Showing moldy results

Success! The new molds came out with few problems worth the name. First up are the wargame-oriented molds. From left to right we have the Dux Britanniarum movement tray, the three 10mm ECW casualties, and the five Zanzibari slaver casualties.

The next is the 1/56 lamppost mold in its freshly-molded form showing what I call the "nougat" bar effect where the silicone met the Sculpey...

 ...then the separation of silicone mold half and Sculpey, showing the master in the mold and the lugs which will keep the two halves aligned. The next stage for this will be to clean up the Sculpey residue where it's sticking to the silicone before installing it in a new box. I'll put another plug of Sculpey in the recess at the base to form the pour funnel. After that I'll brush Vaseline over every part of the new mold half with the exception of the master. As I mentioned before, if this stage isn't done the next pouring of OOMOO30 will stick to the other half and it'll be a helluva job to cut them apart. I speak from hard-won experience...

Last up is the pair of molds which I'll use mainly for decorative items, although the doors, window and column can be used for making buildings for gaming. On the left is the new bookend base, and alongside it is the decorative piece mold.

The latter is the only one so far that has any appearance of bubbles. These lodged in the two chevron pieces on the left of the mold. They won't really be a problem since they're proud of the main surface of the piece and can be trimmed off.  You'll notice some of the OOMOO30 flowed under the diamond-pane window piece bottom-right, but this will trim off without any problem.

In fact all the molds now need to be trimmed in various ways. Silicone tends to climb up the sides of the mold box through capillary action, making the base of the mold uneven with a detrimental effect on the casts. Trimming this off even to the point of beveling the edges solves the problem. A few of the Zanzibari slaver casualties will need cleaning up as the OOMOO30 flowed under some of them. A couple of the masters also broke up when I popped the new mold off, but this is par for the course. I shouldn't need them again.

After all is clean and trim, I'll pour some plaster and/or resin. Results to come!