So the first arm casting was a total failure... the skin in the mold, which sets the basic coloring of the arm, didn't set! I think there is a problem with the Dragon Skin silicon sitting in a Brush-On polyurethane mold for a week. The exact same skin in the plaster mold seems firm and strong...
The disastrous results actually look kind of cool, so I'll color *those* from the outside and try to stabilize the tattered skin chunks.
In addition to the possible chemical problems, the two-piece poly molds have a nasty tendency to curl their edges in, making a horribly seam line. The one mold I have that is one-piece but split up one side, however, works beautifully. I'm learning. It's damned expensive, but I'm learning.
I'll be casting the next arm, in plaster, soon. Maybe today.
I'll have pictures of everything, which I may or may not post here. I do promise to put it all on the website when I'm done, plus last year's photos (what few I have).
I've done some airbrushing with colored silicon thinned with orange oil, and that seems to work mostly. It takes several days, though, for it to set up properly. Calling Smooth-On, they recommend Toluene as a thinner, which is an evil evil chemical that will blow my ass to kingdom come if I use it wrong (as mentioned in my previous post).
So I'll pick up some of that evil soon soon at a store. And test it, probably on the nasty arm.
Finger nail polish also seems to stick to silicon, but of course it cracks when flexed.
The leg sculpture got started in earnest yesterday, all of the muscles have been roughed in. It actually looks pretty good! If I can get the textures and veins and fascia and stuff finished this week, I'll make the mold next Sunday.
I'm running out of time on these projects! Just shy of four weeks to run, which is a long time unless you consider all of the !@#$% classes I'm taking.