Monday, November 3, 2014

Casting Call

This is the test pull from my first silicone mold.  I've used silicone putty to duplicate small items before, but haven't fiddled around with pouring a mold from a master until now.  The process was surprisingly easy.  One issue I did run into was a minor blowout in the foamboard mold walls.  I sealed up the seams with hot glue, but missed a small spot.  Luckily, I was using a fast-set silicone and there was only some minor leakage before the rubber started to set up.

The casting measures about 3.5" by 1.5".  The finish is a quick and dirty paintjob using a green basecoat drybrushed with antique copper.  I'll probably go with a more stone-like finish for the final version. 


Update:  I was genuinely surprised to find so much interest in this.  Here's a shot of the token that gives a better look at it's dimensionality.  I envisioned it as a fetish used in a summoning, so the general shape is designed to fit inside the curve of the hand.  The original sculpt only had three tentacles, but that looked so much like "Man-Thing" from Marvel Comics that it made me laugh out loud.


The mold, the first pull, and a second copy made using impressed polymer clay.  I thinned out the Sculpey with some diluent so it would pick up the mold details.  I rather like the flat, matte finish of the clay.

The mold was poured with PlatSil 73-20 Low Viscosity RTV Silicone Rubber.


12 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice results.

Have you tried using a stone effect material for casting? I used some Jesmonite for two of my Cthulhu statues and they came out pretty well. Theres a bunch of different materials you can mix in for different effects

http://www.mbfg.co.uk/jesmonite-acrylic-waterbased-casting/jesmonite_ac730_powder.html

as well as dyes you can add to colour them

http://www.mbfg.co.uk/jesmonite-acrylic-waterbased-casting/jesmonite_pigment.html

Jason McKittrick said...

Not bad at all for your first casting! Can't wait to see more!

Anonymous said...

Eww - that looks great! It has really nice textures, and a lot of detail for something so small. Nice paintjob, too!

Propnomicon said...

@ David Kirkby

Curse you, Kirkby. You're accelerating my descent into buying even more cool stuff for casting. Heh.

@ Jason McKittrick

Thank you for the kind words. Taht means a lot coming from someone whose work I admire so much.

@ gndn

Thanks. Developing an allergy to epoxy putty was the best thing that ever happened to me. Once I actually embraced using sculpting tools my work improved by leaps and bounds.

Unknown said...

Hehehehe. I find half the fun of new projects is trying out materials I've not used before.

What did you use for the mould?

Alysson Rowan said...

Nice sculpt - eerie, too.

Silicone casting makes it so easy, to produce replicas of patterns (I use plaster, wood and DAS, usually - sometimes car filler, too). Multi-part moulds take practice, though.

A little low vac will get rid of bubbles from the body of the silicone - making it suitable for casting pewter.

With acrylic resins, I use a range of sintered bronze - ranging from copper to brass to 'silver'. Use sufficient and the material is not only the colour, but the weight. It's electrically conductive, too.

You need to brush with a glass-fibre or brass brush once released from the mould to get the best effect - which includes being able to produce a REAL patina using rainwater and a little time.

Transparent dyes with no filler or a small amount of powdered marble will producs credible gemstones.

transparent dyes and silver sintered bronze will produce the most exotic metals imaginable.

There's a rather nice cold-set ceramic product that has a bone-white appearance (it takes dyes as well as paints and tints) - great for producing those carved malachite and other semi-precious stones as well as ceramics.

I have even used a fairly dry mix of sand and acrylic to cast "sandstone"

the Schlitzie said...

Very nice! Does this mean that we might be seeing Propnomicon limited runs of Idols etc. in the future? hehe

Anonymous said...

Woah! Did you post any in progress shots of this one? I must've missed somehow...

Looks fantastic! The pocketed texture reminds me of a morel mushroom but especially gross. The finish is really well done. This is way better than my early tries at resin. Keep it up! : )

- CopperCentipede

Anonymous said...

I love the eyes. What tools did you use to texture his mouth tendrils?

Propnomicon said...

@ David Kirkby

PlatSil 73-20 RTV Silicone Rubber. I just ordered the starter kit from brickintheyard.com.

@ Alysson Rowan

Stop. You're killing me. Or at least you're killing my wallet. Heh.

I can see how casting could get addictive. Right after I pulled the first one out my initial thought was "I wonder how this would look with some powdered metal".

@ The Schlitzie

There are already far better sculptors than myself, like Jason McKittrick, doing outstanding work that I can't even come close to. I'd like to do more obscure items, particularly some pieces for the Viking Mythos project.

@ CopperCentipede

Thank you for the very kind words. I wish I had half the talent you do.

Unknown said...

You shouldn't be so shocked, its an excellent piece. I haven't used that moulding material but I've recently tried Dragon Skin pro, rebound and I've recently got some Oomoo.

@Alysson Rowan I mix metal powers into my castings and I've had good results with creating a patina with Modern Masters patina aging effect solution.
http://shop.modernmasters.com/c/metal-effects_solutions-and-activators_green-patina-aging-solution

Get a spritzer and spray it over the casting and leave. The warning on the bottle says can cause liver damage though!

Check 29 and 36 for good examples: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/+DavidKirkby1/albums/5799880821385647889

Propnomicon said...

@ Anonymous

A comb. Roll out the tentacle shape and then place it on a flat surface. Place the teeth of comb along the top of the tendril and gently roll it back and forth to impress the segments into the clay.

@ David Kirkby

That's a beautiful gallery of work. Being able to see the same piece with so many different finishes is very cool.