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Lips!

5/26/2021

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mold boxes for casting fursuit lips and teeth


​Looking over my photos on my Facebook page I realized I had wanted to do a post about making lips for my masks but forgot! So here goes!

The snaky looking thing in the long moldbox on the right hand side of this pic is my first attempt at a lip for my resin wolf head. I sculpted it pretty straight because that's how I had seen other lips sculpted  online. Silly me.
silicone lip on a resin fursuit wolf head that does not fit
silicone lip on a fursuit resin wolf head that does not fit
Above, trying to fit a silicone cast of this straight lip on my mask. You can see how it gaps underneath, between the lower edge of the lip and the jaw. No good.
 gluing a slilicone lip to a resin fursuit wolf head
Above, trying to glue the new lip on. I think that pile of clamps might be trying to tell me something.... 
pattern for a lip for a fursuit resin wolf head
making a pattern for a lip for a fursuit resin wolf head
Making a pattern for a more fitted lip. The green thing above is Frog Tape stuck to aluminum foil. I pressed a piece around the lower jaw, sketched the shape of the lip on it, and cut it out. I then made it symmetrical by folding it in half in the middle and trimming it so the two sides would match. Then I tried out the new shape back on the head (above), trimming and fiddling until I was happy with it.
sculpting a  lip for a resin fursuit wolf head
sculpting a lip for a resin fursuit wolf head
Here I've built the lip up in Monster Clay. It's built right on top of the pattern thingy, stuck on around the edges with a little more Monster Clay, so I can fairly easily remove and reapply the lip to the mask or adjustments as needed. 
lip sculpts for a resin fursuit wolf head
Above, the two clay lips next to each other for comparison. The new lip is on the bottom. Very different shapes. 
gluing a silicone lip to a resin fursuit wolf head
gluing a silicone lip on a resin fursuit wolf head
Gluing silicone casts of the new lip in place. Not so many clamps needed this time! (The rubber bands here are actually serving as clamps here too.) I tried using Weldbond instead of hot glue, as Weldbond is theoretically stronger and doesn't leave those lumpy ridges when it dries. Weldbond takes about 24 hours to fully cure, hence the clamps. It did a good job, but I'm not sure it does enough of a better job to justify the long wait time. 
silicone lip on a resin fursuit wolf head
silicone lip on a resin fursuit wolf head
And, the new lips freshly installed. Wheee!!
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Attempting casting resin in two colors, part one

12/29/2018

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Resin canine  jawset cast in two colors


So I was unenamoured with airbrushing, at least when it came to painting jawsets, and I decided to attempt to cast them in two different colors of resin. The saints at the Smooth On tech support department recommended I pour one color of resin over the other before it had a chance to set up fully.To the left, the result. Um, no.
 Some sort of two part mold would seem to be the answer, one for the teeth and the other for the gums. My first thought was to cut the teeth out of a resin jawset with my Dremel, insert them back into the original mold, and make a model of just the gums from which to make a second mold. Below, getting ready to pour silicone for the model.
 Casting jawset parts in silicone rubber
 Casting jawset parts in silicone rubber
Casting a jawset model in silicone rubber






Removing the cured rubber from the mold, with the teeth still attached. It would appear I have my model from which to make a mold for the gums. (The fabric was added while the rubber was curing, so that I'd have something to glue the models down to the mold board with afterwards. It wouldn't work so well to just glue the silicone to the mold board, as cured silicone doesn't stick to much of anything.)









Here goes nothing! Pouring the silicone over the models for the new gum mold. (The snaky thing on the far right is an attempt at a lip.)
 Casting jawset parts in silicone rubber
Making molds for jawset parts from silicone rubber
Below, pink resin gums cast from these new molds, with teeth inserted temporarily. Looks pretty good but....
Resin canine jawset cast in two colors

Damn. The round thing in the middle is leftover resin that cured in the mixing cup. See how nice and smooth it is? See how full of bubbles the gums are? There's lots and lots of things that cause bubbles in castings but here it's due to replicative failure. Each time I demold rubber from rubber, microscopic layers peel away from the surface, creating these bubbles in the mold. (Even if I'm using plenty of release. Which can also cause bubbles, damn!!) Three times I poured rubber into rubber to make these, adding more bubbles with every step.
Bubbles in cast resin
What to do next? Maybe at some point in the future I could investigate stronger rubber, but in the meantime, maybe I should go back to making molds from original sculpts whenever possible. 
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In Pursuit of Pointy, and In Search of Squishy

3/27/2018

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To date I've purchased teeth from other craftspeople to use in my masks, but I've always really wanted to make my own. Below, a pile of attempts made over the past couple of years, made with Monster Clay (a kind of plasticine), Super Sculpey and Apoxie Sculpt.(Skully is supervising. He is a very helpful skull.) A whole lotta nope right here.
jawset sculpting teeth for fursuit wolf head mask
I finally settled on the Monster Clay for making the prototype teeth. I got tired of waiting for the other two to dry and/or set up in between sculpting sessions, and I got REALLY tired of trying to smooth out the hardened model with sandpaper or a Dremel. Monster Clay can be frozen to make it very hard and  can be softened with a hairdryer or microwave or such to make it very soft, so it is adaptable for a variety of sculpting situations. It also smooths beautifully using rubbing alcohol or its more powerful big brother, isopropyl myristate.
sculpting jawset teeth for fursuit wolf head mask
sculpting jawset teeth for fursuit wolf head mask
First, I made "plates" for both the upper and lower jaw, making sure they fit comfortably inside the resin head. Then, using Skully and reference pictures I found online, I sketched the placement of the teeth on the "plates". Using a lightbox, I then checked to see how the teeth on the upper and lower jaw would line up with each other (left). These would serve as "templates" for the jawset.
 
teeth for resin fursuit wolf head mask
sculpting jawset teeth for resin fursuit wolf head mask





Now it's time to start sculpting! Left, rechecking the template in the lower jaw.





























​Gum line built up (and though it's hard to see) tooth placement traced in from the template.  
sculpting jawset teeth for resin fursuit wolf head mask
​



​Actual teeth taking shape. The whole thing is built on a thick piece of cardboard, so I can take it in and out of the mask's mouth without squishing it. Not too badly, anyway.
  
sculpting jawset teeth in resin wolf head fursuit mask
Above, looking to see how the lower part of the jawset is shaping up when viewed from the side. The teeth are just loosely stuck down to the gums at this point, so I can easily move them around if I need to.
sculpting jawset teeth in resin fursuit wolf head mask



​Now for the upper jaw. Left, checking the template for the upper teeth inside the resin head, using Skully and photos for reference.
sculpting jawset teeth for resin fursuit wolf head maskPicture


​Gumline built up, roof of mouth roughed out, and tooth placement traced in, using the template. 
sculpting jawset teeth for resin wolf head fursuit


​And, roof of the mouth more refined, and actual teeth taking shape.
 
sculpting jawset teeth for resin fursuit wolf head mask
sculpting jawset teeth for resin fursuit wolf head mask.
And tada! Above, a finished Monster Clay plasticine model, ready for molding. Silly me, little did I realize that this would be the first of three finished jawsets I would mold. Sucks being a perfectionist.
Sculpting tongue and jawset teeth for resin fursuit wolf head mask
sculpting tongue and jawset for resin fursuit wolf head mask
Above, beginning the molding process, and a tongue while I'm at it. The jawset has been firmly attached to a thin piece of plywood, which will serve as a mold board. Every little gap between the model and the mold board is filled in, as otherwise the mold rubber could find its way under the model, and float the model up on top of it while it's curing. Which would not make a very good mold at all.
making molds of jawset teeth for resin fursuit wolf head mask
mixing silicone mold rubber
Left, making molds! I've used cheap Tupperware type containers for the mold boxes, attaching them to the mold boards with hot glue and cutting openings out of the bottoms for pouring in the rubber. 
pouring silicone mold rubber over jawset teeth for fursuit wolf head mask
mixing resin for making jawset teeth for fursuit wolf head mask
​And, casting resin into the new molds to make teeth! Wheee!!! 
Picture
cast resin teeth jawset for fursuit wolf head mask
 

sculpting teeth jawset for resin wolf head fursuit mask

Above, getting ready to revise the jawset. Did I mention how I did this three times? Seriously though, it's easier to check the fit of the teeth in the head when they're in hard resin and not squishable clay. Above, a set of resin teeth that has been Dremelled down to fit the head better, and another set of clay teeth made by pouring melted Monster Clay into the mold, called a "borrowed casting". It's much easier to tweak the teeth from a borrowed casting than trying to make a whole new set from scratch. (If I wasn't such a chicken, I could have also resculpted my original set of clay teeth. But I wanted to keep them the way they were for extra insurance.) 
sculpting teeth jawset for resin fursuit wolf head mask
sculpting teeth jawset for resin fursuit wolf head mask
Above, revisions. To the right in both pictures is the original sculpt, still on the moldboard. In the middle is a modified resin casting, and to the left is the resculpted "borrowed casting". This first go round I removed the "flare" thingy from the bottom jaw, as it only really served to complicate fitting it into the resin head. I also made the plate for the upper jaw more symmetrical. You can see how the original sculpt has a bigger "bulge" on the left hand side than the right. Why did I do this, you may ask. Well, I was using a reject resin head casting to fit the teeth in, and I forgot that the resin on one side of the muzzle was much thicker than that on the other so.... in order to center the teeth in the opening, the plate had to be a lot wider on one side. Definitely not going to be the case with the average resin head! Fortunately I realized this before I got too much further into this process!  A great big duh, but could have been a much bigger duh.
resin teeth jawset for fursuit wolf head mask
resin jawsets teeth for fursuit wolf head mask
Above, showing all three sets of revised teeth. The top set is the first one, the middle is the second and the set on the bottom is the final version. Besides changing the "plate" as described earlier, I did a lot of playing with the front incisors. I refined them in the second set but then realized I had also made the top ones too small, so I made them bigger in the third set. After re-checking my reference pictures of real wolves I also decided the gum area above the front incisors also needed to be longer, so I also changed that in the third set. I also did a lot of fiddling with the area circled in yellow in the right hand picture, with the way those particular teeth came together. The top incisor right next to the large bottom canine also underwent a fair bit of refinement.
nose and tongue for fursuit wolf head resin mask





Last but not least, a freshly textured nose and tongue, ready for moldmaking.
molding nose and teeth jawset for resin fursuit wolf head mask with legos
And since I had spent so much time fiddling with the teeth, I decided to fiddle with the mold making method as well. At the suggestion of an acquaintance I made my next set of mold boxes out of Legos instead of Tupperware containers, so I could get the mold boxes precisely the size I needed them and save molding rubber. Molding rubber is expensive. They don't call it "platinum cure silicone" for nothing. (A good source of cheap used Legos is bricklink.com.)
making molds for fursuit parts with lego bricks
molding parts for fursuit heads using lego bricks
The rubber curing and then  being removed from the Lego mold boxes. I sealed all the little gaps between the bricks with Sonite Wax **except** the one between the first row and the mold board, with the results seen below on the left. Brain cramp!! Little rubber Lego bricks! Fortunately the hot glue attaching the Lego mold  box to the mold board kept the leak from getting out of hand, the worst effect being I didn't have quite the thickness of rubber I would have liked around the model at the top of the mold. 
molding parts for fursuit heads using lego bricks
 






​In the home stretch! Right, casting a nose and some teeth in the new molds.
casting parts for resin fursuit wolf head mask
casting parts for fursuit resin heads out of silicone and resin
silicone rubber fursuit nose and tongue parts for resin head
Above, the nose and tongue models with their squishy rubber counterparts. Wheee!!!
silicone rubber nose for fursuit wolf head
Checking out the fit of the rubber nose in a resin head. Lookin' good! The resin head on the right wants a rubber nose too. 
cast noses tongues teeth jawset parts for resin fursuit heads
fursuit head parts teeth jawset tonges noses silicone resin
And above, a pile o' puppy parts, ready for maskmaking!! I'm feeling good about the results of my endeavors here. Time to think about colors for fur!!
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More Adventures in Moldmaking

8/3/2014

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first layer of silicone for wolf head mold


And... on to a Mold That Matters. To the left and below is a sculpt that will ultimately be a base for a fursuit style head, with the first coat of rubber thinly brushed on. (The "halo" around its head is part of the mold, not part of the sculpt.)

This mold is made of silicone rubber, not urethane rubber as was my last mold. I want to cast resin into this mold, and urethane resin and urethane rubber, I've been told, do not Play Nice together. Among other things, a Runaway Exothermic Reaction may occur, which generates a lot of heat and results in the mold and the cast being irretrievably fused together. Not good.

More specifically, this mold is made of *platinum* cure silicone rubber, not *tin* cure silicone rubber. The former is much more expensive than the latter, but supposedly molds made with it will last a lot longer as well. 

Platinum cure rubber is also supposed to be more prone to reacting with the model material. Sealing the model is strongly recommended (the very nice tech support at Smooth-On recommended using Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic Sealer)  and a small test on an inconspicuous area is also recommended. Silicone reacts with some kinds of wood, latex (wear vinyl gloves, not latex gloves, when using it) and most famously, sulfur. For this reason any modelling clay used to sculpt a model needs to be sulfur-free. 


Both silicone and urethane brush on molds need to be applied in layers, usually around four, to a total thickness of a quarter inch. One beauty of silicone rubber, as opposed to urethane rubber,  is that its' possible to apply additional coats anytime after the most recent coat is no longer sticky to the touch.  In contrast, once one layer of urethane rubber is no longer tacky, another layer will no longer stick, and once a section of a urethane rubber mold is started it must be finished. Stress!!! Working with the silicone is much more relaxed and easygoing on one's nerves.
first layer of silicone for wolf head mold
second layer of silicone for wolf head mold
To the left, the sculpt with the second coat of rubber brushed on. I've lain it down on its back to minimize the rubber "boogers" dripping off its nose that I got with the first coat. I've also dyed it a lovely shade of pink with Smooth On's Sil Pig, so I can tell more easily that I've covered the orange first coat thoroughly. 

In between coats, I mixed rubber thickened with Thi-Vex and trowelled it into undercuts, eye sockets, etc and built up a cut-seam ridge using a popsicle stick as an applicator. That's another advantage of silicone. Thi-Vex is relatively benign, while Cab-O-Sil, the thickener for urethane, is made of finely ground glass. It blows around very easily and you really, really don't want to breathe it.  
To the right, the rubber all but finished. The last step was to make keys to help the rubber mold register with the Plasti-Paste mother mold. I did this by mixing up a small batch of rubber, splatting it down between two paint sticks and then cutting it up into squares when it had cured. I then stuck the squares onto the mold using more thickened rubber.

Here I also learned that Smooth On's instructional videos do sometimes leave steps out of the process that would be useful to know. The particular video I'd been watching over and over again did not show keys at all, and I assumed for a long time it was due to some special property of the Plasti-Paste mother mold material. 

 

adding keys to silicone for mother mold
 When I called to double check on this, the support person said that no, it was just to make the instructions easier to follow. If anything, I really could have applied more keys than I did.  
building dividing walls for mother mold

To the left, getting ready to apply the Plasti Paste mother mold. I've trimmed the edge of the rubber, applied a dividing wall made of Klean Klay and covered the wall with tinfoil. I then applied Sonite Wax and Ease Release over the whole thing. 

There's another difference between urethane and silicone mold rubbers- they each need their own kind of release. The universal release spray used with urethane is made with silicone- if it's used with silicone rubber, it will act like a glue instead!
To the right and below right, half the Plasti Paste mother mold applied.

The chief advantage of a Plasti Paste mother mold over the traditional plaster is its much lighter weight. I was planning on hand-slushing resin in this mold, which means holding it and turning it for fifteen minutes while the resin sets up. Something not easily done with a 40# plus plaster mold!  

I was dreading using this material as the instructions said it was very sticky, set very fast, and got very hot, but all this turned out to be manageable. The trick was to learn to mix only what could be applied in ten minutes. A saving grace was that, like silicone, additional coats of Plasti Paste could be applied after previous coats are fully cured. Whatever didn't get covered in one pass would get covered in the next, no big panic. It should be built up to be about 1/4" thick; in larger molds such as this one it should be more like 1/2" thick. 

As an additional bonus, it wasn't as stinky as I feared it would be either.

  
first half of mother mold for wolf head

The instructions also said to smooth the Plasti Paste down with wet paper towels or denatured alcohol before it was fully cured to avoid "an aggressive surface". And when they say "aggressive surface", they mean it. This is one downside of this material- even smoothed down, it is fairly "toothy". I nick my fingers on the edges routinely, and rip my rubber gloves while casting. I need to find heavier gloves!

first half of mother mold for wolf head alternate view
clay dividing wall removed while making mother mold for wolf head

To the left, the clay dividing wall removed, under the careful supervision of the Feline Assistance Department.

Again I applied tinfoil over the Plasti Paste, and applied Sonite Wax and the release spray over that. Supposedly the tinfoil keeps the two Plasti Paste halves from sticking together, and helps to mark the parting line when separating them. The downside of the tinfoil is that it very badly wants to stick to the uncured Plasti Paste and pull away from the cured material, making a gap in between the two halves. Fortunately it did not turn out to be at all critical, especially since the halves were bolted together.

Below, holes drilled through the two mold halves so that they later can be bolted together.  And then, time to remove the mold from the sculpt- the moment of truth!
holes drilled for bolting together mother mold
Houston, we have liftoff!!!
mother mold removed from silicone inner mold for wolf head
finished mold for resin wolf head removed from sculpt
There is definitely room for improvement for next time. The "halo" could be about half the width it was, in order to save on both weight and cost of material. (I made it that wide because the video said to!) The Plasti Paste shell could be more uniform in thickness. Most importantly, the cut seam down the center of the sculpt's face is not really needed, the sculpt is fairly simple, the rubber is flexible enough it will just peel off like a glove, and it's nice not to have to worry about seam lines. But for right now, I am very excited to have a functional mold!
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    I make masks. Because art is more fun when you put it on your head.

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