Casting techniques?

Hey I am pretty new to all the costume/prop making. I was interested in trying to make some resin pieces to replace my flimsy carboard stuff. So before I start I just had a couple questions.

I figure for the helmet the best technique would be to "slush" the resin in the silicone mold, but what about the gaunts or jetpack? I figure the gauntlets and little parts vould be brushed maybe, but the jetpack is a bit too large I would think. Any tips or tricks would be most helpful. Thanks.

Just a heads up... it's VERY expensive to mold/cast parts. Unless you are looking to mass produce, it's far cheaper to buy a kit.

The average helmet mold costs around $300 - $400 to produce, then another $30 for resin to cast a helmet. Assuming it goes right on the first try, it's still well above the cost of even the most expensive kits. And if you goof up the first time? Let's just say my first animated clone helmet cost me a LOT more than I'd like to admit

Most people do the gaunts in vac form or fiberglass. You can do resin too, but it's a bit more effort. Brush in the resin, layer the glassfiber sheets. I actually really don't know how people do fiberglass jetpacks. My Deathwatch packs have vac formed bodies and resin accessories.

Yeah thats a bit more than I want to spend haha. Maybe one day though. Thanks for the info man.

You could look into pepakura (spelling?) turning your cardboard stuff into fiberglass...

I was thinking about giving the pepakura a try, but was having trouble finding the files for the patterns. The place everyone was saying is the best is no longer around If you know another place that would eb awesome!

Originally Posted by darthvince

I was thinking about giving the pepakura a try, but was having trouble finding the files for the patterns. The place everyone was saying is the best is no longer around If you know another place that would eb awesome!

You can find all what you need at Skupilkinson's site, and even more: Skip's Pepakura Costumes.