Creating Truffle - Part Two

Truffle on February 17, 2016. He's looking a lot more refined, and even has a tail bone

I haven't been able to find any of my progress pictures from 2015. Fortunately there wasn't anything particularly exciting to show. I just worked on him on and off between other projects, and he spent a significant amount of time just hanging out on the metal edge of my TV cabinet.

By the early part of 2016 he was looking a lot better, and I was starting to think about making the waste mold. I had gotten about as far as I could with the epoxy sculpture, and wanted to make some copies so I could refine the sculpture further without having to worry about messing things up and so that I could experiment with different hair styles.

I made the waste mold with two containers of Amazing Mold Rubber from Hobby Lobby, which ended up being a very inexpensive option because I bought the two containers on separate trips so I was able to use the 40% off coupon on both. The resins available from the local craft stores were to viscous for a mold like this, so I ordered some Smooth-On Smooth-Cast 300.

The first successful waste casting, May 10, 2016. Like the original epoxy sculpture, this one stands with the help of a neodymium magnet in his left hind foot. I really like the magnets, I just need to find some more in the right size and strength.

After making several waste castings, I spent a lot of time cleaning them up and trying out different things with them. I decided I wanted to go with a fuzzy coat with a longer mane and tail. The mane came together quickly, but I went through three different tails before I was happy. Once I was satisfied with the mane and tail, I added the fuzzy coat texture using modeling paste.

Creating the production mold was much the same as creating the waste mold, which is why I'm not showing pictures from both. The only major difference is that I used a different rubber for the production mold: Smooth-On's Mold Star 15. This is a very high quality platinum-cure silicone that gives excellent results even without a vacuum chamber.

The mold box, which is basically the mold for the mold.

To make the first half of the mold, I used Plasticine, a non-hardening modeling clay, to block off half of the model. The wooden dowel is where sprue will be, which is where the resin will be pored into the finished mold.

Almost done claying up. Near the bottom you can see where I sculpted half a cone, which will act as a funnel for resin going into the sprue.

Ready to add silicone. The indentations in the clay will act as 'keys' to make sure the two halves of the mold align properly.

In order to avoid bubbles next to the sculpture, I brushed on a small amount of silicone, making sure to push it into all of the details

After pouring the first half of the mold, I let it sit overnight

After removing the mold box, I carefully pulled the mold of the model.



The first half is complete!

I cleaned all of the clay off Truffle, set him back into the first half of the mold, put the dowel back in place, reassembled the mold box, and sculpted the funnel. I then thoroughly coated the first half of the mold with mold release to make very sure the second half wouldn't stick, because if that happened I'd have to cut poor Truffle out of a solid block of silicone, order more rubber, and start all over. 



I had a bit of Amazing Mold Rubber leftover from making the base mold, so I added it after the first pour of silicone had cured, just to make it a little thicker and sturdier.

The (almost) finished mold! I still needed to cut air vents to prevent bubbles from getting trapped during casting.