Transil 40 Moulds

Moulds

All the transil 40 moulds have been finished. In the end the 5kg wasn't enough and another 2.5kg was acquired. Every component except the body has a transil mould.

As with the abdomen I opted for a cheaper tin-sure mould and to use a skin of easy flow clear. for the following reasons.

-Cut down time
-Cut down weight
-Required less equipment, (vac chamber etc) so workshop hours no longer issue.

Shiney Time

The moulding didn't happen today, but spent allot of time polishing. Each component of the spider needs to be polished to a high gloss. This will aid me in achieving a near realistic almost liquid surface, so more time was spent polishing.

-More easy flow tests were done, placing in a vacuum does help, but the quick curing time is an issue. Contains air bubbles but as I'm going for a more opaque it is perfect for my application.

final Moulding

PU Experiment















I plan on moulding the body using a Transil 40 (Platinum silicone) Jacket. My aim is to use as little as required my creating a matrix style mould. One issue I found with this is that fibre glass jackets (usually used in this mould type) can inhibit the surface of Transil 40.

-So my attempted solution is to use Fast cast to create the two part jacket to hold the silicone, shown above.

Spraying and moulding

The legs and body have now all been sprayed with cellulose lacquer, this will all be polished tomorrow and used for moulding. Meaning Monday morning I can begin to cast with the opti-clear.

Also My Easy Flow clear has arrived (which will be used for the abdomen), and works very well. So far only a single test has been produced, Next step is to try adding acetone to slow down the reaction so vacuuming may be ipossible.

Spider Almsot finished....

Abdomen update















The abdomen has been moulded nicely but with three problems.
1) It becomes very heavily and my aim is to keep as light as possible.
2) The seem line in the mould moves causing undesired flashing.
3) Opticlear-31 will not work at this thinness...

After some research and a few chats with lecture's and Pete Tindall of www.ptfx.co.uk, the following solutions were made.

1.1) Various fast cast test with filler powder, but most suitable is using the mould to slush near gelled fast cast. Meaning only a thin skin and very little material is used.

2.1) Pinning didn't work "this problem was a result of trying to save on materials" The mould weighed 1kg , if more was used with mould studs it could have been prevented. Lesson learned..... But painting in a fast cast layer allowing to catalyse, then slushing helps the mould hold its rigidity and lessens the imperfection.

3.1) After speaking with Pete and mould life, It should be possible to use 'Easy flow clear' is the same method as the fast cast tests. Meaning I can keep the translucency I require and reduce the weight.















Leg Segments

All the leg segment 'except the back femur' has been cast' These will now be connected togeather blended and prepared for moulding. 'About time'

Base















The basic base structure has been made. Using blue foam and plaster a quick and effective rotten log was made in a few hours. the image above is of sections of my mequette place to test the leg positions. The base works nicely as is A-symmetrical giving the spider a more dynamic pose.

DISCOVERY
one of my live specimens has produced eggs, this could be an interesting addition to my model?

Sculpt Finished

Hear is the current body primed and ready to be lacquered. She is starting to look very spider like. The leg components are just about ready to mould, so tomorrow the basic base structure will be carved. Meaning each leg an be positioned so the joints can be added. So the final Transil 40 mould can be cast by Tuesday....

Sculpting near complete

Underside of female dysdera showing lungs openings and epigyne




















Moulding the fang, using mould life mould studs at split line. This split mean that fang could be separately moulded without damaging it.















Details of abdomen sculpt, focus on spinnerets

Excluding the final 3 leg segments each part of the spider has been fully sculpted. The current estimation is the I am just over a week behind my original time plan. Due to the sculpting taking longer than originally though. An example of why is shown in the image's above. Using mainly dead specimens as reference specific area's change after death. The underside of the abdomen was heavily modified after a live image was taken of the lung openings.

Each sculpted part has now been moulded in fast cast and are being modified with joints so each piece can be moulded in opticlear and then be easily assembled. All moulds should be completed by the end of next week.

Modifications

Made some major changes yesterday and today, the jaw area specifically. On building the jaws I discovered that there wasn't enough space. So the best Fast cast copy was then taken back and re sculpted in milliput. Meaning the baking and shrinkage of sculpy can be ignored.

The Abdomen has now been massed out and detail is being applied.