Thulsa Doom silicone bust progress

James Shaver

I have to commend Stan Winston studios for some of the video help in my being able to sculpt and mold my first silicone bust sculpt...at this point i have yet to make my first casting...i am a little worried on matching the skin tones correctly without wasting a ton of silicone in the test process...i am susing Dragonskin MEDIUM for my first castings until i become more comfortable in doing them to allow me more time to properly mold the silicone...

But here are the photos of the sculpting and the mold itself..First time using eye forms inside of a mold as well..i got those from Fourth Seal Studios 

James Shaver

Only thing i am concerned about is..the skin tone..i have sil-pig but i get told it won;t work with platinum silicone for tinting..yet the website says it will work for it
Any confirmation to this?

Chris Ellerby

Awesome work!

Silc-Pig will work with both tin and platinum silicones, but you can not add too much pigment or it can inhibit curing.
All the data sheets can be found here:  https://www.smooth-on.com/products/silc-pig/

For painting tips you can check out any of our lessons on silicone painting.  We have quite a few!  https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/search?category=courses&text=silicone+painting

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

/Chris

James Shaver

Chris i do have a question..i am a little inconflict because i have seen videos where people have made a silicone mold and backed it with foam..Some have used cotton to create a mechanical bond and others have not..both applications were filled with a flexible expanding foam...

In you guys's at SWS experiences over the years...does it matter if there is a mechanical bond or not? Or is it mostly refelctive to the thickness of the silicone to be able to hold the inner foam firmness?

Chris Ellerby

Hi James,

The mechanical bond comes in handy if there's a lot of thick silicone or areas with more mass that may be prone to slip or sag.  It also depends on how the piece will be used.  Display pieces undergo less stress, but if it is to be handled a lot the silicone may be more likely to move around.

It also depends on how deadened or soft your silicone is as well.  Softer silicones will want to sag more.

If you don't have the mechanical bond you can still use silicone adhesive if you find areas that are moving more than you like.  While I've not tried it myself, it may also be possible to use small pins if you find an area sagging that you can't get adhesive into.

The cotton mechanical bond trick provides more peace of mind.  If you can't apply the cotton during the initial silicone casting (for example if you have a mold core) you could go back after the skin is cast and paint some silicone inside to tack the cotton into, or even add positive shapes that the foam could socket around if you want a less permanent bond that still has some mechanical support.

/Chris

James Shaver

WelWell after much cussin and fussin..the test piece application is finished...now to let it cure...then foam fill it and pray it looks semi decent  LOL ...1 lesson i learned...Platsil thickner ain;t worth sh*t...Tin-thix is where its at to get the stuff to stay vertical..

James Shaver

Test pull of Thulsa Doom came out but not without some problems...the foam i used did not form solidly at the top of the head as much as i'd liked..and one small spot on the side of the head had a slight "seperation" due to the thin first layer of silicone..but the backup layer held it together...That's why moving forward i will use ONLY Tin-thic thickner instead of Plastil thickner...the vertical surface needs to be held evenly as much as possible all the way around...

and of course i used Fourth Seal eye blanks inside the mold and of course..these are not Fourth Seal eyes...I have to make up a pair of my own..i just threw in the Amazon eyes just to see how it would look...

Overall i count this as a massive success for my first ever silicone bust attempt..and knowing the errors that occurred in the test process..they are easily fixable in the next casting  I also may want to darken the skin tone just a tad..

Chris Ellerby

Nice, congrats on the progress!  There's always so much to learn from the first few pulls out of a new mold!

/Chris