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Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

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Re: Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

Post by MannequinFan »

rubherkitty wrote:Have you studied any into the reaction, if any, of urethane & TPE mated?
No, I haven't. I'm just guessing on that.
I've not heard of any TPE reaction with urethanes, but that would have to be tested to make sure.

Wow, good find on the BITY stuff RK, I haven't looked at their site for some time. Looks like they've added a lot of new stuff for urethanes. They even carry some of the BJB items.
Looks like they have a softener that works with the PTflex as well. PTflex is pretty hard though at A20, the BJB F105 would be better for skin.
That BITY flex paint is pretty cheap at 12 bucks for 8 oz, and they have liquid pigments which is nice.

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Re: Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

Post by matt gloss »

Hi RK hows it going with the project 8)

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Re: Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

Post by rubherkitty »

Actually I just finished the back shell last night and cracked them apart about 20 mins ago.
The MANN ease release 200 worked fine between the vinyl head and the Rondo coat, but had to fight to get the flange apart where it was most fiberglass to fiberglass. Knew I was taking my chances just using a spray release vs a wax coat, but I didn't want to have to try and clean off the wax.

When I finished the front shell and flipped the assembly over to make the back shell, there were several large pit and lots of small bubble pits in the fiberglass, etc on the flange face. I just filled these w/ clay and smoothed over the head's ears w/ clay. This will leave some thin gaping between the halves, but since this is just a clay form and not for a liquid pour it was no big deal. Probably should have smeared on more clay even!

The Rondo mold itself has several thin cracks and small air bubble that I will need to do a quick fix on, but since I won't be casting a finished product the mold doesn't have to be perfect. The thin cracks are just where coats of Rondo met and did not fill in tight to the head form. These are not cracks from stress or damage. The Rondo had to be spread on in about 10 mixes per side as the stuff starts setting up in about 45 seconds. Yes, finish mixing, blob it on a area in one shot and spread quickly, done. Of course I'm working near my only heat source being a wood stove so it's was about 90 degrees. I could never thoroughly mix the hardener into a pint of Rondo and get the whole thing spread in one go.

I also have a job to do, firewood to cut, etc so this will probably be a 2 month project. I'm not rich or retired and doll making is not my career so.. :lol:
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Re: Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

Post by matt gloss »

Thanks RK :thumbs_up:
I am just setting out learning this stuff myself and youre helping thanks for the time :thumbs_up:
The mold looks good and look forward to your progress.
Matt

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Re: Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

Post by rubherkitty »

Thanks Matt.

I now have the shell halves for forming the clay head all smoothed on the inside and painted.

I've got the neck post mold figured out and started.

I made this adjustable armature for holding the clay head so I can work on it in different positions and not strain my neck. I will C-clamp the base plate to a work table when I actually start on the head. The 1/2" threaded rod that holds the armature core will also accept the neck post mold piece of the 3-pc mold.

I'll have to cover the armature core w/ old clay and press in a layer on the head forms and hopefully press the 2 halves together. Will be trial and error. I'll probably do the front half first to make sure there are no gaps or too much clay then fit the back half. Or do the front and remove form then do the back? We'll see when I get there.
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Re: Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

Post by matt gloss »

Hi it's coming along nice,the armature is great,would be good for working on eyes,eyelashes.make-up etc.
One day I will try my hand at welding,very useful.
8)

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Re: Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

Post by rubherkitty »

You can use lags bolts on the bottom L brackets and screw them into wood base.
Or use countersunk head machine screws from the bottom plate running upward.
I have a welder and plenty of scrap metal for the base plate so it was just faster.
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Re: Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

Post by MannequinFan »

Hey RK, nice job on the armature base!
The tilt back feature is a nice idea. :thumbs_up:

This pic also makes me hungry for some spaghetti! :D

Image

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Re: Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

Post by rubherkitty »

LOL! Spaghetti, it's what's for Christmas!!
Well, the armature was kind of hard to discern w/ all the flammable crap piled up on top of the stove.
I do have a least for burner open for a pan of Spaghetti-O's.
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Re: Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

Post by MannequinFan »

rubherkitty wrote:all the flammable crap piled up on top of the stove.
Image

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Re: Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

Post by rubherkitty »

RE: armature tilt feature.
The second pic is actually tilt Left or Right. You can loosen the bottom bolt on the two L brackets for tilt forward or back. You can loosen the nuts on the all thread and rotate the head as well as elevate or lower to a small degree.
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Re: Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

Post by rubherkitty »

Finally back on the head project.
I pressed clay into the face mold. I did use a couple coats of Mann 200 release on the mold. Clay was applied thin where the eyes go then pushed in the eyeball forms and packed around those.
I kept packing the front of mold and checking my head core armature for fit. Once it was pretty well filled, I pushed the armature in place then packed clay in between the sides of mold and armature trying to lock it all together.

I put it in the fridge over night to firm up. It may have only required a couple hrs, but I was heading to bed anyway. I then took the cold assembly to the stove and slowly heated the fiberglass front up a little. My hair dryer crashed and I don't have a heat gun.
I was then able to work the clay form out of the mold. In the pic you can also see the Fiberglass neck post mold I made. The front & rear bumps on that are to index the front and rear mold halves.

I did not fill the chin section in w/ clay as that would have formed a lock between the clay and mold. If I did not have the issue w/ having to pull the clay form straight out from the mold due to the post on the eye forms, I could have possibly filled the chin area then rocked the clay form out from top to bottom. Depending upon how much help having the eye ball forms in during this process, I may just omit them next time and just add them in later.

I barely warmed the clay enough in my hand to press in and of course I used my oldest clay first which has lost some of it's oil over time and usage. If I had used warmed, new clay and taken more care of the packing, the finished clay form would have been very smooth. Live & learn. No biggie though as I plan to do mods on the face anyway. I just wanted to get a overall symmetrical form to start with.

Rather than trying to sculpt and make a mold of the entire head in one shot, I'm going to sculpt the front half and make a silicone and fiberglass mold for that. I will then flip that over and sculpt the back half and made the mold for that. And hopefully, from here on out, I can use the same rear mold half unless I change the head shape or size enough to warrant new mold halves for both sides. Might even just make the back mold fiberglass over bondo since no great detail needs to be captured.

I believe I borrowed this idea from member Toonist of Private Island Beauty fame when I saw this pic posted. I think he is using the same rear mold half and just sculpting new faces? Or at least that's what gave me the idea.
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I have found the eye forms embedded a lot deeper than what I like and I needed to cut them out.
I'm going to do some mods on the face mold and the eye forms.
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OK, I ground some hollows in the mold so the eyeballs will protrude further out VS just touching the flat eye area of the original mannequin head. And now that the eyes are flusher to the surface, I used a set of eye forms that have shorter stems so that made it easier to remove the clay from the mold. I therefore added some chin area. All this was done by just adding some clay in and out of the mold a couple of time. Would have been better result possible to do it all over again, but more time. This is good enough to get me started anyway.
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Re: Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

Post by rubherkitty »

Back to this project.
Unfortunately, the vinyl Chantel head is just not to my liking now.
I pretty much modified the clay casting into something else I wanted such as heavy eye lids and fuller mouth. It's a work still in progress as being a novice it has not been a easy task considering I want it perfectly lifelike.

I am now thinking about ordering this fiberglass mannequin bust as I find it much sexier to start with.
I will still do the same process of making a fiberglass shell mold from the mannequin head to press the clay into. I will then apply the clay half front of head to a board to add detail work.
Hopefully this mannequin bust will be on the petite side??
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Re: Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

Post by MannequinFan »

Hey RK, that's a great looking head!
Nice wide set eyes and pouting lips. Other than maybe the ears, don't think I'd want to change much.

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Re: Making a mold for casting silicone heads? Project start.

Post by rubherkitty »

Thanks MF
Yeah, hopefully just some little detail work to the ears, mouth, eyes, etc. More skin texture, little wrinkles, etc. Without mucking it all up!
The maker is kind of limited to what they can do casting fiberglass vs silicone and of course making a 98% lifelike rendition is not their goal anyway.

Also, instead of making a shell mold of the fiberglass head to make a clay model to sculpt on, I may be able to do the mods to the fiberglass head and just make a mold for the silicone head from that. It all depends upon if the fiberglass head is uniform or not.

I went with the Chantel head originally since I already had that purchased used for $30.00. The fiberglass mannequin head will run me a little over $100.00 shipped from China. I've never seen it available in the US.

Maybe a few better pics. I think this is probably the same sculpture who did the vinyl head I used for the Nikki mannequin. It wasn't until I was painting Nikki's new eyebrows that I noticed her right eye was slightly higher than her left! Hopefully the fiberglass head is a little more uniform. 8O
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I think this is the same head from a different China seller.
I think this is the same head from a different China seller.
head sexy 8.PNG (262.07 KiB) Viewed 466 times
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