I said in November…
Biiiigggg mistake. Little One had just watched a video of someone making an AmongUs figure, and he wants to make one for everyone in his class.
We crack on, but thankfully there is a Global Pandemic and the schools close so we have more time. Then time passes and its easter holidays. OK.. Time to finish.
This was great fun, making stuff like I used to, then painting sessions with Little One.
Steps:
1. Little one make a plasticine model original.
2. We Popped over the road to my mate Si’s house for mould making (we are in a bubble) as I lost my mould mo-jo years ago. Two-part plaster mould, colour added to the second part so we can see the separation. I had never done this before – neat. Simon suggested that we just press the original into the wet plaster rather than doing a fully supported 2 part mould. Sneaky, but it worked.
3. Two-part expanding self-skinning foam. Not used this sort of stuff in years. Chemical fun.
Lots of learning here. To get it to self-skin, you need to have it in a sealed mould so it can build up pressure. Too much mixture/pressure and it will force the mould open, so I started using a clamp.
Then clamp + pressure from foam soon split the mould in two, so I glued it to a piece of wood and filled the cracks with plasticine.
This image of the mould is towards retirement. It’s been used loads and is deteriorating. In the first cast, I used talcum as a release. It didn’t so I then spent 2 days scraping the mould clean. Vesselene, that’s your friend for self-skinning moulds and it also fills the little scratches made cleaning the stuck foam out!
To get a good skin, you also need to warm the mould up so it speeds up the chemical reaction + pressure. So this little beauty has 25 baked-on layers of vaseline! As the mould cracked and chipped, plasticine was packed into the gaps.. Not ideal is you are making something that needs to be identical, but perfect for this.
I found that with the foam I had, one desert spoon of liquid A and one teaspoon of liquid B was perfect. Well perfect enough.
The idea is that they are little stress relief toys, but most of them are a little firm for that. For me, it just became a trial to get the little fuckers finished!
Anyhow, we are nearly there. I will cast the last 3 today, then we will paint tomorrow.
4. Painting. Acrylic goes really well on the foam and Poundland have some Windsor and Newton paints. The silver is surprising shiny. On the home stretch!!
Little one does the base colour, then I do the visors.
