A huge, bold, italic, underlined THANK YOU to everyone whose inspiration, encouragement, and advice got me so far along in this project! There's no way I could have done this on my own! Yes, this is an incredible feeling! I almost didn't even sleep that night... and I can't... stop... touching it!!! I'm glad I went this route with the sculpting and molding and casting. It's like, "I made this!" It's just so... I don't know, "real" I guess 
On this edition of "Trial by Error: Learning through Failure with uber-noob ShadoKat": PLASTI-PASTE! For anyone else interested in using Plasti-Paste but have never worked with it, there are things you should know... First, it's expensive. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but this one mother mold used half of my $65.00 gallon kit. Second, mix up two or three smaller batches in separate cups rather than one big one. The data sheet says the pot life is ten minutes, but usable time is more like five. Anything past that it becomes VERY sticky, clumps together, pulls on itself, and just becomes VERY hard to work with. I didn't learn this until I was half way done. On the first side, I started with the parting flange and, by the time I was done applying it, the stuff that was left in the bowl went on like... well, I don't know, but it was a bad, sticky mess. On the second side I mixed up one batch, and jad a second on hand and ready to go, but didn't actually mix it until I was done putting on the flange. It was just MUCH easier that way. I was also able to fix up the first side by marking out the blotchy spots lightly troweling in a small batch, but it took more time and more product.
Doing this made the mother mold much cleaner and, I didn't have to work as hard to get the prickly bits off of it. (Plasti-Paste? More like CACTI-Paste!!) Other than those things, the stuff is pretty awesome! Minimally toxic, low odor, easy to measure, easy to mix, easy to apply (in small batches), and a short cure time.
My inner hypercritic notes that the cast is just a tad bit rougher than I thought it would be after all the work I put into the clay. Looks like I didn't take out as much of the unevenness as I thought. Still super happy, just already thinking of ways to fix it, but I need to get going on the rest of the suit before too long. Probably start with sanding down the high spots, but not sure where to go from there, especially to fill in the low spots. Apoxie Sculpt, perhaps? Any tips or suggestions before I go thread-hunting?
Also, I'm pouring a second cast tomorrow night, but I'm kind of having a hard time re-seating the cut seam into the mother mold... any tips on that? The first cast has a ridge along the cut seam where it didn't quite line up, and it's ever so slightly raised on one side (I wanted to make it line up with the detail line down the center, but silicone isn't exactly transparent, and it got lost after the first thixo layer). It will likely sand right off, so I'm not terribly worried about it, but if I can avoid it in subsequent casts (or molds, if it has to do with my molding technique) I'll be much happier.
As always, thanks for the compliments and encouragement Reading these I almost think I'm looking at someone else's thread LOL!
On this edition of "Trial by Error: Learning through Failure with uber-noob ShadoKat": PLASTI-PASTE! For anyone else interested in using Plasti-Paste but have never worked with it, there are things you should know... First, it's expensive. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but this one mother mold used half of my $65.00 gallon kit. Second, mix up two or three smaller batches in separate cups rather than one big one. The data sheet says the pot life is ten minutes, but usable time is more like five. Anything past that it becomes VERY sticky, clumps together, pulls on itself, and just becomes VERY hard to work with. I didn't learn this until I was half way done. On the first side, I started with the parting flange and, by the time I was done applying it, the stuff that was left in the bowl went on like... well, I don't know, but it was a bad, sticky mess. On the second side I mixed up one batch, and jad a second on hand and ready to go, but didn't actually mix it until I was done putting on the flange. It was just MUCH easier that way. I was also able to fix up the first side by marking out the blotchy spots lightly troweling in a small batch, but it took more time and more product.
Doing this made the mother mold much cleaner and, I didn't have to work as hard to get the prickly bits off of it. (Plasti-Paste? More like CACTI-Paste!!) Other than those things, the stuff is pretty awesome! Minimally toxic, low odor, easy to measure, easy to mix, easy to apply (in small batches), and a short cure time.
My inner hypercritic notes that the cast is just a tad bit rougher than I thought it would be after all the work I put into the clay. Looks like I didn't take out as much of the unevenness as I thought. Still super happy, just already thinking of ways to fix it, but I need to get going on the rest of the suit before too long. Probably start with sanding down the high spots, but not sure where to go from there, especially to fill in the low spots. Apoxie Sculpt, perhaps? Any tips or suggestions before I go thread-hunting?
Also, I'm pouring a second cast tomorrow night, but I'm kind of having a hard time re-seating the cut seam into the mother mold... any tips on that? The first cast has a ridge along the cut seam where it didn't quite line up, and it's ever so slightly raised on one side (I wanted to make it line up with the detail line down the center, but silicone isn't exactly transparent, and it got lost after the first thixo layer). It will likely sand right off, so I'm not terribly worried about it, but if I can avoid it in subsequent casts (or molds, if it has to do with my molding technique) I'll be much happier.
As always, thanks for the compliments and encouragement
Reading these I almost think I'm looking at someone else's thread LOL!
