A while ago we posted a step-by-step workshop provided by the ever talented, Simon ‘Goatballs’ Be! To this day, it’s one of the most popular we’ve ever featured. It seems folks can’t get enough of his 1/6 scale wooden bats! Well, today we’re excited to post a follow up, this time by our friend Michael ‘Bubo’ Reilly who worked to cast and produce copies of Goat’s original bat sculpts in resin.
I’m personally very excited for this little walk-through as it talks about a process that I’ve been interested in for a long while. With a little hand-holding.. I might be brave enough to finally try it myself.
Welcome back to RtR’s Workshop, and enjoy!
– Knives
Alright, here’s a list of some of the materials you’ll probably want to track down before you get started.
Materials:
- Foam Core, for building mold walls. You can also use legos, acrylic plastic, or any other non-porous material of your choosing that’s stiff enough to form a wall.
- 1/8″ thick or thicker wooden (or plastic) boards, to evenly distribute tension on mold when bound.
- Super Glue (CA Glue), for gluing gates/vents onto model (bat) & onto mold floor.
- Hot Melt Glue (& gun), for gluing walls of mold together.
- Toothpicks (or long sharp pokey thing), for getting air bubbles out of silicone mold
- Electrical tape
- Disposable cups
- Popsicle sticks
- Rubber gloves
- Monojet Oral 10ml syringes
.. and here’s some of the tools I use, also worth looking into.
Tools:
- Razor/Ruler, for measuring & cutting mold box
- Hot Glue Gun, to glue mold together
- Scale, a gram scale to weigh out materials
- Air Compressor
- Vacuum Chamber & Vacuum pump, to de-gas silicone
- Pressure Pot, a chamber that eliminates any remaining bubbles
- Old sander or piece of vibrating equipment (to vibrate pressure pot)
- Flat Chisel & Scalpel (x-acto knife), for cutting mold open
Before we begin, let me say that this is but one of many ways to build a mold. The construction of your mold will depend on the piece you are making a mold of, what kind of process you’ll use to cast it, and what material you will be casting with. For the sake of this project, the item being molded is a toy, it is small and the mold form is very simple. Continue reading →
Rad Toy Review 