Predator 1 Sculpture.

[panik33]

i like the long bottom mandibles it gives it a different look than the uniform jaw sizes
the jaw looks really angry like he's about to rip the wookies arms out lol

 

[MEANGENE83]

So here is the problem.

Look at the picture of the mold against the sculpt surface. The WED clay wall dried out and pulled the silicone away from the surface of the sculpt.

So now the problem is, when I goto pour the second half of the sculpt with silicone, the silicone will flow into and under the first half of the mold.
I am not sure how to proceed.

Do I ?
A: Sculpt some clay up to crack and make it flush to prevent silicone from flowing in?

B: Let the silicone flow in that small crack and later when I seperate the two mold halfs, use a exacto knife to cut that area along the seam line?

 

[roninpredator]

option number one sounds like it's the way to go but option number too sounds easier.either way,I know you will have this bad boy fixed in no time. by the way thanks for the pics.sorry I haven't call you.will do tomorrow!

 

[Darth Pinhead]

Yeah, I'd PM George on that one, brother...

 

[MEANGENE83]

I texted him and must have overlooked the text message. He us buisy at work lately last time I talked to him.

 

[berzerker219]

Dude u got some serious scuplting skills! could u give me some of ur skill I suck at scuplting! LOL

 

[Usurper]

How did you get on Gene? manage to get a good solution i hope.

 

[tomibraniste]

Wow very nice pictures, i think was very hard to do that

 

[MEANGENE83]

No solution yet. I gave been in Boston for annual Saint Pattys day parade. Yes I was obliterated!

I will be traveling home tonite and will get this figured out one way or another.

I have not come up with a decent solution yet.

 

[biohunter76]

Hey Gene, If you let silicone flow in, how would you insure a good release from the first half? I think adding clay to fill the gap and resculpting a little of the back half is your only choice here brotha. WED is fast but it has HUGE draw backs. That's my two pennies anyway. Good luck buddy!

 

[L HULK]

how the hell have i not seen this before,amazing work! can't wait to see your first pull!

 

[Darth Pinhead]

Now, this may be crazy talk, but in the area in question, can you carefully exacto away a big enough section of the existing silicone, build up a new retaining wall, and simply apply more silicone to that particular area, then continue as normal?

 

[maverick118]

Gene. I wouldn't sweat it...Mix up a small patch batch of silicone. perhaps add some silicne fluid to it to get it thinner and pour it into the gap...Not had a chance to read through this all as I'm on my PC before going to a location shoot tonight....If you block most exits routes for the tthinner silicone to escape and pour it in you should be able to fill most of the gap safely and pick up surface detail that is on the part that's pulled away, then once cured or at least gelled mix up some more and add some thixo to get to a frosting consitensy and fille the remainder...Need anything else mate PM me.

This is why i use shims and not clay walls for big pieces

 

[MEANGENE83]

MAV, that was exactly what I was thinking! I got some thinner from smooth on.

I'm going tomexactly what you said. The good thing is that the area in question is set back on the underside of the head. So it won't be obviously visible if I am unsuccessful.

I knew when i left it to dry over nite that I shouldhave covered the dividing walls in plastic.

Live and learn. I will post results as soon as I finish.

 

[maverick118]

No worries bro' knew you'd have it covered. oh and congrats on becoming a mod mate, and good to see you back dooing what you do best

 

[MEANGENE83]

You know me well aye Mav!?

Its great to be back here. I am back and I am hitting the books harder than ever.

I am working on the mold as I type this, and got me thinking. What do the dividing walls look like on something comparible to this that you have done?

I want to see how you do and compare it to this method... alll part of the learning process you know. I am always very curious to see how other people do things.

 

[maverick118]

That's how I do shims...or at least did for grandad back in the day. The shims I use are brass and strong but very flexible..You did the right thing with the placement of your seam lines too i went further back so to hide any possible feck ups with the dreds that went on later. This was a for a stone mould but would have been the same had I been doing it for a silicone jacket like you have done...The shims are taped together then if there is a gap I will paint a little clay slurry into them to plug them. Once I'm happy I seal the sucker and mould it...once the first part is done the shims are removed and the damaged section are repaired if needed...The shims give for a really tight seal.. One thing I would suggest...the surface of the silicone jacket could have been a lot tidier...I have found that even with a support jacket leaving the surface uneven like that can lead to warping. I generally finish off with a thick batch and smooth it down with a flexible kidney tool before adding the jacket keys to the surface...I use silicone poured into ice cube trays as they provide ideal keys for a jacket mould to latch on to. If I am doing a head for a resin bust...personally I'd pick a silicone with a good elastomer rating and do it as a once piece glove mould and a two part fibreglass jacket, and then slit it up the back of the neck of the silicone glove to hide the seam...If it's for a silicone piece I'd use a good quality gel coat and make purely a fibreglass mould that's bolted shut over a core

I can't believe this was posted up on the old lair in 06...been 3 suits done and gone and about 6 or so heads...not sure I'll ever come back to the pred again though

 

[MEANGENE83]

Funny how time travels!

I made this two parts becuase I am going to have to brush in Latex occasionaly to make masks from. But I also wanted a silicone mold for Resin Castings.

An update:

Mixed a very thin batch of silicone and the **** did not set. I even thinned it out with some silicone thinner like you mentioned. It went into the crack beautifully. Came back today 24 hours later and it was like peanut butter.

I am not sure if I mixed it right, i think that is the problem. Was i mis calculate the curative to base ratio. I mixed a small small amount as I did not want to waste any silicone.

I have cleaned out the crack of all un cured silicone. There is still of course residue and some probbaly buried deep. My hope is that the next batch of silicone mixed correctly will cure itself and also cure the residue left from the first failed attempt.

I have never had this much trouble with silicone before! PAIN IN THE BALLS

 

[maverick118]

What you moulding it in? TinSil or PlatSil? I use Platsil pretty much for all my glove moulds as it's strong but really flexible...But it's picky about cross contamination...like wearing latex gloves can cause inhibition or sulphur in the clay...Tinsil is far more forgiving but it needs to be mixed fairly accurately....I have a set of digital and old fashioned scales...the old fashioned ones are far more accurate...You may need to check your supplier to see if there's any change to the rations if you're using silicone fluid to thin it...you may have just used too much bro. Lots of **** like this happens when moulding mate so use it as a learning excercise

 

[MEANGENE83]

The silicone is made by smooth-on, it's a Tim cure silicone. Check their website spec sheet for Mold Max 30. That's what I used. I think my mixture was just way off and then on top of it I used way too much thinner.

The second half if the mold is done now. The surface is way smoother this time. I tried to follow your advice this time in consideration of how that effects the mothermold.

I will make the mother mold tommorow. I will post some updates then.