Molding a critter prop

Alex Torres

Hello, I’m sculpting this critter out of super Sculpey.  My plan is to mold him and punch hair. Most likely I’ll need to cast him in foam latex, so the question is what is the best way to do it?  Thanks.

Chris Ellerby

Since your Sculpey will be rigid after baking you would want to use a silicone mold that can flex for demolding.  That said, you would likely want to make some parts (like arms or legs) removable and cast those on their own.

If you only want 1, you can skip molding/casting entirely and just hand lay the hair on the baked/painted sculpt and save a lot of time and expense. 

/Chris

Alex Torres

Thanks Chris.  Silicone would def be easy but what could I use to make a casting that I could still punch hair into?  Prob no way to do that w resin.  And Idk if you could use foam latex in a silicone mold.  I might be wrong but that’s why I’m here lol.  Thanks!

Chris Ellerby

You can run foam latex in silicone.  I've never done it myself, but it's not uncommon.  Normally with this type of project, you would sculpt it in clay that does not require baking so you can make a rigid mold and dig the clay out.  Then you could cast in silicone easily.

Another option would be polyfoam with a latex skin or a self-skinning polyfoam.

/Chris

Alex Torres

Ok awesome, thanks Chris!  Much appreciated.