My little silicone molding project

This is nothing major, but Ive had this idea for along time now. Plus, its just a simple thing to mold, and this will be my first molding experience ever.

What I will be molding is the "dent" portion from my ugly duckling recasted Mystery helmet. I had just cut it out because I recieved a much more accurate one from FP, and I couldnt just throw it out!

So here is the begining phases of my process.

I first began with cuting the dent out, and sanding it to a relativly roundish shape

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48...s85x/012-1.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48...s85x/015-3.jpg


I want to make this into a short cylindrical shape, so I took a disposable cup, cut off the bottom portion, and filled it with bondo (I added the right amount of hardner! ;)) and embeded the dent.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48...s85x/019-1.jpg
(NOTE: I do NOT want to be accused of recasting FP's dent that he had sent me-For that, I placed the casting that FP sent me, right next to the embeded dent in the picture, on the right side of it)

Right now, Im waiting for the bondo to harden up (its really warm right now). Once thats done, I'll remove the outer paper cup material, and sand it all down. I should be able to start the actual molding process tonight if it all works out!

-tubachris

Post the progress pics when you have them :b

Good luck! ;)

Well right now, I have sanded it down a bit, giving it a better shape. I just bondoed the air holes, and will do a final sanding over. After its ready, I'll prepare for molding

More updates and pics!

Here is the dent embeded into the bondo after it solidified, and just after I sanded the whole piece down to the way I want it to look.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48...s85x/020-2.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48...ris85x/021.jpg

So the hardest part was measuring the silcone parts together accuratly, it has a 10:1 ratio. I need to get myself an electronic scale for this in the future.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48...ris85x/022.jpg

After I had poured it (was harder then I thought actually) I wanted to avoid air bubbles, so using a technique I learned before, where if you put a mold with the material in it, onto a vibrating surface, the air bubbles with rise to the surface. So thats what I did, I set the whole thin onto my mouse sander, and it worked well so far. Now, I just need to let it sit overnight, and we'll see how it turns out :eek:

Can't wait to see how it turns out, hopefully it won't blow over badly :D

Ooo anticipation! Can't wait to see how this looks in the end!

Well, i checked it today. Didnt do so well I think I didnt add enough of the catylst. It just stayed reallly tacky and wouldnt harden at all (its been like that since last night) So I add to tear it all apart, and Im going to start over again. Part of the problem is that your soppose to measure this by wieght, but I do not have scale. I need to find a cheap one

dude, use the oomoo25 or whatever. it's a 1 part A to 1 part B ratio.

put the same amount in disposable cups and dump it into a mixing/pouring container

once mixing pour on the part to be molded, tap or vibrate to relieve trapped air
and then let it cure for 2 hours

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CombatBaby

dude, use the oomoo25 or whatever. it's a 1 part A to 1 part B ratio.

---

yeah, i like the oomoo stuff. i've heard that it's not so good for long term archival molds, but that's not really my goal :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CombatBaby

dude, use the oomoo25 or whatever. it's a 1 part A to 1 part B ratio.

put the same amount in disposable cups and dump it into a mixing/pouring container

once mixing pour on the part to be molded, tap or vibrate to relieve trapped air
and then let it cure for 2 hours

---

Would you happen to have a link?

Anyways, after searching like..FOREVER, I finally found a scale that I can use. Its not electronic, but its sufficiant. Time for round two tonight!

Success! This time around, I knew that the firt attempt failed because I did not add enough of the catalyst. I also noticed that this time, the color was a much darker blue then my first attempt pictured above. I will post pics in awhile, I was too excited that I rushed and went to pour some FG resin to make a cast.

I aslo had a significant amount left over, so I had made a quick mold of my ANH style handplates (from my DT project) However, I didnt add enough silicone to that, leaving the top (or bottom after de-molding) very thin, and part of it had actually ripped when trying to demold it. Either way, it all cured, and Im starting to get the hang of it.

Will post *pics* after the resin cures

-tubachris

Alright, well here are the pics I promised.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48...85x/001-30.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48...85x/003-13.jpg

Now what Im going to do, base paint this in a dark red, and then highlight the dent's details in either white or black, as to the scheme that is used for the TDH's logo, or as you see in the top right corner on this page. After that, im going to countersink a hole and glue a strong magnet to the back of it, and stick it on my fridge!

Neat idea for a project :thumbsup

So uh...whats ya going to do with the "bucket" with a big ole hole in it(hint,hint) ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LOPERO

Neat idea for a project :thumbsup

So uh...whats ya going to do with the "bucket" with a big ole hole in it(hint,hint) ;)

---

Dent installation, FINISHED!

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48...85x/004-13.jpg

J/K

I have an FP helmet dent which I gotta sand down, the side so it fits. Im going to goop it on, because goop + resin + fiberglass = really really tight bond. Then Im going to bondo, and sand it until its 'one' with the helmet. Its my "frankenstein" helmet now

OH .....ok :cry
I did not know if the "dent donor" might be "kicked to the curb" ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LOPERO

OH .....ok :cry
I did not know if the "dent donor" might be "kicked to the curb" ;)

---

lol I get it, sorry, this is from my other thread. Its a much, much larger project then this.

Well, I got finished with painting the thing. This only re-affirms my lack of skill when it comes to painting with a brush. I really tried to make it more like the TDH style dent, but its a bit harder then I thought, so I just decided to paint the whole dent black. Anyways, its pretty much finished, I had picked up some magnets from radioshack, however, they turned out to be pretty weak. So I may just go ahead and order some of the larger rare-earth metal magnets online.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48...85x/003-14.jpg

This is a pretty cool idea man. Are you thinking of selling these or was this just something to take a break from the Dark Trooper and have some fun.

I'll take 8!

Nice job man, it turned out very nice. Not too bad for your first experience with molding and casting. The earth magnets will do the trick.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by t_bone9600

This is a pretty cool idea man. Are you thinking of selling these or was this just something to take a break from the Dark Trooper and have some fun.

---

Well I wasnt really thinking of selling these for 2 reasons, 1) I dont think that the paintjob is quality enough for anyone, I mean, Im not satisfied by the paintjob myself. 2) I dont have permission from the board owner, because I tried painting this with the likeness of this website's logo, therefore would be illegal!

This was really just a practice project, because I'll soon be making a mold of my sandtrooper 'cheesegrater' handbacks, I have had alot of interest in those, so I'll be making FG copies of those in the near future. For my DT, I have actually done somework, but Im going to wait to finish the jet pack before I show it off

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by askywalker98

I'll take 8!

Nice job man, it turned out very nice. Not too bad for your first experience with molding and casting. The earth magnets will do the trick.

---

Thanks bro. Yea, the rare earth magnets would ripp a few fridge doors off..

Im going to be sending some blank casts to darksword. His painting skills are much better then mine, and he offered to paint these just like how I originally wanted them to look. He's going to do both the white and the black versions.

-tubachris

Who says they would have to be painted? You could just sell them unpainted and people could paint them as desired.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by t_bone9600

Who says they would have to be painted? You could just sell them unpainted and people could paint them as desired.

---

True...lol Im getting a sense of interest from you :lol