Casting Priming and Casting Material

I see no reason what you couldnt use any primer you like on das clay, I usualy use car primer, paint if I know my surface has issues and I'll need to sand it again, and spray if the surface is smooth.
as for the other questions I'm not sure, though not sure why you would need 2 final cast, the air bubbles are more likly tr be a problem than dust specs.

 

You won't need two final casts. Dust specs etc are easily dealt with by cleaning the mold before you do a cast (make sure the mold has thoroughly dried though, because water and resin aren't the best of friends).

Your able to use Tamiya or Mr. Surfacer on Das clay, yes. I'm using the 500 bottles of paint when I'm dealing with bigger dents and cracks and finally spray several coats until I'm happy with the end result.

As for how many kilo's of silicone, I'm not sure. It's been a while since I've casted a few dolls and even then it was pretty much trial and error. I know that I needed quite a few buckets of Mold Max though .

 

How much materials you will need depends a LOT on how you work and on your doll.

If you are pretty much done smoothing parts when you get to priming you won't need nearly as much as you would if you have a rougher surface. If you have a very rough surface you might want to consider something else than a spray primer first.

Same thing for silicone, it will depend a LOT on the size and proportions on your doll, how many parts you make it in, what type of moulds you make and so on.

 

If a piece is completely dried, it's not really reusable. You could maybe soak it and then use the resulting slurry as slip, to "glue" two pieces together, or apply it to the surface of a piece with a brush to help with smoothing, but I don't think you'll be able to get it back to a good consistency for sculpting with.

To store it, wrap it in a damp (wet, then thoroughly wrung out) paper towel, then plastic wrap, and then in an airtight container.

I'm pretty sure LaDoll, when dried, is lighter than resin.

 

I do re-use LaDoll, even after it's completely dry. Granted it's not as good as when it is fresh, but I make whole parts with it successfully. It doesn't matter that it's not as smooth on larger parts like torso or thighs especially on an SD doll. I wouldn't use it for making something detailed like face or hands! I basically just toss any old chunk of dried clay into a tub with some water (so I'll always have some), wait for it to dry out a bit and voila. Messy, but not wasteful. If it gets too dry I use a spray bottle to keep the right level of moisture. A better method is to first grind the chunks in a coffee grinder, wet it and than place on a slab of plaster so that it would soak up the excess water. You'd probably get a much better consistency that way. But I never bothered, because I'm almost done with this doll and for my next project I'm switching to wax.

I needed about 5 cans of 500, 1000 & 1200 combined, but it's probably because I kept on messing with "them parts". Once it's primed all kinds of asymmetries pop-up and I kept changing things here and there. Again... another reason why I'm switching to wax. I didn't like the whole priming process, too chemical :-) even with a proper respirator I ended up coughing. And it takes a lot longer than you initially anticipate + additional costs (Mr Surfacer isn't cheap). I recommend only Mr Surfacer, I tried other brands and they either take too long in between coats or some of them form leathery sort of layer that's really hard to sand. One actually went and bubbled for no apparent reason a week after priming (had to redo that part completely!).

As for silicone. I'm still not sure how much one might need for an SD, I'll have a clearer picture by the end of the week as I'm starting to finally make molds next week. But also depends on how many parts that doll has and so on and so forth... But for junk casts, do use a mother mold method... No need to waste the good stuff.

 

P.S. LaDoll is definitely lighter than the resin I'm using. I measured an original part and its resin cast counterpart and one was 7g another 10g respectively. But I don't think weight is important, as it's volume you need to be concerned with.

 

Hi twinage,
1. mothermold - just look it up on youtube, there's a ton of tutorials on this method. Youtube will explain it better than i ever could. You know what they say - "better to see it once than to hear 100 times".
2. Mr Surfacer - 500, 1000 & 1200 these are gradations. 500 is for bigger scratches and rougher surfaces, 1200 gives you a very fine, smooth finish. There's also liquid form which is used for hard to get into areas (i.e nostrils, ears, toes). The first few coats take up a lot of primer to seal off the clay, final layers you don't need as much primer.
3. photographing casting process - i'll try :-), i need to update my doll thread here anyway. I stopped posting about half-way through process, which is just very lazy of me :p.
Best of luck with your doll.