Firsts

For the first time, I’m giving a shot at rubber mold casting.  This is something I have wanted to do for a long time, and I’ve always been reticent to give it a try.   To be honest, this stuff ain’t cheap, so I have to be willing to sink a couple $$ into just taking a chance.    This is one of those things where there is a whole cascade of events waiting on “something” to give.   I would like to build from scratch, and the engineering of the models isn’t so hard, that stuff I can do in my sleep.  It’s the sculpting/molding/casting of them that has held me back so far.  Because I didn’t know how to do any of that, or at best, didn’t have faith that I could figure it out, *all* of those projects have been basically on hold. 

Now, if this works out, that pretty much opens the door to trying out the sculpting and designing. 

So..I got my hands on a part that I want to try, and am giving it a go.  First off, yes, it’s a re-cast of the original TimberWolf.   I’m justifying the recast in 2 ways: first, this is a one-off and the part will not be available to anyone else.  Second, the whole reason I’m doing this is so I can carve the thing up and custom build a cockpit into it.  The original piece is a solid chunk of resin and it doesn’t lend itself well to the design.   I’m hoping to cast this hollow, or mostly so, leaving me a much more reasonable task to carve in the space and build out the cockpit.  And, if it all fails, I haven’t destroyed the Mk-I Timberwolf. 

And thus it goes.  I made up a mold space from a bottle.  Coated the part with Mold-release 200 and then packed clay around it.  I used the clay and newspaper to fill space.    Future reference, I think I’d rather use cardboard rather than try to do this again.  It’ll be easier to work with.   I mixed up the smooth-on 30 and gave it a pour.   Then, just to help matters a little, I put a cone on top of the mold space and pulled a vacuum a bit to help get some of the bubbles out.  I may not have given it enough, but we’ll see.  

Round 2 is tonight.