so, I picked up a pack of this stuff recently as well as an 18 inch roll of green stuff, my apartment isn't very big and I don't have the room to keep jugs of silicone around (especially with a curious 2 year old who gets into everything) so I decided to experiment with the beginner's toys and move on as I hit the limits of what it can do.....

I first had a play a few weeks ago, I chucked it into a bowl of hot water and pressed a dark elf crewman model between two pieces of it, with lots of pressing using a glass dinner plate, I managed to make quite a good mould of the model, I stuck some greenstuff into the finished mould (just the front half) and I would say that the resulting model is 95-98% as detailed as the original, pretty impressive for a first go.... I took some pics of it, but as it's a current GW model, I won't post them here, perhaps I'll put them in my photobucket and link to them.

my next experiment is casting some 6mm stuff..... namely the court of the young king exarchs, I want lots of these guys as I'm really wanting to make each infantry stand in my army into a miniature diorama (I have no local friends to play with, so collecting epic for me is about making the game as attractive as possible to my warhammer playing mates......) but I really can't justify spending £12+shipping for 7 tiny metal models and a duplicate avatar I can't make use of.....

At this point, I should put up a Disclaimer: Stealing is bad, I am not selling anything or offering it for trade, I'm trying to learn how to make duplicates of stuff using various mould making materials. I contacted CS before starting this thread, and I won't be posting any images up which could cause anybody any troubles.

This being said, I could use some help and advice, my first few test casts of the exarchs came out ok for single sided press mould efforts, the detail is surprisingly good.... however I'm finding green stuff isn't an optimum material for casting in, it's very viscous and sticks like turds on a blanket to everything you don't want it to stick to, I'm afraid of mixing it in different ratios as I don't want to get a wonderful looking model which is rubbery and soft, or hard as nails which shatters when pulled from the mould..... I'm planning on experimenting, but if anyone can save me some time, that would be great.... can anyone suggest any alternative casting materials which are cheap and reasonably safe (inquisitive 2 year old and all that)?

thanks in advance!

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Just some guy

My hobby/painting threads

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I have used that liquid green stuff for stamp molding. It's great for very thin icons.

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mattie
http://maashes.blogspot.com/

from what I've read, it seems that it shrinks quite a bit when it cures though, so it would probably be ideal for casting 6mm stuff if not for that huge problem....

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Just some guy

My hobby/painting threads

Army Forge List Co-ordinator

Of course as a liquid and it's medium water. It will shrink as it dries.

Other than coping icons, I will paint my mold with liquid green stuff. Once dry pack it with green stuff and stamp or by compression create a copy. I get all the detail if not 100% of the detail.

Understand casting in this method takes forever. But I get little time to paint or work with a new baby. Also no matter how bad I pork the mold, a little hot water and I'm back at it.

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mattie
http://maashes.blogspot.com/

so, I finally got around to buying some lego bricks to make a mould box, the megabloks were too flexible and caused problems with alignment

after a few tests with the lego box, I'm still suffering with alignment issues as well as uneven depth on each half of the mould..... :\

I tried making a mould from RTV silicon sealant instead, but the stuff was way too viscous and didn't pick up much detail, it also gunked up the lego bricks :\

so I came up with a slightly different method, heating two pieces of instant mould up, then pressing it into a flat piece under a plate, dropping the object on top, putting another piece on top and pressing the whole thing flat with a plate, it's cooling in the freezer right now, hopefully I'll have a better mould this time round!

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Just some guy

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wathcing carefully

I'm not sure I would use oyumaru for Epic infantry, but it is fabulous for other bits. I've used it to make GS copies of heads for WFB minis and other smallish parts.

If you are having issues with the stickiness of GS, you might try talcum powder in the mold, waiting until the GS is past it's initial "supa-sticky" phase, or blending it with Milliput/Magic Sculpt.

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WAAARGH!!
The Lost & the Dipped

After my experiment last night, I've now got a mould with pretty even depth on each side, my oyumaru is now full of bubbles from being folded and melted a lot, and some of those ended up where the miniatures were supposed to be :\

even so, there are a couple of great looking impressions which should line up nicely thanks to the two halves of the mould refusing to detach and forming a neat 'hinge'

Next I will be experimenting with various materials to actually reproduce the models.....

I'm not sure about standard kneadatite in an even mix ratio, it doesn't set particularly hard, yet is quite viscous.

my first experiment will be to mix it in a 2:1 ratio of material to hardner, I've read that this makes it softer and more pliable and actually set harder

after that I'm going to experiment with blending greenstuff and milliput together, then it will be a case of messing about with the various ratios until I'm happy (or can say with reasonable certainty that it's not going to ever work...)

The hobby store I buy my stuff from does sell a one-part modelling putty in a tube, I might test that out if it's runny enough to flow into the mould.

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Just some guy

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sorry I missed this thread (hopefully you should have your bits by now), I've been meaning to post a thread on how I do my 2 part press molds but never got round to it.

First, I lightly coat the model(s) to be molded in vaseline (cheap mold release), then press it into any old air dry clay and take a lot of care to make the clay flat and at exactly the 1/2 way point of the model. I then get some toothpicks, chop them up and coat one end in vaseline. The vaseline end gets stuck into the clay. 5 to 6 of those equally spaced around the model works pretty well. Let the clay dry

Then I make up the silicon molding stuff (I use http://www.makeyourownmolds.com/silicone-plastique but anything similar will do) and work it into the model, usually as a thin "skim" cover first, then build it up until it's ~10mm thick. Let it dry overnight.

Very very carefully break the clay off the model (this will be where you curse yourself for forgetting the vaseline). I usually heavily score the clay and break it off in chunks. If you try and pull it off in one piece you'll pull the model out and it's a PITA getting it back in.

Turn the mold over so that the half encased model is pointing up. Clean any clay off the model and recoat it, the silicone (v. important) and the ends of the toothpicks with vaseline. Cover the model with silicone as above, let it dry overnight.

Before splitting the silicone mold, cut 3 to 4 notches around the mold where the 2 halves join. These are very useful as alignment marks to make sure the 2 halves go back together as they should. Split the mold - you may need to score it with a craft knife around the join. Go ooh and aah about how cool the mold looks.

Put it back together and use some of that air dry clay to make an external support for one side. All this is is a piece of clay that's flat on one side (I use baking paper so it doesn't stick to the table) and molded to the mold on the other side. Let it dry overnight and do the next side the following day. These are really useful so that you don't oversquish the mold and make concave models. It also give your u-grips or vices or whatever something flat to press on. Write the mold and the side on the clay halves as they're a royal pain to match up if you have a box full of them.

Clean the mold and give it a light coat of vaseline. Mix greenstuff and milliput superfine/ magic sculpt (1st is great but expensive, 2nd is just as great and 1/2 the price) in a 2:3 ratio. GS gives the model flexibility but is a complete git to use, fine clay gives the model detail but is very brittle on its own. Press it into one half until it's flush with the surface of the mold, plus a teensy bit extra. Give it a finger dab worth of water to keep it wet. Do the same to the other half. Line the 2 halves up, press them together by hand (if you see a lot of clay come out, you've used too much) and then hold the whole sandwich together with some u-clamps/ squeezy clamp things (I got a bag of 15 or so of different sizes for $10) overnight. Carefully peel one half of the mold off (one half will always come off more easily), then pop the model out of the other half by working around the whole mold.

Takes a lot of work but the results are pretty impressive and once it's done, the molds last fairly well (although they do lose some of the fine detail over time)

the air dry clay will dissolve in water, if that's faster then chipping it off.

it doesn't take very long to get off (a few minutes at most) if the model has been prepped with vaseline first, you just have to be careful not to pull the model out with it as it's almost impossible to get it back in properly

I also played with GS and instant mold

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