[Mark McGovern]

Geoff,

I wanted to make bigger ears for my rebuild of Aurora's Dr. Jekyll As Mr. Hyde. So I softened up some modeling clay by warming it in my hands, then I flattened out 2 pieces about 3 inches in diameter and maybe 1/2 inch thick. I pressed the side of a front head half from a Frankenstein kit into each piece of clay, so that I got a good impresseion of each of his ears. Then I brushed a thin coat of vaseline into each impression, just to make sure I could get the castings out without any fuss.

I mixed up some five-minute epoxy and dribbled a little into each mold, filling the impression so that the expoxy just reached the outlines of the ears. I allowed the epoxy to cure for an hour before digging the castings out of the clay. After cleaning the vaseline mold release off the epoxy ears with a little alcohol, they were ready to be glued on Hyde's head.

Unless you need a two-part mold, or the deatil of your castings will be very intricate, I can't think of a better way to make "quick and dirty" parts.

 

[Mark McGovern]

What dabs said. In fact, Durham's is a great all-around modeling item to have if you're doing any kind of diorama or scenic base at all. It can be mixed thick or thin and textured any number of ways while it's still wet. It cures like plaster of Paris, rather than drying; once hard you can work it almost like wood. It accepts pretty much every finish known to man.

One thing to watch out for: I learned from the example of a friend of mine that you DO NOT want to apply Durham's (or, I would guess, any other water-based product like plaster or Celluclay) to an unfinished wood surface. My buddy did so to one of those plaques that was cut from a section of a tree - you know, the ones with the bark around the edges. Overnight, the wood absorbed the moisture from the Durham's and warped so that the plaque was unusable. I have had no problems applying water-based materials to a wood surface that has been finished with a sealer like lacquer or polyurethane varnish.

BTW, the sequel to my friend's dilemma is, the plaque was going to support a Revellogram T-Rex from Jurassic Park. My pal panicked when he woke up to find his base ruined, then ran out and found a broken tree branch on which to perch his dino. He took first place in his category at the IPMS show we attended the following day.