Casting A Spell On Me

So, I have finally decided to enter the world of casting parts for my Joes.  Last Christmas, I got the Alumilite Super Casting Kit for Christmas.  I thought it would be too messy to use inside, so I waited until the weather got cooler to bust it out.  That way I could work out in the garage in case of nasty fumes.  I also procrastinated because it seemed like a huge thing to tackle.  Casting seemed like a huge complicated thing that only master craftsmen could do.  

Nothing could be farther from the truth.  The most complicated and time consuming part was using the silicone mold compound included with the kit.  It was a little hard to mix the 10 parts of silicone to the 1 part of setting up solution.   I decided to pick up their Quick Mold Putty kit to speed things up.  Once you mix the 2 parts of the putty together, you have a short amount of time to make a mold.  My first mold was a simple press mold of a fedora hat from Bob, the Joker's Goon, who was a minor character in 1989's Batman film (don't get me started on how much better that is than any other Batman movie since).  I mixed the A part and the B part of the casting resin and poured it into the mold.  The resin starts to harden up real fast!  You don't have much time to work with it.  It turned out good!  After it set up (about 10 minutes) I dremeled out a hole in the middle so it can fit on someone's head.  

I did end up using the silicone mold maker on a junk Super Trooper head I had lying around.  I had lots of difficulties casting the head.  Air bubbles tend to congregate around the chin and mouth parts of the mold, so I had to make about 8 bad heads before I got one useable one.  It helps to follow the instructions and warm up the mold in the microwave and dust the inside of the mold with baby powder.  

I made more press molds of Indiana Jones' fedora (I have a thing for fedoras) and an M1 helmet from a generic figure I bought years and years ago.  Both have worked great.  I spent most of last night making molds of other GI Joe hats.  Tonight, I plan on a mass casting fest, making tons of chappeaus.  I haven't quite decided on selling the extras, but maybe I will.  Next on the agenda will be vehicle parts.  I had much success casting a deck clip for the USS Flagg.  I'll post some pictures when I finish them up.

Here's a sampling of some of my work si far!