Help deciding what mold/cast type I should use for a headpiece sculpt.

Hello RPF! If this is in wrong format, or in the wrong forum, please forigve me. This is my first post here. I have really valued this whole site and the advice it's offered me over my costuming career, so I decided to finally make an account and pose this quesiton.

I have a sculpt I'm working on for The Iron Bull from Dragon Age: Inquisition. This photo is from a VERY early stage in the sculpt, but you get the general shape:



I have a metal beam that is firmly supporting the horns, and it travels through the head to each end. My plan was to mold and cast this to make a light weight, paintable and wearable headpiece. I planned on wearing a bald cap underneath to hide my hair. My question is, what is the best way to mold and cast this? I looked into foam latex, but that is a bit beyond my skill level and supplies. Money is not too much of an issue. I don't really wish to buy equipment that I'll rarely use (like with foam latex, I needed an oven specifically for it). I would really appreciate everyone's thoughts and ideas, as I want to do this right. Thanks in advance! I'd be more than happy to provide mosr pictures if needed, and to clarify any information I may have left out.

For latex casting, a hydrostone mold is relatively inexpensive.
Have you made molds before? This would seem to be a two-part (front and back) stone mold, three parts, if you count the head armature.

The latex skin can be filled with two-part polyfoam, rather than going to the trouble of foam latex. Foam latex is doable, but no one gets it on the first try. It is a science experiment! It requires a few test runs to 'dial it in'. Or you might take your mold to a shop that does foam latex and ask them to do it.

If the oven is what scares you, remember that an oven is just a box with a heat source. One can be made from plywood and some heat lamps with a dimmer switch. This is up the alley of most hobbyists.

For horns that big, I wouldn't be inclined to do foam latex anyway. If you have something that big soft and spongy, you'll have bouncy, springy horns. One thing I did for horns recently was a brush up silicone mold with a plaster jacket, a light skim of urethane plastic (such as Smooth-on 65D), and back that up with a very light weight (3 lb) foam. Or you could go with a denser foam, and you might be able to get away without a resin shell.

You might have a little difficulty fitting it, though, since it looks like you're sculpting on a generic head form, which may not be the same size as your head. Oftentimes, what you'll do is make a fiberglass skull cap on the lifecast, then sculpt the horns to mount onto that. Mold and cast the horns, mount them to the fiberglass cap, then sculpt the prosthetics that will cover up the fiberglass and base of the horns. The point of all that is to solidly mount the horns to your head so that they aren't wiggling or bouncing.

clonesix said:

For latex casting, a hydrostone mold is relatively inexpensive.
Have you made molds before? This would seem to be a two-part (front and back) stone mold, three parts, if you count the head armature.

Click to expand...

I have made two two-part molds before using Hydrocal 30. They were... learning expriences, that's for sure. I'm more confident in my ability to do two-part molds now. From a quick Google search, it looks like hydrostone is denser/more durable than hydrocal. I'll most likely only do a two-part mold.

clonesix said:

The latex skin can be filled with two-part polyfoam, rather than going to the trouble of foam latex. Foam latex is doable, but no one gets it on the first try. It is a science experiment! It requires a few test runs to 'dial it in'. Or you might take your mold to a shop that does foam latex and ask them to do it.

If the oven is what scares you, remember that an oven is just a box with a heat source. One can be made from plywood and some heat lamps with a dimmer switch. This is up the alley of most hobbyists.

Click to expand...

Ah, I didn't even think of filling a latex skin with something. Thanks for that insight! As for the oven, it would definitely be a project I could tackle, but I'm hesitant since I doubt it'll get much use. If I thought I was going to start doing crazy amounts of casting/molding from here on out, I'd definitely give it a try. Thanks for your help! :]

ChickenHaunt said:

For horns that big, I wouldn't be inclined to do foam latex anyway. If you have something that big soft and spongy, you'll have bouncy, springy horns. One thing I did for horns recently was a brush up silicone mold with a plaster jacket, a light skim of urethane plastic (such as Smooth-on 65D), and back that up with a very light weight (3 lb) foam. Or you could go with a denser foam, and you might be able to get away without a resin shell.

Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for this info. I looked up a video on a brush up silicone mold, and I think that might be the way to go. It seems easy enough, and when the mold is finished, easy to work with. I found the last two Hydrocal 30 molds I made to be incredibly difficult and nervewracking to deal with. Heavy and fragile. Not a good combo. A couple of questions if you don't mind: would a brush up silicone mold work with something this large? The video I watched demonstrated it on a very small statuette. Also, would a light weight foam/urethane plastic combo work well for a headpiece like this? I'm hesitant to make the thing too rigid, as it will be mounted on the better part of my forehead, and I'd hate for it to come off from the natural movement of my eyebrows.

ChickenHaunt said:

You might have a little difficulty fitting it, though, since it looks like you're sculpting on a generic head form, which may not be the same size as your head. Oftentimes, what you'll do is make a fiberglass skull cap on the lifecast, then sculpt the horns to mount onto that. Mold and cast the horns, mount them to the fiberglass cap, then sculpt the prosthetics that will cover up the fiberglass and base of the horns. The point of all that is to solidly mount the horns to your head so that they aren't wiggling or bouncing.

Click to expand...

Yes, I see your point. Thankfully, the head form is quite similar to my head, as I've used it for various other projects before (mainly a full head mask that fit quite well in all respects but the nose). Of course, it isn't an exact, but I had neither the skill, time, or bravery to do a lifecast of my noggin. Silly, I know! I'll have to try and get one made in the future. Getting it to fit right without looking weird is going to be a whole different problem, I'm sure. Thank you very much for all of your help, though!

My suggestion would be to make the horns separately and attach them to the headpiece. You might be able to get away with doing a fiberglass cap on that head form. You'll have to figure out some sort of barrier, though, so it doesn't bond to the foam.

You wouldn't need the rigid cap to come all the way onto your forehead. It's only on the part of your head that doesn't move (where your hair is). If it's meant to be a fleshy forehead, then you'd make a prosthetic from silicone or foam latex to cover the fiberglass cap and blend into your face. Look at the horns done for Maleficent: http://fussyeye.blogspot.com/2014/05/how-special-effects-make-up-transformed.html

Yes, you can do very large brush up molds. It's the jacket that provides the rigidity. Here's one I'm working with now, for example. Rebound 25 with an ultracal 30/burlap mother mold. This was a quickie-- no reason you couldn't do it cleaner

Shannon Shea has a fantastic method for making cheap light weight rigid horns without the use of a sculpt or mold.

The basic idea is you have to meld together a plastic bag in the shape you want the horn to be, this can be done with a soldering iron and some paper, if you google the technique I'm sure it will come up. Once you have the bags, one for each horn, you secure it on a piece of card board and fill it with a rigid expanding foam. Great stuff from your local hardware store works perfectly fine.

Once it kicks, just remove the excess, cut the end flush, carve a bit of detail in, and mount it (preferably on a fiberglass cap.)




Its a a great method because there is no molds or sculptures to worry about, and to so cheap you can do it over and over until you get results you like. I'm not saying your method won't work, but it involves a lot more work, and has a much higher risk of failure.

ChickenHaunt said:

My suggestion would be to make the horns separately and attach them to the headpiece. You might be able to get away with doing a fiberglass cap on that head form. You'll have to figure out some sort of barrier, though, so it doesn't bond to the foam.

You wouldn't need the rigid cap to come all the way onto your forehead. It's only on the part of your head that doesn't move (where your hair is). If it's meant to be a fleshy forehead, then you'd make a prosthetic from silicone or foam latex to cover the fiberglass cap and blend into your face. Look at the horns done for Maleficent: http://fussyeye.blogspot.com/2014/05/how-special-effects-make-up-transformed.html

Yes, you can do very large brush up molds. It's the jacket that provides the rigidity. Here's one I'm working with now, for example. Rebound 25 with an ultracal 30/burlap mother mold. This was a quickie-- no reason you couldn't do it cleaner
View attachment 554017

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Awesome. All your info is seriously helping me form the idea of how this whole process is gonna go. Thank you very much!

As long as I can cast just the top of my head for the fiberglass cap, I do believe I have the resources and friends to do so. Do you have any links on the process of doing this? I gave it a Google, but it was a weirdly difficult thing to research. I keep getting "Fiberglass Cap"tain America Shields. Heh.

I think I'll end up making a prosthetic to finish it up. As you can see, The Iron Bull has a rather large and textured forehead.


If I'm thinking correctly here, the horns would attatch to the fiberglass cap, and I can sculpt a prosthetic to fit over my forehead/crown of my head and then wrap around the base of each horn? Or am I getting too adventerous here? In my head, I'm thinking about a prosthetic that has a seam underneath each horn so it can effectively go over my head, around the horn base, and create a seam with itself.

Edit: I attempted to portray my thoughts on the prosthetic in picture form. This is a very rough drawing, but I hope you get my idea. Ha.

I just remembered a really excellent example from Vincent Van Dyke: http://nerdist.com/scott-ians-bloodworks-premiere-crafting-a-demon-with-vvd-effects/