Adventures with Molds

[Sane Max]

I posted a while ago about casting some terrain using air drying clay. It really doesn’t work – the clay was so brittle I couldn’t get it out of the mold intact, and too stiff to take the detail from the mold in any case. But In researching it I found a bloke who has cast using Papier Mache. Now I love bodging, especially if the material is cheap – so I had a go. It works… but it’s such a faff – takes ages to dry – a week – and I hate waiting.

 

 

But that gave me an idea – sculptamold is basically papier-mache with plaster, so I had a go at that instead! being me of course, I don’t actually own any sculptamold – no, much better to make my own. Bog roll and cheap builder’s plaster. I need a catchy name for it. Bogmold? toiletmold?

it works like a dream – solid in an hour, and with a degree of flex I removed this little test piece no issue at all. Can you guess what I used for a Mold? 🙂

I especially like being able to cast little gribbly details – the dome for instance – in ten minutes, and adding them on. Recommended!

 

if anything, the process is too good – it comes out as smooth as silk, I had to add a couple of coats of textured paint to make it look more Soviet Concretey.

 

Now all I need is a SF army. I don’t own a single one, sold all my Imperial Guard and ‘nids years ago. Will go with Wargames Atlantic probably.

 

 

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

It’s very nice and I am intrigued.

OK, a couple of questions.

1) What mix did you use?

2) Is that thing solid?

3) If so, wouldn’t it have been easier, cheaper, and more portable to just use a tupper from the pound store as a base?

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Guy Farrish]

I presumed, as it was a variant of papier mache, that it was ‘squidged’ [technical term] onto the inside of the ice cream container (or whatever it is) to form a skin. If it isn’t hollow it’s lump of a thing isn’t it?

Good result whatever the answer.

Reminds me a bit of a less brutalist version of the old Northwood bunker

 

(not sure about the dome to be honest, has a vaguely Middle Eastern feel to it. Depends what SF future you are thinking of I guess )

[Sane Max]

Thaddeus Blanchette wrote:

It’s very nice and I am intrigued. OK, a couple of questions. 1) What mix did you use? 2) Is that thing solid? 3) If so, wouldn’t it have been easier, cheaper, and more portable to just use a tupper from the pound store as a base?

1- papier mache was just Newspaper boiled and blended, with half a pint of PVA and some cornflour.  BogMold ™ is paper, again boiled and blended and then dried out, mixed with its own volume in plaster.  There’s How-Tos all over the net, it wasn’t my invention certainly.

2- both are mostly air. about half an inch thick. the dome casting is solid to make attaching it sturdier.

3 – cheaper? The papier mache costs pennies. The Bogmold is about 50 pence worth.  Easier… well, the thing is, the plastic tubs are really really flimsy, and getting paint to stick to them is a bitch. So, no. And they don’t need to be portable.

That being said, the papier mache one is lighter than any wargames building I own, and perfectly sturdy.

 

 

[Sane Max]

 

‘squidged’ is indeed the methodology. No, it’s not solid, that would weigh a ton and be costlier in materials. As to the look, yes, that’s going to be ‘Nuke Command Bunker Number 6’ or some such Maguffin locale, and so I wanted brutalistish. Domes – well, I have some perfect molds for them, and so went with them – but I  was sort of thinking Tattooine?

[willz]

Cool modelling, thanks for sharing.  You process reminds me of a 60’s comic I used to read and the story of a guy who made armour out of mud, wood and boiled leather.  Maybe you could sell the process to the army

[Sane Max]

when I was a kid I had a small town on my Garage roof, built from dried mud. it would have been about 15mm looking back

 

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