Casting accessories/helmets

[Allyndn]

I'll admit I am new to this.

I've read tutorials on casting new heads and understand.

I am wondering about the process of making casts of accessories, especially helmets. I have some vintage items that I want to customize without destroying the original item. So, the hope is to make a mould of the original, cast it, then modify the copy (rather than the original item). I am especially interested in working with a few old helmets I have, but it seems like it would be really tricky to make a helmet which isn't solid inside. Does anyone have any experience with this or suggestions?

[ctc]

>Does anyone have any experience with this or suggestions?

Wow.... talk about starting with the hard stuff! Helmets are tricky 'cos they require big molds that are vented for thin objects. I've made some Micronaut/Microman helmets. I used three part molds for it. What helmets are you using?

Don C.

[AAAAA]

I done combat helmets it best to use slicone rubber for the molds (even tho i use plaster and dental stone in the past)
Rubber is the best when dealing with pilot helmets you might have to do a three part mold.

to do a 2 part mold
what I did was first I made a maniquin head and base (wig display) out of resin . and pack clay around the head area,and carefully sclupt clay around filling gaps . than fitted on a square base made out clay with a cardstock backing with centering holes made by hand with a drill bit. put in a high square container and pour rubber compound on it , waited 24 hours to harden and than flip it over , remove the clay/cardstock base , remove the mount head and leftover clay from in side the helmet(DON"T REMOVE THE HELMET!) clean up the surface area on the mold (remove flashing) Put in the square container spray mold release or coat with a very thin layer vaseline, pore the second part mold and after 24 hourse carefull remove the to pieces and take out the helmet.
you also might consider adding nylon cord &/or steel wire in weapons and a fiber glass sheet,screen or nylon fabric to helmets for strenght

[drmego]

What helmets are you looking at? Are they mego scale? Helmets are VERY,VERY
hard. They can take a long time to get right.

[AAAAA]

What helmets are you looking at? Are they mego scale? Helmets are VERY,VERY
hard. They can take a long time to get right.

he's correct
i have a many mishaps before I got one good one.

[Allyndn]

I think it was William Blake who first said, "You never know how much is enough until you know how much is too much." Or, in my case, if I didn't know what was too hard to do, I wouldn't know what was just hard enough to be an interesting challenge.

The long of the short is that I wrote a novel and I promised myself (as a reward to myself) that I would build figures of the central characters if I finished the book. The characters were inspired by action figures I had as a kid.

One of the helmets is a Super Joe one. Another is from a D&D figure from the early 80's (though that would have to be resized... which is another step trickier, I'm sure).

Helmets aside, then, is it hard to cast other types of accessories? What about duplicating weapons and that sort of thing? Am I biting off way more than I can chew and should just stick to hand-stitching the costumes?

[drmego]

Silicone rubber is about $50 a quart, and casting resin is about $25 for
a one quart yield.

In order to enlarge parts with Hydrospan, it will cost $100 for a gallon.
They never seem to have a smaller size in stock.

Just wanted to let you know what you are getting into.

[ctc]

>best to use slicone rubber for the molds

I ALWAYS use GI1000 silicone. If I only need a few copies of something I'll save money by making a case mold. (Wherein only the face is silicone. The rest is cheap plaster.)

>Silicone rubber is about $50 a quart, and casting resin is about $25 for
a one quart yield.

Yup! You probably won't go through so much resin, but you can burn through silicone pretty quick once you get rolling. I've never used Hydrospan. Seems that it'd be easier to make new helmet masters. (Helmets are a semi-precision part: they need a certain size and shape to fit figures properly.) You might want to start with something simpler. Like guns. Or heads.

The Micronaut helmets I made were squishy. Smooth-On sells a good squishy plastic. It's thick when mixed, so I used to smear it on the inside of the mold, let the air settle a bit and smoosh the parts together.

Don C.

[AAAAA]

The more complex the object is the harder it is to mold.
The super joe Helmets i'm aware of in the deep sea diving and Darkons.
which might be 2 pieces and glued to together.

if you want to start slow ,simple practise cast some weapons ,
and a tiger 7 combat helmets there soft polyelthene and fairly easy to remove from a mold

I've been making Prosthetics for close 30 years ,so Prefection is a road not a destination

[Allyndn]

The more complex the object is the harder it is to mold.
The super joe Helmets i'm aware of in the deep sea diving and Darkons.
which might be 2 pieces and glued to together.

if you want to start slow ,simple practise cast some weapons ,
and a tiger 7 combat helmets there soft polyelthene and fairly easy to remove from a mold

I've been making Prosthetics for close 30 years ,so Prefection is a road not a destination

Definitely thinking more in terms of sewing before casting. And when I do start making casts, I'll try a few heads before I go for the more complex stuff. And I'm searching for what is available out there to buy outright from customizers. My current helmet plan involves buying what I can find cheap on ClassicTV's site and see if I can mod it into something I like, rather than trying to duplicate something.

I appreciate everyone's feedback. I want to make some cool customs, but I don't want to frustrate myself right out of the gate.

[Neutron X]

If all you need is a Super Joe helmet they aren't that hard to find or expensive to get on Ebay. I do agree I think the helmets are 2 part so may be easier to mold in parts then glue together.

[AAAAA]

Definitely thinking more in terms of sewing before casting. And when I do start making casts, I'll try a few heads before I go for the more complex stuff. And I'm searching for what is available out there to buy outright from customizers. My current helmet plan involves buying what I can find cheap on ClassicTV's site and see if I can mod it into something I like, rather than trying to duplicate something.

I appreciate everyone's feedback. I want to make some cool customs, but I don't want to frustrate myself right out of the gate.

with anything new there will be trial and error and mistakes will be made, don't let that disway you.
Take your time and evaluate mistakes on what happened and correct, not curse them, You will learn more from F******Ps than anything else