Livecasting a head for a durable cosplay bust (make-ups and props)

monks19

New Member
Hi. I'm about to try to do a live cast of my head for cosplay puroses (props making & make-ups/prosthetics). I have already found several videos on YT on how to do it safely (with some SmoothOn products an plaster bands) and with the proper instructions and help frome some friends.

My only concern for now is after the cast. When I'll be ready with the mother mold, what do I take for the bust making instead of ultracal for durabulity ? Ultracal have the tendency to crack, chip & crumble easily after a while (to what I could see in several YT videos). Also, this bust will need to be carryed and cleaned often after use.

So ? Any suggestions/recommandations about this ?

Thanks to answer
 
Not sure what you are asking.

You want different options for casting in what kind of mold?.
An alginate lifecast mold?, a plat silicone lifecast mold (like Body Double)?....or are you talking about the mold you would be making from the lifecast final casting itself?.
Not sure what you mean with "mother mold". For "mother mold" I would usually understand the rigid part/shell that contains a silicone or alginate flexible mold for example.
 
OK, I'll try to be more coherent here. Once the body double/life cast is made (aka mother mold or the negative), what can I use, aside of ultracal, to pour inside the cast for making the bust (aka the positive, which is what I'm gonna keep once it's out of the mold) ?
 
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That´s clear now.

Well, if you are using Body Double you have many options there:

For pouring:

Acrylic resin, PU resin.....and you could also pour polyester resin for example, but with enough filler, marble powder or others.
My option for a full pour cast would probably be acrylic resin in this case. Duo Matrix Neo (Smooth on) Jesmonite, Acrystal and many others I can´t think of right now.
The good thing about this material is that it´s not solvent based. So no fumes, water to wash your hands and tools and negligible contraction rates. It will turn into hard stuff.
Other resins as PU Resins (you can also add moisture free fillers as marble powder) will heat up a lot (exothermal reaction), are toxic and will experiment contraction wich could result in distrortion of some kind or even cracking in the case of polyester resin. I wouldn´t go that route
There are also plaster hardener additives out there.
A full bust will be heavy stuff though.

By layers:

This is another option.
Pu resin by layers and rigid PU foam filled. I like Smooth cast 65D. You can rotocast the resin by hand and then fill it with PU rigid foam.
Other resins will do by layers, and you can reinforce with polyfibers (or even fiberglass in the last layer) to get a hollow casting.
You can also go for ole polyester resin+fiberglass or epoxy+fiberglass to achieve a hollow casting.

You chose a good material for the mold, so you can cast almost anything rigid in it I´d say. The election for the casting material will depend on the use you are expecting for it. Full will be heavy, hollow will be light.

"the body double/life cast is made (aka mother mold or the negative)"

As I said before, a mother mold is not a mold itself (that is a mold). A mother mold is the rigid part of the mold that contains a silicone piece of the mold to hold it in shape (a shell too), or a rigid part of the mold that contains other rigid parts to hold them together in place.
Or at least that´s what I´ve understood for the last 25 years.

Hope it helps
 
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Ultracal -when mixed and used correctly- won’t crack, chip, or crumble. I know of molds 30+ years old that can still cut a clean edge in foam latex.

You likely wouldnt want to just mix a batch and pour it all in, it’s a waste of stone and it would be incredibly heavy. With ultracal, you mix up a splash coat, about the consistency of a milkshake, apply it. When it goes Matte, you can back with three or four layers of burlap. Over all, a head and shoulder headcast done this way would come in around 25 pounds. I have a headcast of myself done exactly like this from a few years back and it has been used for lots of sculptures and displays with no signs of wear and tear.

We tend to cast a stone positive out of the original lifecast mold to clean up, and then remould the bust, making a two piece mold that is easier to fiberglass into with polyester resin. Fiberglass has the benefit of being incredibly strong and light weight.
 
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