Armor molds

recently picked up some Komatex. none of the plastic retailers here sell Sentra. But as i hear, Komatex is a worthy substitute. now, what to make the molds out of? i intend on molding the plastic with a heat gun. anny suggestions on what to make the molds out of and/or how to go about constructing them?

Hmm, I've never heard of Komatex. You'll have to give us a review of how easy it is to work with. If you still want sintra there are many sites that sell it on-line, I'm not sure of the URL but I know there are people on here that know it.

By the way, Welcome to The Dented Helmet!

I'm not an expert or anything, but are you just planning to lay the plastic over a mold and heat-gun it? With no vacuum/suction from underneath?

I don't think that will work the way you're expecting. A heatgun has too narrow a nozzle to effectively distribute heat over a large area, i.e. an armor plate mold. It's good for small areas, but will just heat and curl the plastic into some pseudo-Dawn-of-the-Dead bounty hunter armor. Without suction (in which case you're better off building a vacuform system), the plastic will warp uncontrollably. Give it a shot, but I have my doubts...

As for molds, the best (and cheapest!) thing I've found is Fix-It-All, found at Home Depot. Pours like Plaster of Paris, and dries solid as a rock.

Welcome to the group, by the way! You'll find dozens of threads for scratch-armor-building, if you look in the right places.

wasnt planning on going the vaccum table route. in fact, i've been avoiding the idea like the plague. any other ways to go about molding the armor? I'll give the heat gun a whirl. i also heard that boiling the pieces then pressing onto a mold (while wearing protective gloves) works. more thoughts/ideas?

The whole sentra thing wouldn't work very well on a vac setup anyways (styrene and ABS are more common for that). There are patterns on-line of armor size and shape (perhaps somebody can help you out). Of course the best route is to custom fit it to your body by doing comparisons of proportions of you and Fett. I don't think a mold or form is neccesary to get good shape in the plastic. Just make sure your shapes are cut out then heat and bend using your hands and rounded surfaces. Don't rush and don't expect it to be right the first time. Bending armor is like bending bonzai - a little at a time and consistent preasure until cool. I hope this Komatex is similar to Sentra otherwise a lot of the information given will be of little use to you.

good luck

thanks for the info. ill try playing with the komatex and get a feel for it plyability. i will be sure to post pics of how things turn out as well on comments.

I also just finished a carbine which isnt bad by newbie standards. ill post pics of that as well.