Hey guys, so I did my first half of my 2 part molds for my doll's head, torso, and arms and I've run into some really unforunate issues... The whole moldmaking process seemed like it had gone quite well and I don't believe I've skipped any steps but I've managed to seriously damage my original pieces when the time came for me to remove the red clay half from the cured silicone... I sculpted my entire doll using the ladoll paperclay and coated it generously with krylon indoor/outdoor primer. I used smooth-on's super seal and ease release on the pieces before I poured my silicone and everything seemed quite fine til then... I was using the oomoo 30 silicone which has a 6 hour cure time but just to be safe I decided I'd just wait overnight until demolding to make sure it was fully cured. In the morning, when I started taking off the red clay from the silicone and the original pieces I realized large chunks of the pieces had softened up somehow and "tore" off when I was removing the red clay. When I look at the pieces, it almost seems as if the paperclay somehow got soaked and the primer chipped off or something? I'll try and take pictures to show later as it's a little hard to describe... Anyway, I'm really unsure of where I went wrong Is it possible maybe I put too much primer or I needed to use more superseal or ease release? I'm really bummed about my original getting damaged like this On that note, anyone know what would be the best way of fixing and sculpting back the broken pieces? I'm guessing the paper clay won't stick to the pieces now that they're primed in some areas so it is best to sculpt over top the primer with something else? I've got some tamiya putty as well as tamiya epoxy on hand, would that work?
From what I've read it's apparently not uncommon for the paperclay master to not survive molding/demolding. This is why if you send your doll off to a company for reproduction they will often send you back a resin master. But hopefully someone with more experience will chime in.
Ah, I've had this happen before. It could be any number of things-- maybe the inside of the pieces didn't get primered/sealed enough, and the oils in the silicone leeched through, or the primer wasn't cured enough between layers. But as @cloudedmind says it's not uncommon at all. I have never used Tamiya epoxy, but if it's anything like your standard apoxie/milliput/magic sculpt, then it's a good choice. It should help to waterproof the paperclay somewhat, as well as sticking to the primer better than LaDoll will.
D; damn, I'm planning to make my first mold soon and that sounds terrifying! Admittedly I don't know what material I'm using (language problems), it's not ladoll, but it does stick over the primer. I agree that setting the pieces back together with a different material sounds like the best option, though. I didn't know you had to prime the inside of the pieces though *sweats* good to know Since we're at it though, question in case anybody knows! Would a shorter cure time lower the chances of this happening? Or is the risk of bubbles and etc not worth it? I've seen curing times as low as 2 hours!
