Dragon skin not drying in a latex mould

[Sevv]

Ive recently made a model out of WED clay. I painted on 12 or 13 layers of latex then a fiberglass outer shell for strength. Remove the clay and ive got my mould.

Before I dived head strong into it, I painted on a small section of Dragon Skin just to make sure it dried and didnt react with the latex etc

Unfortunatly, the morning after I set it drying, its still wet... not completely but still comes off on your finger. I was wondering if this is normal? How long should Dragon Skin take to try on a latex base? The pot says 5 hours but its been well over that now.

Should I just wait and put it in a warm place?

The left over Dragon Skin on the plate where I mixed it is dry, so it must be something to do with the latex.

Cheers
Jon

edit - done a bit of research and it seems dragon skin doesnt like latex.... damn that person in the shop, he obviously had no idea what he was talking about! grrrrr

edit2 - ok so ill pour T28 silicone into my mould, let that dry.... pull it out, fiber glass over that and use the fiber glass as my mould. Dragon Skin will try on fiber glass

 

[Minder Thr33]

have you posted on the BOTB? They have more experience with that stuff

 

[fettster]

just to elaborate for you, dragon skin is a platinum based silicone. All platinum based silicone are very sensitive to latex and many other things that you wouldnt think of.

Dragon skin is actually overly sensitive due to its slow cure rate. You will also find that it wont cure against fresh fiberglass either so dont do that despite what you may have been told, its down to the styrene in the polyester. You can bake your mould or spray laquer in it but its not a guarrenteed fix.

What is it your trying to mould? there may be better options

 

[Peter P.]

Im working alot with dragon-skin....
Its extremely sensitive against sulphur (clay like romaplast) and ammoniak (its in latex...) and its not happy with dry plaster,because the plaster takes the moisture out of the silicone, ans thats the reason why its staying "non cured". soak the plaster mold in water,clean it and try it again,maybe it will work....

 

[Sevv]

It wont cure against fiber glass either? Thats unfortunate to hear. Im making a foot and hand sculpt, I want the finished pieces to have a thin Dragon Skin... skin.

What are my options for making a mould then? Ive tried plaster but that doesnt do the job, I didnt even get to trying Dragon Skin on it because I got air bubbles, removing the clay once the plasters dry ruins the mould surface... rubbish. As I said ive tried latex, disaster

A friend of mine has successfully used fiberglass as a mould for Dragon Skin so I thought it would work for me.

What are my options?

 

[fettster]

quite honestly, you can save yourself a lot of headaches by using a different silicone, I would recommend polytek's "platgel 10" its a shore 10 platinum silicone as is the smooth on but it cures in about 15 minutes so there is less chance for it to inhibit

 

[Peter P.]

Fiberglass,Polyester or epoxy makes no problems!
Only Ammoniak and Sulphur (and dry plaster of course!)

 

[Sevv]

Thanks for the reply guys, I set a few tests drying yesterday and Dragon Skin seems to dry on fiberglass no problem! Which is great, I wont have waisted all that sculpting ive done : )

Thanks for the advice!