Help making mold for silicone head

rozshreds1

New Member
I have cast a head in monster clay and its pretty much ready to mould. Im not sure if I should be making a silicone mold to cast into or making a 2 part resin mold. I would imagine the resin would be better seeing I am using silicone? Also I live in Australia so am not sure which resin/silicone to use. I watched a tutorial on youtube by BITY mold supply and they were using easy Flo 120 resin thickened with polyfiber. I Cant find that anywhere in Australia so is there a good substitute? thanks very much, any help is greatly appreciated!

Rory
 

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nice sculpt. it will be destroyed by the molding process.

CRITICAL QUESTION: What do you intend to cast into the mold?? This will determine what you make the mold out of.

Ridged mold: Soft Cast
Soft mold: Ridged Cast
 
Casting silicone... probably plastic gel 10. and yeh thats why I am taking such precautions dont want to ruin the sculpt and the mold.
 
The sculpt will most probably suffer some damage anyway you mold it.

As for the resin and polyfibers can you get Smooth On products where you are?

Urefill 11 would be their polifyber version:
https://www.smooth-on.com/products/ure-fil-11/

As for the PU resins you could try several. I´ve made small molds (severed hand for example) with smoothcast 65D, which is nice working with ( gradual hardening), Ure-fil 11 and backed with fiberglass. But 65D is low shore plastic, so maybe to low for a head. Onyx is another resin to try, and you can always use fiberglass as a last backing coat.
Another option could be poliester+fiberglass or epoxy+fiberglass. The downside of these is that you will need (most probably) post curing, specially with polyester resin, as they inhibit plat silicone when freshly made. You need styrene to go away. Epoxy could be less problematic in that sense. I have molds of heads and others made in both materials, but post curing and tests are a must. Fast setting silicones also help to minimize inhibition.
More options:
Acrylic resin (Acrystal, Jestmonite etc...). Nice to work with (no solvents, no fumes). Works fine with silicone. You will need to make molds a bit thicker than resin+fiberglass ones.
Or ole stone plaster (Ultracal for example), which will do the trick, but heavier molds.
 
OK. Casting Silicone = Hard tool


you would be OK using fiberglass and resin for the mold.

Here is the $$ question: Will this be cast solid? A mask?

If you intend to make the head hollow, then it is a more complicated mold to make.
 
thanks heaps for that! yeh I can get smoothon here... ill look through their resins and try to find a similar one to the easyflo 120. I dont want to really try anything different because if I ruin this sculpt I dont think ill be able to do another one anytime soon.

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yes making the head hollow and it will be foam filled. do you have any suggestions as to which resin to use? thanks!
 
yes making the head hollow and it will be foam filled. do you have any suggestions as to which resin to use? thanks!



Resin? Resin for the mold? Polyester is cheapest. Do you know how to make a core mold? It is the way that you are going to get a hollow silicone mask. You don't just pour out the silicone like its latex.
 
how does this stuff look?? https://www.rowetrading.com.au/shell-shock-brushable-resin-trial-smooth-on

yeh I understand how to make the mold, just not which materials to use. thanks

Shell shock could do, but it´s a bit brittle by itself, It´s normally reinforced with Plasty Paste (smooth on) after the shell shock layers to achieve stronger molds. Small molds could do only with shell shock but I think a head mold should be backed up with Plasty Paste or similar.
All in all it´s an interesting product to try (shell shock), you can work on it when it´s thickening.
 
IMG_8456.JPG

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opened the mouth and hit it with a coat today, first time ever doing it so hope it got into all the nooks and crannies.

dont know why pic went side on
 
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