Plumber silicone an alternative?

do you mean caulk?

It's not the same stuff. It's meant to be air dried and will take forever in thickness over 1/2".

 

Do you mean silicone caulking? We do have a thread about it here: http://www.bjdartists.com/joints/showthread.php?t=2899 I haven't tested these methods and not sure that they would be durable or great, but good to try out, or for junk molds perhaps?

 

Ah, that one. I used it in an art project once. It did fine for me. I don't know how long it would last though.

 

My experience wasn't so go. It will stick to your sculpt unless you cover it with a release agent,

 

If you're on that tight a budget you could make plaster or paper mache molds or use moulage or flexwax.

You could do plaster/silicone mother molds too.

Nothing is more expensive than messing up your originals though!

 

Re: Plumber silicone an alternative?

I have used silicone caulking that comes in a tube for a mold backing. It was one of those situations where I only had a little bit of silicone rubber left over, but had two or three tubes of caulking. I mixed the two-part silicone rubber and brushed it on the model. There was just enough to cover it completely. After that coating set, I squeezed out caulking and applied it with a knife to build up a backing. Then I made a plaster mother mold over that.

I can't see using it as the first coat on any kind of sculpture that you want to capture detail of any kind? But it works fine as a backing mold material, much in the same way you might chop up old molds, and mix the pieces with rubber for a backing.

Here are some photos of the silicon mold with the caulk backing (made in the very early 1990's), and of a casting from it (not a BJD).











The wax for the bronze was molded in a ceramic shell investment mold, the wax was flashed out, and silicon bronze was poured.

 

I saw someone on conceptart.org that tried it a while back.

Here is the link to the tutorial:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=180176

 

Maybe Silicone Thinner could be mixed with silicone caulk to make something usable?

http://www.smooth-on.com/Silicone-Rubber-an/c2_1128/index.html

 

If you'll look closely at the mold I made, you'll see that the blue coating was regular two-part silicon rubber, then the silicon rubber caulk from tubing is made up of at least two different colors of caulking: clear, and white. The caulking stuck to the 2-part silicon rubber, as well as to another color (i.e. tube) of caulking. Yes, silicon rubber sticks to silicon rubber! That mold is probably 18-19 years old, and it has never delaminated.

What is a waste sculpt?

 

atleast for me a waste sculpt is a test, for example i test new materials by taking an odd-shaped blob of the same clay(or whatever material i am using) and make a testcast out of it to see how the materials behave together.

it doesn't really matter what shape it is, i usually just make make some holes and such to see how it keeps details.

so for me it is not so much of a 'sculpt' but a test just so i don't end up ruining originals. hope this helps!

 

Modelhorse: While looking for something completely different, I found this link for making a mold using silicone caulking with naptha (lighter fluid) as a thinner: http://www.myheap.com/book/chapter-07/example-01/example-01.php. It seems that DAP 100% Silicone Clear caulking has the best drying properties?

 

Sorry to bump this up if this has been posted before. I remembered this Instructable while reading through this thread.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Your-Own-Sugru-Substitute/

They used silicon caulk mixed with cornstarch and the mold they made cured in two hours. Anyone tried this yet?

 

I've tried this a few ways actually, most of them involve acrylic paint as a catalyst.

Acrylic helps the silicone cure faster because of the water in it.
I've heard of a few ways to thin it too, the way I tried was using glycerin. which hardly thinned it at all and the mixture separated and became a gunky mess as soon as you add a drop too much, but made it release better from the part.
resulting material is very pasty and cannot be poured, but you can brush on a thin layer to keep the bubbles from the surface and back it up with the rest of the mix.

I also hear you can use toluene and benzene but i havent tried them.

It doesnt produce the best, most detailed casts, but it's cheap and easy.