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!!!

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!!

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??

First post in a while

I've been a bit busy of late with a new edition to the fold - a new baby boy. His name is Oliver. He's now 11 wks old and taking up most of my spare time but I had to show this awesome Lego piece. This is a great figure, I'm not sure if this is Elvis or The Karate Kid but it is cracking. For one its a Karate mini fig body but the best bit is the gold mini mini figure. Its head is standard object handle width so it can be held by the head or be pushed in to any hole and its base can fit any peg. The double bonus is you get two in the bag (or at least I did). Wonder whats in series 3?

Bricks and pieces

These little guys and gal are from the new Lego "blind pull" series. Its the first time Lego have gone down this road mad big by alot of the the Japanese toy companies. Series one has sold well, so roll on series two.





Each mini figure comes with its black stand and the necessary objects to complete the character, top hat, pom pom etc.

If you like Lego you'll love these.

BREAKING NEWS!!
This just came through my door, a preview of Lego mini figures series 2 which will be hitting stores in September.