try making a simpler mold that is more optimized for air flow.

Wish me luck!