SonOfPumpkinhead
Sr Member
metalgreyfox, i'm totally in the same boat as far as money which is why i suggested the chavant test pack (i got mine for free, dunno if they always do that but couldn't hurt to ask)
in any event, as to the silicone, I BELIEVE rebound 25 is platinum so your correct as to using NSP (No Sulphur Plasticine) and I'd suggest a Medium firmness, holds detail but isn't as much of a pain as their hard. You CAN apply the rubber directly to it but I'd suggest hitting your finished sculpture with a little Crystal Clear simply to help seal it.
There's then two ways to mold with the silicone, a brush up mold, and a matrix mold. I can go into detail on either of these for you if you like but it will depend on what you want to do and what the piece is.
A brush up simply consists of brushing on several layers of rubber letting the previous dry before doing the second. You brush a layer on as a "beauty coat" to get your detail and then build up layers of thickened silicone to gain a little mass. Then you take a rigid material (i.e. ultracal/fiberglass/plasti-paste/plaster bandage) and make what's called a mother mold.
A matrix mold is a little more complicated but useful for something your going to be doing many pulls from. Basically you cover your sculpture in a cling wrap and then apply wet clay in the thickness that you want your rubber and add your key shapes in clay as well. Build the mother mold over this with a small piece of pipe or such to keep a hole open in the mother mold. Open the mother mold and clean out the wet clay then put it back together around the sculpture. You now have a negative space between the sculpt and mother mold that gets filled with the silicone through the pour whole you left open.
Depending on the piece you could also just do a silicone block mold by building a wall out of something like foam core around the sculpted piece and pouring the silicone rubber in.
I can go deeper into any of these methods if you know which one you'd like to attempt. Also, what piece are you trying to make?
in any event, as to the silicone, I BELIEVE rebound 25 is platinum so your correct as to using NSP (No Sulphur Plasticine) and I'd suggest a Medium firmness, holds detail but isn't as much of a pain as their hard. You CAN apply the rubber directly to it but I'd suggest hitting your finished sculpture with a little Crystal Clear simply to help seal it.
There's then two ways to mold with the silicone, a brush up mold, and a matrix mold. I can go into detail on either of these for you if you like but it will depend on what you want to do and what the piece is.
A brush up simply consists of brushing on several layers of rubber letting the previous dry before doing the second. You brush a layer on as a "beauty coat" to get your detail and then build up layers of thickened silicone to gain a little mass. Then you take a rigid material (i.e. ultracal/fiberglass/plasti-paste/plaster bandage) and make what's called a mother mold.
A matrix mold is a little more complicated but useful for something your going to be doing many pulls from. Basically you cover your sculpture in a cling wrap and then apply wet clay in the thickness that you want your rubber and add your key shapes in clay as well. Build the mother mold over this with a small piece of pipe or such to keep a hole open in the mother mold. Open the mother mold and clean out the wet clay then put it back together around the sculpture. You now have a negative space between the sculpt and mother mold that gets filled with the silicone through the pour whole you left open.
Depending on the piece you could also just do a silicone block mold by building a wall out of something like foam core around the sculpted piece and pouring the silicone rubber in.
I can go deeper into any of these methods if you know which one you'd like to attempt. Also, what piece are you trying to make?
