Eye of the beholder

Tonight I have cast the prince or princess! I got inspired to make the sculpt while watching snow white so I had a princess in mind but it might as well work out as a prince. I leave it all up to the beholder:). The casting worked like a charm and I only had to recast a few times. Just as with the warrior I did not have to use any vents at all. I made 5 from about half a ingot of model metal so that´s great.

Painting

I have painted some on my miniatures and now I´m working on the base. It´s been interesting painting on the casts. I can easily see areas I´d like work on some more in the future and things I like. I have just finished baking a mould of the princess/prince. It looks like it turned out real nice but I will know more after I cast it.

Model metal

I have cast the warrior! First of I baked the mould in the oven for 5 hours to make it more durable as instructed by Dwr plastics. This is a new step I have not done before and it really increases the moulds tear strength. I used my new model metal from Prince august and it was awesome! I did not have to put much effort in casting just melt the metal and pour it in the mould. The details came out like on the sculpt. I´m really happy with this stuff! I´m looking forward to to get some paint on the miniatures!

Flexing

I could not hold my horses and started out with a new sculpt. Which is a good thing as long as I finish of some sculpts. My cupboard is filled with old unfinished drawings and stuff and I don´t want this for my sculpts. I´m going to try to finish of one sculpt for every sculpt I start from now on.

With my new rule of thumb in mind I also made a mould of the warrior. As I mentioned before I always brush on the first layer so that the surface of the mould gets free from bubbles. In the picture bellow you can see why. If I had not made that first brush on I would have had dots all over my model. I also cut some brass tubes and attached them to the hands. I did this because I was a bit worried about getting the metal to flow there and it also made the cutting of the mould easier. It´s also a good idea not to cut the mould in a straight line but work out some forms. It makes it easier to fit the mould together when casting this way.

Casting weapons

I have made some weapons for my warrior. I decided to make a sprue of two axes and a hammer. I have also prepared the warrior for mould making but I will have to wait until I get some more silicone. Here are some pictures from the weapon mould making and the casting. 

When pouring silicone it´s good to pour high above the walls in a long stream. This way most bubbles will pop.

Brass

I have decided to make most of my sculpts two part from now on. I will make the weapons separate from the body to make the mold making process simpler and to have the option to switch between weapons. I have started to use brass rod as a handle. It makes it much easier then before and better looking I think. I want to begin with some new sculptures but I have decided to try to finish of some old ones first. 

Here is a Picture of Botulf and he's knights. I´m almost done with him I just have to do some basing and cleanup.

Casting

I have tested the mould! The result is OK I think:). I used a method I saw on youtube called steam casting used by silver smiths. You just push a lid with wet paper towels against the metal and the steam pressure pushes the metal down filling the mould (do this at your own risk:). I don´t know how well it works with pewter but I think the cast gets better defined when I use it.  The air vents helps to. I´m using Prince august standard metal as casting metal instead of the old recycled pewter I have used before. Much easier casting and I like the finish as well. It´s gone be fun to see how the rest of the miniatures work out!

Mould making part 2

I´m continuing my mold making project. After I´m done with my last layer of mould release (I usually make 3 layers) it is time to mix some silicone. I got mine at dwr plastics. It´s a high temperature silicone so it will work with temperatures up to 330℃ and is easy to mix 1 to 1. I have made about 9 moulds with 1 kg silicone so I think it´s a good price for what you get.

First I make a small mix of silicone to brush on to the miniature. I do this to prevent bubbles close to the model. And while it cures I work some with my new sculpt (all power to Tengil our liberator;)

When the silicone has cured I mix the rest of the silicone and pour it in a thin stream in one of the corners until it reached the top of the wall. It takes about 6 hours for the silicone to cure so now I wait.

Now it´s cured and it´s time to cut it open. This is the tricky part. The silicone is easy to cut but not so flexible so I have to take time and effort to make a good cut. The best way is to get as much clay out of the mould as possible so that you can see where to cut. I tried to melt out the wax but it would not run out of the mold. But still it did help that it was soft. Next up casting!

Mould making

I have decided that it´s time to make a silicone mould of my goblin. I will start out with him as a test. I have made moulds for white metal before but they have been very uniform and with no weapons and such that stand out from the model. My plan is to make a block mould. I´m gone brush on a layer of silicone and let it dry and then I will pour silicone so it covers the model. I do this to avoid air bubbles close to the model. Then my plan is to melt out the Castilene and cut the mould into two half's. The new thing I´ve added to the process is to melt out the wax. I think it will be easier to cut the mould when I can see where to cut more easily.

I start out placing the figure at the centre of a lego platform. I test out the walls so that I get a good amount of space between the model and the wall.

Then I build the base of the wall and fill the floor with soft clay. The clay I´m using here is some old Chavant NSP soft clay.

I build the rest of the wall separately so that I can put it on when I have brushed on the first layer of silicone.

Then I spray the model with mould release. I have had some bad experience with clay coming in contact with the silicone before so I take care to cover the whole model with mould release. It´s important to not use sulfur based clay when working with silicone so have that in mind. 

First batch

I have been occupied elsewhere but I did manage to get some time over to cook some wax! The first recipe I´m testing is called 3 sixty from Willow products. It´s a hard wax so I think it can work out with my miniatures but that's still to see. I managed to get all the right ingredients from eBay and some I found in the neighborhood. I made a small batch just to get a feel for it and I will try it out this week. My first impression is that it looks and smells good:).