"Mould making materials" Topic

Hi all

I am improving the turret on some Airfix Shermans an wondering if anyone knows of any suitable mould making materials other than RTV rubber and hot metal?

I had some stuff from an art supplies stire which I have mislaid that I thought might be suitable. I'm thinking some sort of resin – does anyone have any good suggestions? I'm in London.

What do you intend to put into the mold for the master? What do you intend to put into the mold for the duplicates and by what method? Spin, gravity, injection, pressing?

As a caster I have used oiled sand, cuttlebone, tufa, wet clay, investment plaster, carved graphite and Latex rubber as well as RTV. I have made press molds using polymer clay. It comes down to how many you need as to which is the best.

Thought about taking a shot at casting possibly vehicle or pontoon boats. Wondered if clay could be used.

Maybe it will be interesting: YouTube link

Here are some options
link
composimoldstore.com/learn

You can also make molds from plaster of paris for a one time use

The above are for casting metal although Plaster is a one time mold for metal

Plaster of paris can also make an open mold where you push your master in, let dry, remove and use a material like milliput or epoxy or epoxy ribbon to cast

link is a material that can be used more than once for different molds

here is a youtube showing how YouTube link it's not always blue sometimes clear

Thought pontoon boats would be a good thing to try out, will want metal casts, I have no examples to copy so would need to design them.
I have old plumbers putty and body putty to play with. It's a no cost experiment so have nothing to lose

link

I used latex for molds and resin for casting some years ago.

The quick-set rubbers will be better than latex. Applying multiple layers of latex, with hours of set/dry time in-between, was a pain. But the molds were durable enough for 4 – 6 castings using resin. I never tried more. I don't know why they wouldn't have been productive for a few more. But I doubt you could have gotten 15 or 20 castings from a mold, as removing the castings did involve a lot of flexing of the mold, and eventually they would have started tearing.

The resin-in-latex molding that I did was not good enough for tanks or vehicles or figures. Now I work at 6mm, so take that into account. Yes, I did some tanks. No, they weren't worth the effort, for the quality I got. I casted a number of buildings and other terrain features (gun emplacements, trenches, etc.). This worked well enough. My scratch-building skills were not so far ahead of my casting techniques, so you could hardly distinguish between original and castings. Never managed to case any of my scratch-built aircraft -- too many fiddly bits. This technique is / was not suited to lots of fiddly details.

Your mileage may vary.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

If you are only making a few items, try Siligum. I use it to make bits and bobs by pressing Brownstuff (actually a Dirygreystuff…) into it which gives a sharp result.

i have used smooth-on oomoo 30 with good results to make molds
for material with deep undercuts i use alumilite with high tear strength
i get both on amazon
and you need to use the smooth on asap when you get it and after opening as it has a limited shelf life even before you open it.

For a few small items, 1-pc polymer clay mold & plaster. Anything bigger, it's cheaper to just buy the desired model…

If you are in London visit Tirantis in Euston – problem solved

link