Did you test Shellshock matterial for puppet molding ?

Aaricia Corbal

Hello !
First post on the forum, sorry if it's not on the right place.
I'm working on a puppet via the "How To Make A Monster Puppet - Rods & Cables" courses from David Monzingo.
I'm from France and some materials are hard to find. Like the Bondo Resin. I found the Shellshock resin from Smooth on.
Did you think it's ok to make my first layer of my mold with this, if my puppet is sculpted in monster clay and the walls are in water clay ? Did you think moisture is going to failled the cure of Shellshock ?
I try to find an answer on the net but did find neither with asking to Smooth on.

Hope someone could answer me, have a nice spooky day ! 
Aaricia.

Kai Rottmann

Hey Aaricia,

maybe you should try, if the Shellshock bonds with the resin of the fibreglass- laminate. 

I think it could work with Shellshock. It has a shore hardness of 85 d.
I have done molds WITHOUT fibreglass with Smooth Cast 65 d which has a shore hardness of 65 d. It had a overall   thickness of  2-3 cm.
Shellshock is a bit harder - so it should work. 
You only have to take patience  when it comes to dig out your sculpture. 
Do it very gentle, so that you dont  scratch the surface  of the mold. Only use wooden tools for digging and use naphta to wash out the last  bits of clay . 
If you are afraid because the water-  do a test.  Mix a very small batch of the resin and  drip it onto a piece of water- clay. 
(Smooth  Cast  cured well against waterbased- clay)
If you do the complete mold with shellshock without resin and fibreglass, make sure, that your mold  will not lay around in the sun and dont put high weights on it for a longer time- it could warp.

Greets

Kai

Edit:  If you live in france, you could order your materials from   https://www.formx.fr/ 
They have Ultracal 30 stone for molding, if you are interested ;-) Sometimes it works better for me to do a stone mold  for smaller  objects, because it isnt that messy like with the chemicals and fibres when making a  fibreglass- mold ;-)

Aaricia Corbal

Hello ! 
Thank you for your complet answer !

I finaly had an answer form FormX, they explain me that Shellshock is snesitive about moisture, so if someone wana try or ask himself the question, Well .. Trying molding wetclay with this is a bad idea ahah

I'm going to make an ultracal mold then. But I wana try for the first time making a fiberglass mould, well  .. It had to wait ahah
 

Kai Rottmann

My  pleasure :-)

You could  seal the waterbased clay with shellac which should  dont let moisture  out. 
But you have to make sure, you have enough shellac  on the wall and there is no opening, where  moisture could evaporate. 

But it sounds more secure, to do a  Ultracal mold ;-) *thumpup*


I wish a lot of fun  and i cant wait to see the finished project ;-)