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Enjoy your toys!!

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How to make a two piece mould from silicone rubber

This is one of the most basic silicone rubber moulds. Its called a two piece mould because (yep you guessed it) it has two pieces, a top and a bottom.

To make your mould you will need a few things, they are:

• Plasticine
• Lego bricks or other construction type brick and a Lego or other construction type plate to build your mould walls
• Something with a blunt point for pushing plasticine around
• Silicone rubber and curing agent
• Craft knife
• Non important object to use as mould funnel
• A container  for mixing your rubber in
• Something to stir your rubber and curing agent together
• Paint brush
• Vaseline
• Measuring jug/cup

NOTE: I will not give mixing quantities as you may not use the same brand of rubber as me and I don't want to mess up your mould. all mixing quantities should be taken from the products YOU use.

First select the item you wish to make a mould of, then embed half of it in plasticine.Look at the item you want to mould and determine if this is the right type of mould for the object as some objects may need a 3,4 or 5 piece mould (I'll cover them in a future "How to..." ). I recommend putting a small amount around the object first. 

Now build a box using the Lego or other construction type bricks build the box twice as high as the  embedded item to allow for the rubber. next place the item with the plasticine round it into the bottom of the box and fill out the rest of the bottom half of the box and insert your non important object to be used as funnel object and push two divots into opposite corners using the end of a paintbrush so your mould will aline at the end. you can put globs of plasticine over any gaps on the outside of the box you think the rubber will seep through. for the most part Lego or other construction type brick is quite a tight fit.It should now look something like this.

You are now ready to mix up your rubber. I used this silicone rubber by Trylon  as it comes with a curing agent.

 

A good way to tell how much rubber you will need is if you pour water in to the area you want to fill with rubber, then pour the water in to a measuring jug or baby cup with a measure on the side if it's for a small mould. Remember to dry the mould properly after you do this as it could ruin the mould making process.

Once mixed leave the rubber to settle for about 10 mins, to admire your work so far, make tea and to let any air bubbles you have created while mixing rise to the surface and pop.

Now you will need to coat the plasticine with a Vaseline to stop the rubber sticking, I tend to use a small paint brush that I paint miniatures with. It must be a very thin coating of Vaseline so you don't loose any detail and to make sure your mould is still a tight fit for casting.

It's now time to pore the rubber. Pore the rubber in from a single corner and let it slowly work its way round the item working its way round and in to all the little nooks and crannies.

once this is done you should put it some ware to dry it will probably take 16 to 24 hours to dry so find something to do for a bit. Might I recommend the new series of  Dr Who?

16 to 24 hrs have now passed, your rubber should now be set, give it a prod with your finger to check.

Remove the Lego or other construction type brick around the area that is plasticine and then carefully remove the plasticine leaving the object you are moulding in the rubber. Now put the Lego or other construction type pieces back in place, but put the plate on the bottom covering the rubber filled side this time. It should now look something like this.

Now make more rubber and pour it in to filling this half of the mould. You shouldn't need to use any more Vaseline but if you spot a dry bit the feel free to use some.

 

Again wait 16 to24 hrs for curing, then remove all Lego or other construction type bricks and you should be left with this.

 

Pluck the excess rubber of it if you want, there will probably be a bit ware it has seeped in between the bricks. Now the fun part. CAREFULLY separate the two halves of the mould and remove the object and TA DA! A two piece mould that looks somewhat like this.

Hope this will be of some use to you guys and gals. If there is a bit I could have explained better or something else just drop be a comment an I'll answer as best I can

Next time I'll be doing a "How to...." make a cast from this mould.
Future posts will include  how to make and cast from a one piece latex mould.

Until next time............ Enjoy your toys!!!

Animal and custom stage

My first post in the new direction. This is Animal and the Electric Mayhem stage set.

The Animal figure come with the set witch includes stage and drums 6 spotlights, 2 speakers and 2 drum sticks. All amazingly sculpted and painted. The pics i have are after i have modded the lights and stage sign.

The lights are LED X-mas lights. I measured the LED's against a drill bit to get the right size and drilled into the back of each light and round the stage sign and VOILA!! stage lighting.

I'm going to add small but loud speakers in to the speakers so they will give out Muppet songs.

This was a super quick and easy mod/ custom bit to finish up my Electric Mayhem set. the next post will show you how to do a two piece mould for things like action figure of Lego spares.

So until next time ENJOY YOUR TOYS!!

Fail!!

Well the Dr Who comp went down like a poo in a swimming pool........

So I think it's time for a change of direction. I'm quite into making superhero based stuff like action figure customs/mods, casting replacement/extra parts and paper stuff (wearable Ironman armour etc) so from now on I'll post less about toys that you can buy and more about stuff that I have modded or customised.

So until next time

Enjoy your toys!!

Janice the penultimate AND COMPETITION!!

Janice is the  lead guitarist of Electric Mayhem but also at times a nurse in veterinarians hospital.
Janice was originally supposed to be a guy much like Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger.

Janice is very well sculpted and has some great accessories. She comes with white guitar, amp, trademark hat and tambourine. Her variant had a wood effect guitar and a green hat and green amp. She has 12 points of articulation but is surprisingly unposeable. It would have been great to have had a Nurse Janice figure, ho hum!.



Now for the COMPETITION!!!!

To the lucky winner I will be giving away 5 limited edition Doctor Who Character building figures. 1 11th Doctor with blue shirt and blue tie, 1 Amy Pond with gloves and scarf and 3 yellow Daleks (The Eternal.)

These figures are compatible with Lego and Megabloks.

SO.... What do you have to do to win? Well, you just have to tell me about your favourite toy line. Be it He-Man or Barbie, Thundercats or Marvel Legends and why you like it. 

The best entry will win the toy loot. If all entry's are great I'll use a random number generator to decide.

If this goes well I'll make it a regular thing as I have a lot of prize worthy stuff to dish out. This comp will end on Sunday 18th September

So there you have it.

NEXT TIME it will be Animal and the Electric Mayhem stage. My set has been customised with lights.

Until next time ENJOY YOUR TOYS!!

ZOOT! nuff said

There's not much to asy about this muppet really eccept he's a homeless jewish sax player who if he was anymore laid back, he'd be asleep.

Zoot is from series 3 of the Palisades Muppet show figures. Zoot has 13 points of articulation. Zoot comes with a "25 years of the muppet show" figure base, sax case, 2 part sax, magnetic hat and music stand. As per usual both paint and sculpt are spot on. As with all members of Electric mayhem zoot has a variant version that has a blue glasses instead of clear a silver sax and a brownish/tan top.





next I'll be looking at Janice the lead guitarist AND I'll be doing a FREE toy give away!!





untill next time......... Enjoy your toys!

Mr Peppers Electric Mayhem Band

Hey! The frog is not around....... time to lay down some serious sounds. That was the first time I had heard floyd speak and knew he was cool.





Floyd is from series 2 of palisades Muppet show figures. Floyd looks like he came straight off the cover of The Beatles Sgt Peppers Lonely Harts Club Band (Hmmmmm I wonder???). Floyd has 9 points of articulation, and comes with Bass, amp, magnetic hat and "25 yrs of the Muppet show" figure stand.


As allways the sculpting is perfect as are the colours. Floyd has a variant figure that has a blue top instead of red, green pants, green amp and a white bass. The only thing i dislike about Floyd is that the amp is attached to the Bass. As with all things the muppet line is now finished, I was gutted not only because the figures are the best figures in many a decade but also because I always wanted a Floyed with closed eyes for that ultra cool look....... ho hum! Any got a spare I can buy to do a custom??


Next time I'll be looking at Zoot.

Till then....... Enjoy your toys!

It's Time To Light The Lights

Sorry its been so long between posts but I've been very busy with a new job, new car, kids etc.

This post is about one of my favorite toy sub sets ever. The amazingly sculpted Electric Mayhem Muppet band from Palisades Muppet figures. I have the complete set and will be shortly (HA!) working on a custom diorama for them to be displayed in which will hopefully look somthing like this.

I'll also be working on a display/shelving system to display my other muppet figures that will hopefully look somthing like this.

So, lets look at the members of the band.......

DR TEETH

Dr Teeth is the laid back founding member of the band, the key board player and lead singer. His character is mostly based on a jazz musician called Dr John

This figure, as with all the Palisades muppet figures is fantastically sculpted. There are 7 or 8 points of articulation. His colours are show perfect. There is a black and white stripy top variant but i like the show colours best. Although he has limited poseability, he always looks good behind any desk or piano. The good Dr comes with a "25 yrs of the muppet show" figure stand, his keyboard and his trademark hat. Dr Teeth is from series 1 which is before Palisades started using magnets to keep hats on but its not a big issue it just means that his hat is a little loose.
All in all a great figure.

Next time I'll be lloking a Floyd Pepper.

Till then..... Enjoy your toys!

King HULK

Spoiler Alert

What if you made the Hulk mad by firing him into space, than made him madder by sending him to an apocalyptic planet, then just when he was calming down you kill the love of his life, then he finds a way to come back for revenge? Well that's what happens in Planet Hulk/World War Hulk.
When Hulk gets back to earth he's gone all Gladiator and looks immense. This Marvel Universe figure is stunning. For a 3 1/4 inch figure the detail is beautiful, the (you're a dead man) look on his face is bang on the money.


Accessories wise King Hulk is spot on. He comes with sword, axe shield and removable shoulder armour/chest strap item and stand.


All in all a first rate Hulk figure and the best Hulk in the line so far.

Comment, you know you want to!

If you feel like a chat about toys, or want more pics or anything, drop a comment and ill do my best to answer, chat, photograph or what ever.

Cheers All

Creepy little sisters

The Eleanor Lamb and and Little sister (LS) 2 pack is another triumph from NECA. The paint job is superb; I'll forgive the over paint on the eye as it looks a little like she is crying which just adds to the creepiness. The LS's blood spattered feet are neither over or under painted. They don't look like they have gone on a killing spree as a lot of figures with blood paint jobs tend to, more like they have walked through one just after it has happened.

They come with a syringe each which fits perfectly in to their hands, they also come with a tiny plastic version of the big daddy soft toy. Each figure has 12 points of articulation.

Both figures can fit on the back of Subject Delta (pics coming soon) and have very good balance so posing them and getting them to stay in that position when on the shelf is quite easy.

Eleanor has the same sculpt as the LS but the feet and complete head is a new sculpt. The only change to the main body is the colour scheme is all white on Eleanor.

If you have any of the big daddy figures (or even if you don't) this is a must buy.

The one that started it all

Back in 1984, when I was about 9 years old, I got my very first collectable thing for Christmas. I'd had action man and various toy cars but this toy was different. Its box was bold and shiny and had amazing art and character stats on the back. The toy was a Transformer (TF).

The box said Transformers were "More than meets the eye", never had a box been so correct. The TF in my hands at the time was Hound. He is an Autobot (good guy) and can transform into a military jeep. I was blown away. When I opened the box the TF was in vehicle mode and if you didn't know it could transform then you would never guess. I read the instructions and slowly transformed it to its robot mode. It looked almost identical to the box art. Could this toy get any better??

YES! I looked back at the instructions and saw he should have a gun. I looked in the box and saw there was not only a gun but a rocket launcher, missiles, a gas can, spare wheel, a gun for his jeep mode and a sheet of stickers. I played with Hound for hours, days, weeks, months, years. One day in my early 20's, I decided I needed some money and had not played with Hound (and lots of his friends) for more than a few years and sold them to a local toy store. I spent the money on a trip to the U.S., where my love of toys was rekindled and I was gutted I had sold my collection. And to add insult to injury I'd sold it for 1/10th of its value. I have since purchesed the complete Takara collection and some others but this is Hound, my first (shame its not the actual first) TF.

Kellogg's R2D2

This has to be the single best toy to come out of a cereal box.
The box contained 2x regular boxes of Coco Pops (which at this particular time were being called Choco Krispies) and each had its own toy lightsaber in. The best bit is this amazing R2D2 breakfast set - an R2D2 model which comes apart into 2 bowls, two spoons, a cereal container and two spoon holders. God bless Ebay! (£10)

I believe this was a Kelloggs promotion in Spain only, as I've never seen it in the UK and it was promoting the release of Star Wars Episode 3.

NEW LEGOS

I work in a Sainsbury's supermarket in Scotland and just last week we got in series 4 of the Lego minifigures. So, I was able to complete my monsters set with Frankenstein's monster and a werewolf. Shame Drac is the only one happy about getting his picture taken.

The monsters all come with an object except Frankenstein's monster. The zombie comes with chicken leg (?), and spade, the mummy comes with a scorpion, Dracula comes with a bat and the werewolf comes with a bone.

Staying with the werewolf minifig, Lego has done a nice little thing with the hair, they have added the wolf ears on to it. This is great touch for the figure and I'm sure we'll see lots of elf or Spock minifigs from modders in the near future.

Lego Photo

My first try at at Lego photo art. What do you think??

Goodbye Tigg

On the 13/1/11, my cat Tigg (Tigger) died of old age. I had had Tigg from a kitten. There are many stories to tell about her but I wont go in to that now. This post is just to mark her passing and to put down in the great history book that is "The Web" that my friend of 16 yrs has passed away at home and that I miss her. Goodbye Tigg, I'll never forget you.