pogre
Legend
Making Pewter Miniatures From RTV Molds (Part One)
Greetings and salutations after an extended absence. Tonight I started creating the RTF rubber molds for the ENWorld sculpting project. I thought I might share a few insights as to how I produce an RTV mold and prove that I am finally moving on this project.
First up is the materials required. You can see some original greens: a nasty looking spell template from yours truly (more on that later) and nyrf’s incredible steampunk wizard. You can see the wizard is armless – I had to cut them off to ensure no mold undercuts and hopefully a better pouring mold.
You can also see my RTV rubber parts A & B, Jeweler’s mold separation cream, A measuring cup and small scale, A piece of ceramic tile, Synthetic modeling clay, and toy building blocks (legos). Not pictured are a bunch of paper towels, two old spoons, and an old butter knife.
My first task is to create a frame and bed for each of the molds. I make the frame from building blocks and then lay down a bunch of the synthetic clay on the bottom. You can see I am doing this all on a ceramic tile. The ceramic will not react with the RTV. I then place the models down about half way into the clay. This is where the mold line will appear when I pour the figures.
Doesn’t nyrf’s wizard look so sad without arms? Couldn’t be helped. Take cheer nyrf – my wife was very impressed with your sculpt. She’s brutally honest so that it is high praise indeed.
Next, I’m going to measure the frames to calculate the cc of RTV I will need to fill each mold frame half.
Sadly, there are not a lot of pictures for the next part as it is time sensitive and I have to move quickly. Next time if the wife is up I will have her take some shots. I measure part “A” of RTV into my cup. Note that this stuff will stain anything and will absolutely ruin clothes – be very careful and clean up messes with dry paper towels as quickly as possible. I place the cup on the scale and use a straw to put 1/10 th of the weight of part “B” into the cup. I stir the RTV very well with my old butter knife.
I use an old paint brush and brush some of the RTV directly onto the figures. This helps avoid air pockets next to the figures. Throw the brush away after this because it is ruined. Next, slowly pour the RTV into the mold halves.
Now, we just have to wait 8-hours to see how the first half came out.
In Part 2 I will cover making the second half of the molds…
Greetings and salutations after an extended absence. Tonight I started creating the RTF rubber molds for the ENWorld sculpting project. I thought I might share a few insights as to how I produce an RTV mold and prove that I am finally moving on this project.
First up is the materials required. You can see some original greens: a nasty looking spell template from yours truly (more on that later) and nyrf’s incredible steampunk wizard. You can see the wizard is armless – I had to cut them off to ensure no mold undercuts and hopefully a better pouring mold.
You can also see my RTV rubber parts A & B, Jeweler’s mold separation cream, A measuring cup and small scale, A piece of ceramic tile, Synthetic modeling clay, and toy building blocks (legos). Not pictured are a bunch of paper towels, two old spoons, and an old butter knife.
My first task is to create a frame and bed for each of the molds. I make the frame from building blocks and then lay down a bunch of the synthetic clay on the bottom. You can see I am doing this all on a ceramic tile. The ceramic will not react with the RTV. I then place the models down about half way into the clay. This is where the mold line will appear when I pour the figures.
Doesn’t nyrf’s wizard look so sad without arms? Couldn’t be helped. Take cheer nyrf – my wife was very impressed with your sculpt. She’s brutally honest so that it is high praise indeed.
Next, I’m going to measure the frames to calculate the cc of RTV I will need to fill each mold frame half.
Sadly, there are not a lot of pictures for the next part as it is time sensitive and I have to move quickly. Next time if the wife is up I will have her take some shots. I measure part “A” of RTV into my cup. Note that this stuff will stain anything and will absolutely ruin clothes – be very careful and clean up messes with dry paper towels as quickly as possible. I place the cup on the scale and use a straw to put 1/10 th of the weight of part “B” into the cup. I stir the RTV very well with my old butter knife.
I use an old paint brush and brush some of the RTV directly onto the figures. This helps avoid air pockets next to the figures. Throw the brush away after this because it is ruined. Next, slowly pour the RTV into the mold halves.
Now, we just have to wait 8-hours to see how the first half came out.
In Part 2 I will cover making the second half of the molds…
