one question about casting heads....

[Darren Carnall]

Hi guys,

You might remember the custom Anakin sculpt/repaint I did little while back... well my Sith Vader figure will be on its way soon, and I want to make a copy of the sculpt I did on the Anakin figure, to save me the days and days of work I did on the original sculpt (I know... I work slow, lol. Hey, I'm new to this)

Now I've done a ton of reading all over the web about molding and casting things, and I think I'm about ready to get some supplies in for it, but I have one question that I can't figure out.....

Every tutorial I've seen about casting, has shown heads being cast with solid necks.... but don't the Sideshow figures have a hole in the head that goes onto a neckpost? How would one go about casting that, whilst retaining the hole in the head for putting on the new Sideshow figure?

Thanks in advance for any help you might offer.

(and nobody jump on me for 'recasting' . I've already bought the Anakin figure twice, I own it.. it's for a custom to upgrade it, it's just the same as repainting it, k?) lol :)

[Customikey]

You can't "retain" the hole, as far as I know, but you can tool the head so that it has the hole. I don't know how you plan to recast, but if you are usinf a two-part resin that has to be poured intothe mold, you can try revolving the mold slowly in your hands, pouring only a little resin at a time. It's srot of like rotocasting. Gravity pulls the resin away from the center and pushes it deeper into the mold, making a more detailed copy. Once done, you should be able to add some resin to inside the neck area to strengthen it, and then just sand or drill to fit.

Or you can just pour the mold and drill out the hole neck. More work, more resin.

[bluto]

it all depends on how you make your mold .it you mold it so that the neck is facing the bottom of the mold , it is possible to keep the mounting hole .although that will mean some precautions will have to be made when casting it .
i am in the prosess of making a generic head for sculpting customs on .
i will use the art s buck head as the starting point .
once i grind off the nose chin ears and smooth out what remains i will have a pretty much blank mannequin head .
once that is done i will clay up the head for molding .
i will follow the seem line that is on the buck with the exception of the neck which i will clay up to the edge of the flat area covering the neck hole with clay .
after that its sillicone time . once cured remove the clay ,pour the other side of the mold .pull open your new mold
after all that is cured pull open your new mold and
use a razor knife to cut a pour spout into the mold starting at the crown of the head working out to the top edge of your mold. i hope it dosent sound too hard .
let me know if you are still having trouble so that i can take picks as i do this and post em for the bennifit of all you freaks

[Mookeylama]

this is something someone told me worked for him. he would pour the resin in the mold and then take a metal/wooden rod about the size of the neck hole and cover it w/ saran wrap (so the resin wouldn't stick) , then stick it in the base of the neck. not sure if he held it until the resin cured or rigged some type of holder. anyway, he said it would leave a hole in the neck, and even tho he'd sometimes have to fine tune the hole to mount it, it saved him some drilling and the resin dust he hated messing w/.

[katkuru]

You can mold the head and still retain the hollowed neckpost in a simple two part mold. Heres how I do it with my sideshow heads:
1.First I use a simple plastic drinking cup for my mold box.
2.Then you fill the bottom of the cup with clay, about 3/8" thick.
3.Set your head in the middle of clay,make sure you embed it at least 1/4" into the clay and smooth in the sides of the clay to the neck.
4.With the tip of a pen cover or some round pointy object press in key hole marks around the head in the base of the clay. This will aline your two molds when casting.
5.Dont forget to mark the outside of the cup to refrence the back of the head.
6.Spray some silicone mold release over head and clay base. Pour in silicone.
7.When dry simply cut out the bottom of the cup, exposing the clay and the underside of the neck.
8.Remove all of the clay,spray more mold release and pour in the second part of the molding material.
9.When that dries remove the mold from the cup. I usually cut it out from the cup being mindful of where my refrence mark is. Now you can remove the bottom of the mold, which should be a flat piece with the impression of the inside of the neck.
10.To remove the original head, carefuly with a sharp razor knife cut from the back of the base of the neck up to about the top to the head. You dont have to cut all the way up the mold. The head should pop out.
And there you have it! A two piece mold with the hollowed out neck, that requires no drilling when casted.
Hope this helps, if you need pictures I can e-mail you some.
Oh, as far as casting the head, simply turn the mold upside down, place a rubber band around the mold to seal the seam. Pour in your casting material almost to the top and then press on the second piece of the mold making sure it sits flush with the first part of the mold. Dont worry about the exccess casting material that seaps out, thats a good indication that the whole mold has been filled.
LMK how things work out.
Katkuru/Eggbreaker

[willowswarlok]

katkuru, could you possibly email me some photos of this process?
Thanks
Wayne

[katkuru]

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e170/POKIGURL/DSC04757.jpg
Here is the mold cut from the cup and turned upside down.
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e170/POKIGURL/DSC04752.jpg
The neck post part of the mold.
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e170/POKIGURL/DSC04764.jpg
After casting.
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e170/POKIGURL/DSC04765.jpg
Demolding the cast, make sure you slit the mold on the back side of the head.
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e170/POKIGURL/DSC04766.jpg
And finally the fit! This cast requires no dremeling what so ever. Hope this helps, sorry I dont have pics of the making of the mold.:chew

[Darren Carnall]

thank you EVERYBODY who answered here, you're all fabulous. And thanks to katkuru who I think may have just given me exactly what i was looking for. Now just to buy the materials to get me a second anakin made! :)

(I'm looking forward to the process... should be fun)