It's been all go here, I have been having a clear out (again) and decided to concentrate on just one or two periods. Now the decks are clear I have more room for yet more figures and also a bit of time to experiment with scratch building. Being on a budget means that I have to try to find ways of making my hobby as cheap as possible though to be fair I think it is a pretty cheap hobby anyway...especially when you start to compare the costs of other pastimes.
Anyway I dug out an old tin of Sili Put...a cheap putty that when mixed together makes a putty that you can then make a mold with. This stuff is a cheaper alternative to "real" mold making which can become expensive and for me at the moment it would be overkill.
I made a "master" of an air conditioning unit that looks something like what you see stuck all over every building in Asia and Africa and possibly the middle east as well. This only needed to be simple as the item is or decoration and not a feature.
Next I glued the master into a MacDonalds ketchup container and covered it with the Sili Put....this stage was actually flawed as a few air bubbles spoiled the mold and is now reflected in every piece! I am sure that you chaps will do better but this was a first attempt..
The final mold is cut from the ketchup case and Miliput was used to create the air con units...they look a little odd but hopefully a coat of paint will hide their more obvious imperfections. Next time I will invest in a real mold making kit and a better master! Still these are the right price as they probably cost around 20 pence each to mold...if plaster was used it would be literally pennies.
Keep blogging!
If the air bubbles show up on the castings, just say they are bullet holes - they're ina war zone after all :)
ReplyDeleteThat's very cool, I've never really tried casting before, but these great to me.
ReplyDeleteThery look fine in the images. The post heading has "and Grubby Tanks" - anything you want to add or is it supposed to be a mystery :-) p.s. I have ordered stuff from Andy, and the service is excellent.
ReplyDeleteThats a good point Shaun, I will post about the service-which was excellent later.
DeleteThanks Chaps, the molding is easy and faults can be hidden
ReplyDeleteA good tip! I've used silicon caulking as a quick one-off mold material with good results.
ReplyDeleteThat is a damned good idea!
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