I am going to mold some tunnel entrance portals. I have used woodland senics mold latex. Is there something else readily avaible to us? And where can I get it?
Micro mark sells RTV silicone (along with a dozen other companies.) Sometimes its carried by craft stores. Hobby Lobby carries Alumilite casting supplies. They are primarily designed for casting resin, but would work with plaster.
Smooth-On is a big supplier of resins and mold material. I use them all the time as I do resin casting. And I think a lot of the stuff Micro-Mark sells in the way of resins and RTV are from Smooth-On.
And, you can use plaster in an RTV mold, but if you cast a lot of plaster in it, it may deteriorate faster than if you used resin.
I would recommend Alumalite’s Amazing Mold Putty. I assume the back of the tunnel portal isn’t detailed so this could be used with great success for a one piece mold. Cures and is ready to go in about 20 minutes. I got mine at Michaels
Chris
I’ve used that stuff to make a mold of a slot car body. It works great.
I’ve used the Woodland Scenics latex rubber for a number of years now. I’ve been happy with the results. This is a casting I did using a home-made mold. The master was a WS tunnel portal, but I wanted a thinner casting for the sides of this highway bridge:
The latex maintains very good fine detail when Hydrocal is used for the casting.
So, since I’m always interested in new techniques, why are you unhappy with the WS latex? Is it the rather long and time-consuming process of actually making the mold, requiring several days and repeated applications to get it thick enough? I agree that making the mold is a bit of a nuisance, but I try not to hurry my modeling anyway, so I can live with it.
For those of you who have used different stuff to make your molds, how well do the details come out? Do the molds release easily?
So, since I’m always interested in new techniques, why are you unhappy with the WS latex? Is it the rather long and time-consuming process of actually making the mold, requiring several days and repeated applications to get it thick enough? I agree that making the mold is a bit of a nuisance, but I try not to hurry my modeling anyway, so I can live with it.
Yes it is the amount of time it takes. I only have about 1 hour a day to enjoy my layout. So I try to get as much done in a short time not rushing though it.
As far as the Amazing mold putty goes, I made a mold in 20 minutes for some leaf springs for an HO locomotive and it captured the small steel striations that made up the spring. The part was only maybe a half inch long. I’m positive it will pick up the most minute detail in your tunnel portal. As far as ease and time - 20 minutes until it is cured (room temperature). This was the first mold I ever made - the stuff is pretty much idiot proof. It is also very flexible and doesn’t really need a release agent unless you have severe undercuts in your original - then it is recommended to use some sort of release agent.
Chris