Figure casting tip

[btaylor]

I go through quite a lot of driver figures in my scratchbuilds. I work in both 1/32 and 1/24 scales, and I like open cars that allow a full view of the driver and interior. That being said, I have over the last few years, been casting my own driver figures. I do half torso, and full figures in both scales, and various driver heads to account for the oh so many era's and venues of racing. My problem has always been getting the full detail on the driver head that I want. No matter what mold material I used, or how careful I pour the resin, I almost always have a blemish on the drivers nose, or the visor on the helmet. I have tried burping the mold to remove air, the tooth pick trick to get the resin in all those tight places, and still only had a 50% success rate. Last night during a bench session with one of my new trans am car builds, I found I was out of driver heads. I needed to cast some up to re supply my bin. My old multiple mold had cracked on me a few casts back, and I had not repaired it. I had a bit of silicone left, so I decided to make a quickie mold of my favorite Cox figure driver head. I grabbed my best example, and instead of gluing the head on an old sprue, I simply put one dot of super glue on the back of his helmet, and stuck it in a cut down plastic cup. This put the driver face straight up, or straight down when your casting. Much to my delight, the face up mold makes perfect detailed driver heads time and time again! I made about ten last night, just trying to have a mistake. After removing the head, I just sand the back of the helmet smooth again, and its ready to paint up and mount. No more air pocketed faces, and missing visors!
Hope this helps anyone casting their own figures that has not figured this out already.


Bob

[HomeRacingWorld]

Now that is a great idea Bob. Thanks for that.

[chappyman66]

Yup, this works....I have a two part mold (face and rear helmet) which has worked well. I just glue a back on the face. I do like the one piece mold though. Good tip.

[munter]

air rises, learnt this myself sometime back

[SLOTFIGUREMAN]

Injection Moulding !!! I found using a syringe to 'inject the resin' work's quite well.
TIP. You have to clean the syringe fairly quickly before the resin start's to set.