I've made a couple of stone and wood cabins and would like to make a
few copies of them. I have some experience using latex molds for
rock work, etc and would like to do this with my walls (I have only
test fit everything together, not attatched yet). Can anyone
enlighten (oooh, big word
It's called an abandoned building because the windows and doors are distorted and really looks like it will fall down. Actually I tried building a frame around the mold and that is where mine buckled. If you were to build the frame around the "master" and then build the mold, you would then put a even edge around the mold and therefore control thickness.
The parts I have made molds from have been trucks and trailers, (Australian protype) I made a mold box out of plastic and put a bed of modeling clay in the base. I placed the model I wanted to make a mold of on the clay and gave it all alight coat of Vaseline as a mold release agent. mixed the rubber two part mix, (rtv) next day I pulled it all apart and there was my mold. For your walls, you will have to build walls inside the window and door opens so they do not fill with resin . Eg face your wall up (looking at you) next dig out the clay in the door and window opening , so you have holes , this will let the rubber mold mix to make a wall for your castings. When your mold is made. you will have the outside wall detail and rubber plugs sticking up in the door and window openings, these plugs will stop the resin filling your door and windows. again coat the mold in release agent light coat works the best. mix resin and pour very slowly into the mold in only one place and let the resin flow out into the mold. Be careful when mixing the rubber and resin that you do not stir in air bubbles to the mixes. Also to much release agent hides detail too. (found that out the hard way) Owen
I can tell you what I do to make molds.
First I use a nice flat base, like a sheet of styrene.
Then I take out my small reserve of LEGO building blocks.
With this I build a wall to surround the items I would like to make a mold of.
Now I fix the wall to the base using molten wax. You can get wax at dental
distributors, also buy a wax knife. A small candle is enough to heat the wax
knife. Swipe the hot waxknife along a sheet of wax, and now run the knife
along the inner edges of the LEGO stones. This seales the mold base.
Next put your items to make a mold of FACE UP in the mold box you just made.
Then pour latex rubber or dental quality rubber over the whole shebang.
Ordinary latex rubber takes 24 hours to cure. Dental rubber takes 20 minutes,
but your cost is 5 times as high. It pays to pay!!!! as the quality of dental
rubber is 500% better at registering the detail than ordinary latex.
Go see your dentist and ask him where he gets stuff. He may even want to order
for you and let you enjoy the discount he gets.....
Also, I find my dentist is always attracted to things I do with techniques I
learned from him, while he is busy hurting the hell out of me..........
Anyway,
Have fuN,
Maarten Vis