Resin cast, latex molds

 

So everybody got a latex mold? yes?, let's go:

You should pay a visit to Rob Sorrels site, whose tips and knowledge about this matter were essential for me:

Welcome to Rob's Homepage!


Getting started.

Some materials you will need :

Poliurethane resin.

protection, (disposable gloves, goggles, face mask. DO USE THEM)

disposable cups and sticks

a piece of cardboard

... And for God's sake! don't you ever try to do this on that mahogany dinner table your mother in law gave you as wedding present! Tragic consequences are expected if you are such a nut person to do that


Where to get the material:

In Madrid. SPAIN.

Drogueria Shangai. C/ Hortaleza 25. Liquid latex

Feroca. C/Espaņoleto 11. Resin and RTV silycon

In USA (Info supplied by Lloyd Woodrum)

http://www.alumilite.com/

http://www.smooth-on.com/

http://www.crystaltower.com/aceresin/

http://www.sculpt.com/

In other parts of this world?

If any one knows please let us know


About the resin.

Poliurethane resin is mostly available at fine hobby shops. Skilled modellers use it all the time to replicate pieces they need for the model kits or figures.

Poliurethane resin, has the same density than oil. Usually you get two bottles of it. You have to mix them up in a proportion of 50% of each and it will react and get cured in about 5/10 minutes.

Although working with poliurethane resin is not that dangerous, you are handling chemical products. Get all the information you can from your supplier before start working with.

 

Sample, the first resin cast head

As usual, always use protection for your eyes, nose and hands.

Work in a well ventilated area, and if possible in a table as close as possible to a window.

and last but not least, do this at your own risk.

The mold we so patiently made is ready for rock&roll

Now you need to cut a couple of cardboard pieces in U shape

The inside part of the U, should be a bit wider than the neck part of your mold.

Use both U shaped carboard pieces to 'sandwich' the head this way

an empty cardboard box is great as base for your mold.

Now you pour the resin

resin preparation.

mix it in using a couple of disposable cups (I use disposable plastic cups, but this method is a bit risky as resin use to corrupt the plastic and all the operation should be made fastly so... make your own tests before messing it up)

Pour about 50% of the resin and softly massage the mold to allow the resin get into the smaller and deepest details of the mold

pour the rest of the resin and make the same 'massage' operation

Now just let it dry for about 20/30 minutes.

be careful! When resin reacts it gets quite hot!

Remove the mold carefully just like the first time when you removed it from the original head

Here we got the first cast copy

red marked are the results of air bubbles not removed when making the latex mold

fortunately for me I can remove them easily using a sharp X-acto knife

blue marked is the typical result (sometimes) of the first copy of a new mold, as probably some baby powder still remained inside the mold, this reacted with resin this way, on the next copies you make with the same mold, you should have this kind of problem any more

Although you can use it inmediately if you are going to modify it: cut the extra resin, making the neck post hole, we better let it 24 hrs to cure completely.

Notice that the copy we got had a flesh tone. That was because I added resin dyes when preparing it using specifical resin dyes. You can get them in the same place where you get the resin

Poliurethane natural color use to be a tan pale color (like the head on the left) or grey.

 

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