A while back I bought a bottle of Woodland Scenes Latex Rubber and have been experminting with it. So far mostly all I have done with it is paint it over the windows on some of my autos when I Dul-Coat them. It is very easy to do and comes off the windows with a pair of tweezers leaving the windows shiny.
I have also used it on a '72 Chevy PU that I am painting. I disassembled the PU and soaked the metal body in paint remover, then cleaned and primed it. When the primer was dry I painted the Latex Rubber on the hood and the right front fender, then painted the PU as usual. I will put another coat of paint on in a while and when it drys I will remove the Latex Rubber and hopefully I will end up with a 1972 blue Chevy PU with the hood and fender primered. (as it were in a accident and being repaired) I will see how this works.
If I an not mistaken, there was a thread here a while back that someone was using it to cast some autos. That is about all I have heard about it.
Have any of you used this product before and what did you use it for? Just wanting to get some ideas, looks like it could be used for many things, making rock molds, etc…
I carved a brick wall out of wood with my dremel, and then made a latex mold from the master wood wall. Now I can cast brick walls from plaster or hydrocal. I made it so I can keep connecting as many as possible by making interlocking teeth on each end of the master. I am planning on doing a stone wall next. You can also use it to make a mold of a tunnel portal, and then cast as many portals as you need. All you need to do is buy or make a master and then paint your latex over it. Peel it off and you have a mold to make as many copies as you want. Alot cheaper then buying a load of portals or retaining walls. Ther e are a million uses for latex. I’m still trying to figure out what else to do with it. Saved me a lot of cabbage.
I’ve made a bunch of rock molds with it. You can add gauze in between layers to make your mold more rigid. I tried to do some stone walls and it didn’t work out very well. I think I’ll try that RTV silicone next time. The latex got stuck in all the little details and I had a hard time getting the original out and it ruined the mold. I think that was a Spacemouse post about making the car molds.
I make molds for Hydrocal casting. I started with a couple of pieces of Evergreen sheet, called “Tile” and “Sidewalk” by the manufacturer, and made molds of each. Then I cast my subway walls (“Tile”) and platforms (“Sidewalk”) from these. The castings have a much better surface, and take stains and paints beautifully. They’re also a lot cheaper than buying dozens of sheets of Evergreen. I can even wait until the Hydrocal sets up but before it hardens, and then bend it around a form to get curved walls and subway tunnel supports:
If you look at the back of that picture, you’ll see some stairs. I made a set from modelling clay, and then made a latex mold of that. My cobblestones were made by taking a piece of artificial honeycomb, pressing it into clay, and then making another latex mold.
I used it for making rock molds. I found that 5-6 coats on a hunk of coal made a great mold. Coal offers a very nice miniature sized rock surface and it releases nicely from the latex.
Sure. I use the artists’ version for all kinds of molds. Rocks, stone fences, retaining walls, portals, building flats, tree stumps.
I’ve used them with art plaster and even envirotex. Use lots of coats to make the mold and it will last through multiple castings. I reinforce it with fiberglas mesh drywall tape or cardboard.
Sorry to drag up an old thread, but I am making some rock molds from this Latex rubber stuff, and man does it smell…and as the label says, it is indeed highly “irritating to your respiratory system”. So after the first ([D)]) time using, it, I’ve got a mask, though the odor still comes through.
Question I have…is this stuff massively cancerous? Got a little worried after the deep whiff of the nasty that first time…sure smells like poison…though they would have indicated it on the label, right?
No it isn’t carcinogenic. I bought one of those sheets of plastic cut stone and applied several coats of latex to it with gauze in the latex. Then when I was satisfied with the build up I painted a flat board with latex and glued the mold I made to the board. I attached four 1/4" thick scraps of wood around it with screws for a dam and now cast my own retaining walls with it. I just pour in plaster and tap it for about one minute to remove the air bubbles. When dry I take out the screws remove the walls and nine out of ten times get a complete wall section with a little effort. I save the smaller pieces and make panel sections from them. You can also do the same thing with rocks and make your own molds. the one thing to be careful of is that it takes forever to dry if you put it on too thick. For casting a car I would probably go the RTV route since that is one of its pruposes and it cures all the way through. Latex needs air to dry.
I was just on the phone with the wife making sure stopping at the art store to get some molding latex was on our todo list tonight with the shopping and saw this timely thread!
Will I encounter any problems making a latex mold of cast resin parts? I have some chooch tunnel portals and walls I want to make a mold of and cast in plaster. I plan to start with the double portal I want to make into a stone arch bridge since I accidentally ended up with two packages of those so a screw up will not be much of a loss.
I tried to cast a WS cut stone portal. The latex got stuck in all the little cracks like I said in my earlier post. I didn’t use any kind of release agent on the portal first. Don’t know if you can without it sucking into the plaster. The mold got all stretched and out of shape when I tried to remove the original. Made it pretty useless.
If your original is smooth like a concrete wall or portal, I wouldn’t see you having this problem.
Maybe someone else has a mold release tip??
I’ve had good luck giving plaster masters a couple of coats of Minwax Polycrylic varnish before coating them with latex to make molds. The varnish seals the plaster and leaves the master with a nice. smooth finish that makes removing the latex mold easy.
Thanks, I will give it a try… hopefully the resin will release well since its a smooth plasticy part even if it does have molded stonework detail.
Unfortunately it cost $15 for a pint of latex at AC Moore… a lot cheaper online so I figured to shop around a bit. I can’t help it, its the New Englander in me.
If your mold is too flimsy you will have problems. For a tunnel protal mold I would do at least fifteen coats and strengthen it with dental floss or gause between layers.
A-yuh. If you go to www.acmoore.com and then do the “store locator” thing, you can find the store you go to and then print out a coupon. They differ from week to week, but most of the time there’s a coupon good for 40% off of any one item. That will knock your $15 bottle down to 9 bucks.
A.C. Moore also carries Envirotex, and even some pre-made HO-scale trees. Those are both kind of pricey items that are much more attractive at 40% off.
