I poured the second half of the two-part silicone mold for
this ship during the weekend. After 44 hours of curing (I couldn't wait the last four) I pulled the LEGO box apart and separated the two halves. I coated the insides of the mold with graphite as I learned to do on this
informative blog post. I clamped the mold back together between two pieces of wood supplied with the starter casting kit from the Dunken Company. Then I heated up some metal and started pouring, knowing my first few casts would suck as the mold warmed up.
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| drop casting in lead |
Initially I was frustrated not just by the cold mold but by hot lead shooting out the bottom and sides. I was trying to keep the clamping pressure to a minimum, but this caused leaks. I went ahead and clamped at full strength and got a pretty decent cast. For my very first two-part mold and lead drop cast I'm very pleased with the results. I really hate to say this because of all the extra steps but the metal miniatures look great next to my water-putty ships. These are pretty crude drop casts, with rough surfaces and some deformations, but there's just something about a metal miniature. I guess it has to do with growing up gaming with lead figs.
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| Pretty happy with this one |
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| Top: water-putty; Bottom: metal (obviously) |
I predict the biggest advantage of the metal ships (besides durability) will be in the ease of painting. I'm off to prime the two casts I made to see if this is true.
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