| Custom Sculpting and Casting
Okay guys, I've poked around the internetz good and hard and come up with very little on how to actually do custom sculpting and casting, specifically for custom Joes and the like.
The casting part is what eludes me. I mean, I'm not new to "art" - I have sculpted and can sculpt in various mediums (though how well I can do it at 1:18th scale remains to be seen) ... what I cannot seem to wrap my head around is how you go from a finished sculpt to a mold to plastic casts. I've molded things before but I've never done anything that would come close to this and my knowledge isn't helping me here.
What should I use to do the initial sculpt? What the heck do you use to mold, and how do you mold both sides 3-dimensionally? What is the best resin or plastic to use to cast the item?
I am extremely interested in learning how to do this for use with custom Joes (and toys in general). I see all sorts of amazing things being done in this way (TriGate's entire line, for example) and I know I could do it too if I could just figure it out!
I am not a lazy sort, I mean, I've actually looked for help on this, not just come here to whine lazily ... I've really just come up blank. The best thing I found was a lost wax tutorial to make jewelry out of metal. I got the basic idea but still, it's not specific enough to help me out with what materials I should be using, or what I really should be doing.
I know some awesome sculptors/casters/mold-makers lurk around here ... can someone point me in the right direction?! Thanks!
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