Anybody have experience using Q Ballz (similar to Baldiez)? Sticking to the mold, not the appliance
Hello,
I am trying to use Q Ballz by Smooth-On to encapsulate a silicone appliance, but it is sticking to the mold walls instead of the appliance. What do I need to do differently?
I have tried using Q Ballz on two pulls from my mold. I made a stone two part squish mold with Ultracal 30. The first time, I released the mold with a mixture of 99% alcohol and Dawn soap that I saw Cory Czekaj use in the "Character Makeup - How to Run Silicone Prosthetic Appliances" tutorial on SWSCA. Then I sprayed 4 layers of Q Ballz into both parts of the mold, letting each layer dry for 10 minutes between the layers. Then I poured in Dragon Skin FX Pro silicone by Smooth-On and closed the mold. When I opened the mold later, the Q Ballz vinyl stuck to the mold instead of the silicone appliance.
I talked to the people at Reynolds Advanced Materials, where I bought the Q Ballz, and they recommended I use their product Ease Release, or a thinned down petroleum jelly as a release, instead of the alcohol and dawn mixture that Cory Czekaj used. They said the technical data sheet for Q Ballz specifies Ease Release or petroleum jelly as a release. So I bought the Ease Release and cleaned the mold thoroughly and then tried it again, using Ease Release this time. The same thing happened when I opened the mold later.
This is what it looks like when I open the mold. You can see the vinyl pulling away from the appliance to stick with the mold.
This is my first time trying to encapsulate an appliance. Is the vinyl sticking to the mold supposed to happen? Do I need more release?
Also note - I did not spray prosaid or another adhesive onto the dried Q Ballz before pouring the silicone into the mold. Maybe that's the problem? Cory Czekaj sprays some (I think unnamed) adhesive onto the dried Baldiez before pouring the silicone. In this Smooth-On video showing you how to use Q Ballz, they don't use any kind of adhesive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tgDgeSt7Kk
Any advice? Maybe just a lot more release? Do I need to let the release dry for a certain amount of time before putting the Q Ballz in?
Another thought - I'm not using a super soft gel silicone. I want to encapsulate the appliance because I want to be able to melt away the vinyl edges when i apply the appliance. I haven't done that before and I always have visible edges with my appliances. I want to have more invisible blending edges - and I think melting the vinyl encapsulator will help me do that. Any thoughts on that?
If I have a piece that is not encapsulated, could I apply it to the actor, then spray Q Ballz onto the blending edge of the applied mask, let it dry, then smooth it down with a q tip and acetone?
I did a test application of the makeup yesterday. We had problems getting the bottom of the chin to adhere to the bottom of the actors' skin. I was using Telesis 8 silicone adhesive. The flashing of the appliance didn't sit right on the actor's skin, which I think was the big problem. We had to stretch it a bit to make it meet the actors' skin. After it pulled away the first time, we let the adhesive dry, we blow dryed it, and then we put zinc oxide ontop of it, and then we reapplied the adhesive, then we let it get tacky and then pressed the appliance to the skin, then we held it in place and put prosaide cream on the seam, then blow dried it, then did another layer of prosaide cream and dried it. It still pulled away. Any advice on how to move forward with this? I think we will leave more flashing on the bottom of the chin of the next appliance so that it can grip more of the bottom of the chin.
Here are pictures of that:
Any thoughts on any of this is much appreciated!
Thank you,
BenG
I am trying to use Q Ballz by Smooth-On to encapsulate a silicone appliance, but it is sticking to the mold walls instead of the appliance. What do I need to do differently?
I have tried using Q Ballz on two pulls from my mold. I made a stone two part squish mold with Ultracal 30. The first time, I released the mold with a mixture of 99% alcohol and Dawn soap that I saw Cory Czekaj use in the "Character Makeup - How to Run Silicone Prosthetic Appliances" tutorial on SWSCA. Then I sprayed 4 layers of Q Ballz into both parts of the mold, letting each layer dry for 10 minutes between the layers. Then I poured in Dragon Skin FX Pro silicone by Smooth-On and closed the mold. When I opened the mold later, the Q Ballz vinyl stuck to the mold instead of the silicone appliance.
I talked to the people at Reynolds Advanced Materials, where I bought the Q Ballz, and they recommended I use their product Ease Release, or a thinned down petroleum jelly as a release, instead of the alcohol and dawn mixture that Cory Czekaj used. They said the technical data sheet for Q Ballz specifies Ease Release or petroleum jelly as a release. So I bought the Ease Release and cleaned the mold thoroughly and then tried it again, using Ease Release this time. The same thing happened when I opened the mold later.
This is what it looks like when I open the mold. You can see the vinyl pulling away from the appliance to stick with the mold.
This is my first time trying to encapsulate an appliance. Is the vinyl sticking to the mold supposed to happen? Do I need more release?
Also note - I did not spray prosaid or another adhesive onto the dried Q Ballz before pouring the silicone into the mold. Maybe that's the problem? Cory Czekaj sprays some (I think unnamed) adhesive onto the dried Baldiez before pouring the silicone. In this Smooth-On video showing you how to use Q Ballz, they don't use any kind of adhesive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tgDgeSt7KkAny advice? Maybe just a lot more release? Do I need to let the release dry for a certain amount of time before putting the Q Ballz in?
Another thought - I'm not using a super soft gel silicone. I want to encapsulate the appliance because I want to be able to melt away the vinyl edges when i apply the appliance. I haven't done that before and I always have visible edges with my appliances. I want to have more invisible blending edges - and I think melting the vinyl encapsulator will help me do that. Any thoughts on that?
If I have a piece that is not encapsulated, could I apply it to the actor, then spray Q Ballz onto the blending edge of the applied mask, let it dry, then smooth it down with a q tip and acetone?
I did a test application of the makeup yesterday. We had problems getting the bottom of the chin to adhere to the bottom of the actors' skin. I was using Telesis 8 silicone adhesive. The flashing of the appliance didn't sit right on the actor's skin, which I think was the big problem. We had to stretch it a bit to make it meet the actors' skin. After it pulled away the first time, we let the adhesive dry, we blow dryed it, and then we put zinc oxide ontop of it, and then we reapplied the adhesive, then we let it get tacky and then pressed the appliance to the skin, then we held it in place and put prosaide cream on the seam, then blow dried it, then did another layer of prosaide cream and dried it. It still pulled away. Any advice on how to move forward with this? I think we will leave more flashing on the bottom of the chin of the next appliance so that it can grip more of the bottom of the chin.
Here are pictures of that:
Any thoughts on any of this is much appreciated!
Thank you,
BenG
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