How To: Cast a Figure

Now if you haven't made a mold this How To will be pointless...go to my How To: Make a Mold post to see how I reached this point. Here is the list of materials you will need:

1. Silicone mold: I prefer 2 piece molds see link above to see how to make a mold
2. Medical syringe: 10mL works best I have found
3. Small paper cup
4. Stir Stick
5. Gloves: I like Nitrile gloves
6. Rubber bands
7. Plastic or poster bound cut to the size of you mold
8. Box or plastic bag to work on
9. Mold Release: I use Mann Ease Release 200 

10. Resin/plastic: I like Smooth-Cast 300

Step 1
Spray the insides of the 2 mold pieces with the Mold Release. You don't need to do this step, but it will help preserve your molds and help them last a little longer.

Step 2
Determine the needed amount of resin/plastic you will need. Smooth-Cast 300 is a compound mixture with a 1:1 ratio, meaning that if you need 10mL of plastic you would use 5mL of each of the compounds. I have found that a Human Heroscape figure requires about 5mL total. So, I would start with this estimation then correct it if the measurement is off.  

Step 3
Put on your gloves and open the 2 bottles of the Smooth-Cast 300. Measure out the needed amount of liquid from one on the bottles of the Smooth-Cast 300 using the medical syringe (10mL) and put it in the paper cup.

Step 4
Measure out the second part of the Smooth-Cast 300 using a different syringe and put it into the same paper cup (this is important because if you use the same syringe it will contaminate the bottle and cause it to start setting up).

Step 5
Quickly stir the mixture. Different types of resin/plastic have different set times. Smooth-Cast has a set time of about 5 minutes.

Step 6.
Using one of the previously used syringes (I would use the syringe used for the yellow bottle, because it will need to be cleaned out even if you don't use it for this part, where the syringe for the blue bottle will not need to be cleaned out if you only use it for measuring out of the blue bottle) draw up the mixture.

Step 7
Quickly eject the mixture into the 2 parts of the open mold to fill in the voids that will create the figure being replicated. I do this to make sure the mold is completely coated with the resin/plastic, and hopefully reduce the chance of bubbles. 

Step 8
Quickly put the 2 parts of the mold together with the poster board sheets (pre-cut these to the size to the mold) on the outside and rubber band it to keep it together. Make sure the rubber bands are not too strong, because if they cause too much pressure it will deform your replicas.

Step 9
If needed, fill the syringe with the rest of resin/plastic mixture and eject it into the holes (these are created by the feet of the miniatures). This is a delicate process, as you want to do it quickly but at the same time slow enough as to let the air escape so bubbles are not created in your replica figures.

Step 10
Let the resin/plastic completely set so that it is hard.

See here the plastic is not completely set around the edges of the bases

Step 11
Remove the rubber bands and open the 2 parts of the mold. Now you can remove the replicas of the figures.

Step 12
When you remove the replicas you will notice that they may be connected to each other by the sprues and/or by what is called flash...this is normal and now using a hobby knife you can clean off the flash and the sprues.

Step 13
Now you have your first set of replicas and you can repeat is need.