Behold The Mold!

As this was my first time working with silicone, a lot could have gone wrong, but it turned out perfect!
I was really anxious about air bubbles being trapped in the mold and making voids, but it couldn't have turned out better.
A shout out of thanks goes to Aslak for giving me pointers and sharing his expertise regarding molding with silicone and casting in resin.
And a huge thanks also goes to Matt Munson and his blog for giving me a practical way to make a mold and subsequent casts.

I managed to make three successful casts (after failing the first attempt) after work tonight, and we can see the learning curve I had. First I just measured up the amount of resin I calculated was needed for a cast,  stirred it for a while 'till it was goopy and poured it all in and slushed it around, something that didn't work out at all, as the resin was too thick to get into the fine detail, and too slippery to adhere to the sides all around the mold. The second cast I poured the resin in while it was still very runny, and tried the slushingmethod again, which ended up becoming real goopy and messy as well. I refined the technique using less and less resin, opting to cast each side separately, while waiting 10 minutes for each side to cure a bit. The last panels are probably going to be really nice. :)

A little clean-up around the edges, a quick wash and it's ready for paint. Then I just have to amass the 100+ greeblies that go on the panels, something that shouldn't be too hard.

Small Progress With Han in Carbonite Sidepanels

Started making the box for the mold now, and it's slowly crawling along inch by inch.
I think I'll give the inside of the box a light coat of clear laquer (I don't even know if that's neccessary), then fasten the panel inside, and close all the seams using (sulphur free) clay.
Then I just have to mix up a batch of silicone and give it a print/gelcoat before pouring the rest over.

Here is a picture of the set-up so far:



I'm following Matt Munsons lead and just casting the outside of the panel (as you'll never see the inside anyway), and it makes for a much easier moldingprocess. So I just glued pieces of styrene over all the holes so that the finished casts are pretty much ready to go right out of the mold with minimal clean-up, just paint and add greeblies.

Here is a picture of Matt Munsons finished mold, which he just slush-casts resin copies in, which turns out great:



And as another note, I refurbished my Han Solo, pouring an all new carbonite texture around him and painting it again. I only have to weather him and he's good as new. I felt this was the right time to do it, as I was more satisfied with the finish on the second HIC I built, and have been wanting to re-do my own, and now I have the time and opportunity to do a makeover before he is to be displayed permanently. Right now he's sitting in the basement at the bar where I work where he will be displayed indefinitely (until I get a place big enough to house him myself). There he will be encased in plexiglass with a subtle orange glow emanating from behind. I'm looking forward to seeing it displayed properly!