casting

I have chosen to cast my sculpt using carbody slush which is a mix of carboy filler and polyester resin mixed togeather. i used an equal mix by weight of each and painted on four layers than backed it up with resin and fiberglass matting. i noticed that the slush had pulled the silicone mould away from the fiberglass jacket which ment that when i joined the mould sections togeather they did not meet up fully. i used more slush to seal the join line then mixed up some more slush but this time with chop strand to make a nice strong join line. when i de-moulded i found that in several places the split line did not line up, time to make another cast.




i found a different resipe for carbody slush from Pete Tindels website, the ratios for his mix is 1/3 resin to 2/3 carbody filler, this mix is alot thicker which meant i could hopefully get it all on quicker before it starts to shrink when painting into the mould i only needed 2 layers to give it a nice thick covering and this time i used resin and tissue instead of matting, by the time i got the two halves of the mould togeather i still found that the slush had pulled the silicone away from the fiberglass jacket i just cant get it on fast enough i need another pair of hands. but i am still hoping that it will be a better cast.

i broke the leg when i was demoulding, the fiberglass tissue was just not strong enough matting would have been better. the cast is very light but a bit weak in places.

to fix the leg i used lollipop sticks as internal splints stuck in using carbody filler, then i used carbody filler to stick the leg back together, i removed any filler that had squidged out and then smoothed of using acetone.


After working at Altered States FX, if i was to cast out another figure i would use a gel coat plus one layer of matting, then using fibreglass tissue lay it along the flange, this can be easily trimmed back once demoulded but creates a strong join line. I would have less shrinkage and hopefully better register when lining up the mould halfs, which would have meant less sanding and filling with a neater split line. because really there was no need for it to be cast in carbody slush.