Sunday 5 June 2016

Press Moulding Fun.

Hello again and welcome to Inso's World.

This week's hobby time has been all about Space Dwarfs / Squats.

As I mentioned last week, I have finished off the latest unit for my army (Jedi Beastmen / Primaris Psykers) so needed to start on the next unit. Well, I started my Ministorum Priest / Berserker unit this week and so far, I have got this far with the first one:


Click the Pic!

I have also been working on the second one. This one called for sacrifice so I removed the throwing Mastiff from a previous sculpt and added it to this new one:


Click the Pic!

Obviously, they both have a fair way to go but they are certainly getting there. Speaking of getting there, I have been experimenting with press moulding this week and have had quite a surprise... it actually works well enough for me to be happy with it. So... I started by sculpting the first pair of legs the other week. Then I got some Blue Stuff from Green Stuff World. Then I tried a couple of test casts and decided that I would use normal Milliput for my casts and I would also try to put a wire core in the putty to aid attaching the finished item to the base... Then I got press moulding:


A two part press mould in clamps (Click the Pic!)


The mould cracked open (Click the Pic!)

The pre-cleaned legs (Click the Pic!)


The first assembled trooper (Click the Pic!)


Five sets of legs (Click the Pic!)

So... I have cast up 5 pairs of legs and will now be re-using the Blue Stuff when I have finished sculpting the next pair of legs. I will only be casting up 5 pairs of each and will mix them between units. Depending on how many units I go for, I may end up sculpting more than the four poses I am planning but we will have to see. The beauty of this process is that the Blue Stuff is reuseable and the master sculpts are completely undamaged so I can cast up copies as often as I like.

One thing I can definitely say is that it is really cool to be able to make components so quickly. Not counting sculpting or waiting time, I spend about half an hour filling the mould, cleaning the finished legs and repairing the details. This is far less time than the four or five hours it takes to sculpt each pair of legs (not including the waiting times). This little experiment has really opened up the door to a better life for me... the options it provides are awesome so I am sure that I will be using this process a lot from now on.

In other news, I have been progressing the running Squat body and he is nearly finished.

Yes... it has been a good week!

See you from the podium!

2 comments:

Euan said...

That's some great work.

Inso said...

Cheers :) . It's definitely been busy lately :D!