Experimentations

I swear I'm still painting, it's just so many things intervene!

With that said, Tomcat photos are on the way as soon as they get uploaded, but also, Yojimbo stuff!

I wanted to test out two-part mouldmaking, and had recently purchased the Yojimbo model. What better, then, than to cast his bike in hopes of burying LEDs in it and have the bike glow!

To that end, casting:

As so many have discovered before, Lego is truly the best mould-creation device. It allows you to lay out a shape in any size, and pre-stamp (and pre-channel, though I didn't this time around) to make it easier later.

The rubber mix I'm using is fantastic: It barely shrinks, doesn't bubble too heavily, and it looks like an awesome mutant blue gel while it's drying. I didn't vacuum-dry it, or anything, just vibrated it for a while to help move bubbles. This stuff is insanely viscous.

I was asked if I was concerned about it leaking through the Lego and all over the place, and I said not especially (see viscous, above). This shows how well the stuff penetrates though! Tightly sealed lego bricks still had a good 4-5mm of penetration!

And there's the bike cleanly removed. The second half of the mould looks a lot like the white part there, though oddly the two halves of latex fused, and I had to cut it back out. (Used mould release and everything!) I will have to figure out if there's any way I can modify that for my next go.

I then cut resin channels and air slits into the mould, and once I actually get spare time I'll try a test run. the second half did leave some minor bubbling and oddities, but I'm hopeful it'll work out.