Need help molding!

I have just about got my beast to the point where I will be molding, but this creature seems as if it would require a complex mold made and I am a bit unsure of how to go about it. So I am hoping there might be someone local or just nearby who could help, I am in the east midlands. Anybody? or if anybody as any advice please post would be very grateful.

Here are a few latest images of the beastie, the teeth are removable scuptly making molding easier.

East midlands UK? I'm not a million miles away, North Cambridgeshire.
I'd recommend letting some of the talented folks on here offer their opinions on the best method to use for this one.
Its a lovely sculpt, nice detail :thumbsup

Leigh said:

East midlands UK? I'm not a million miles away, North Cambridgeshire.
I'd recommend letting some of the talented folks on here offer their opinions on the best method to use for this one.
Its a lovely sculpt, nice detail :thumbsup

Click to expand...

Yeah UK, I'm open to all advice.
Thanks for the nice coment

What material are you planning to cast the copies in? resin? How many are you thinking of making because you will need to make copies of all the teeth if you mold it with them out. Even without the teeth, that mouth is undercut city and it would probably be very difficult to get a silicone plug back out of its mouth if cast in resin. Consider those spaces under the tongue versus the inside of the gums. You may want to re-sculpt a little taking the mold making into consideration.

Another option: You may consider cutting it into two pieces from the corners of the mouth to behind the legs and molding it in two parts. I don't think the join would be too hard to hide sine its mostly underneath, and it would preserve all the detail on the back.

Also, you have a little piece of the armature holding down / holding up the tail, The sculpt looks kind of front heavy. Once its cast, without the armature holding it in place, it may want to tip forward so you may need to add some counter-balance weight. Yyou could easily hide this between the two pieces, if you mold it in two pieces.


cool sculpt... good luck

Kubla Kraus said:

what material are you planning to cast the copies in? resin? how many are you thinking of making because you will need to make copies of all the teeth if you mold it with them out. even without the teeth, that mouth is undercut city and it would probably be very difficult to get a silicone plag back out of its mouth cast in resin. you may be able to get away with a foam mold but it probably wouldn't last long. you may consider cutting it into two pieces from the corners of the mouth to behind the legs and molding it in two parts. I don't think the join would be too hard to hide and it would preserve all the detail on the back.

Also, you have a little piece of the armature holding down / holding up the tail, The sculpt looks kind of front heavy. Once its cast, without the armature holding it in place, it may want to tip forward so you may need to add some counter-balance weight. you could easily hide this between the two pieces. if you mold it in two pieces.


cool sculpt... good luck

Click to expand...

YEs was thinking resin or some for of plastic, Molding the teeth should be easy to mold so not worried about that. I was planning on using silicone and fiberglass for molding and doing a multi piece mold I am just unsure how to lay it out as I have never made a mold of this type. I couldn't cut this sculpt in half would destroy the sculpt too much armature wire under the hood.

normally for things with legs, horses etc, you might make kind of a wall between the legs to make a front lower half and a rear lower half, but if you are backing it with fiberglass, you may be able to pour a one piece around the legs and then just split it as necessary to get the legs free.

Besides undercuts, your other big problem is how are you going to orient it when you pour? You need to consider this in planning your mold. You've got many pointy places for air to get trapped. And you need to be able to cut vents or add sprues for the high spots. I am thinking face down with vents coming off the heels, tail, and back spikes.

As long as you don't mind doing the teeth separately, I would suggest maybe sculpting the tongue and uvula separately as well to make the inside of the mouth less grabby. The interior shape of the mouth is your big problem at the moment. You may just do a glove mold over the whole thing rather than making a multi-part mold. It would be easier to get the mouth free just don't fill it all the way up. These videos may give you some ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uch34fO-RS4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGoVXV86aFE

Great creature, fab sculpt.
I use a company called Notcutt in Ripley Surrey, they have a great Technical guy called Arthur who has really helped me in the past. I have just ordered a product called Plas-ti-shims from them, go to their website, go to downloads and look for the name. They will help in making your mould. With regard to the mouth, if the teeth could be added after it would be a good idea as there is a great risk of an air bubble at the tip, you would have to have breathers on each one to be sure, tricky. With horse ears I pour the plastic in them first wait to set then pour the rest and rotate..
I would divide top from bottom then deal with each leg. I have recently made a horse successfully but had to divide along the length. I don't think you will need to do that. The mouth I would divide top and bottom with the rest of the mould and add supports in wedge shaped layers so that it can be removed in parts without damaging the cast rather like the key stone of an arch. Rubber or fiberglass. The mouth supports must be firmly screwed to the rest of the support jacket to make sure they stay in place.
To cast I use Polytec Easyflo 2 part plastic, it can be slushed around the mould or rotacast for a hollow cast. It sets in a few mins and you can take it out of the mould in 45 mins, no smell. Great product you probably already know of it.
I have attached a pic of the mould in it's fiberglass support, I use ready mixed paste from Halfords. The Plas-ti-shims will make this process much easier for my next project this is very untidy but it worked very well.
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Here is a pic of finished horse with rider [/URL][/SIZE][/IMG]

Not sure I have the hang of this picture thing! Please feel free to remove my pics from your thread if you don't want them there. I tried to shrink the but no joy! Sorry not sure what I did.

Good Luck, I hope I may have helped.

Thanks very much for the posts guys this is all helping. I have a few Ideas as to which direction I will be heading with this, fingers crossed i don't muck it up in the process. Marshmonster thanks for the info on the notts place will look them up. and great pics by the way.

The first time you do this you hit a really steep learning curve - at least I know I did. You can't worry about mucking it up, you built the beast once you can built him again. Please show your process so I can continue to learn! By the way, my horse was a supported 'glove mould' but next time, following the advice of Arthur I will make it much thicker and use the Shims. I can't afford to make a block mould the item is too big.

Good Luck

Could you have made it ANY more difficult? Like, add some wings, or something?

Yeah, if the teeth can be removed and cast separately, that helps, but there is still that big, gaping mouth, with a hanging uvula in the back.
Then there is the two feet on the bottom, and the long tail.

Someone already mentioned it, but I will repeat here: will this balance on its own, without the aid the armature? How well? What if this thing gets knocked over? Solid resin is heavy. Rotocast?

I see this as a three-piece silicone mold with a fiberglass jacket. If budget permits, epoxy resin rather than polyester, for less distortion. Here is where I see the seam lines:



This is an attempt to hide the seam lines as best as possible. 1) is the top, and keeps all the detail in one piece. 2) is the bottom and splits the legs. This is also where I would put the pour spout, as the creature will be upside down for the casting. 3) the mouth should be kept to a 1 cm thickness, to allow it to flex enough to be removed from the mouth cavity without tearing or locking (as a solid piece would.)

The fiberglass shell is also multi-piece to allow support of the RTV, and easy removal. I, make the shell first, and pour the rubber second, as opposed to the brush-up method that builds the shell second, after the rubber.

any way you attemp this, it is involved. How many casts do you intend to make?