So I’m getting little obsessed with molds again.  Not plaster this time, but 3d printed..

The pewter ones need more work…  I think they need to be really thin so you can pour the metal, and them dump the mold immediately into water to cool it – when I used solid molds, the plastic melted before the water got a chance to cool it..

Anyhow, another month, another project… A friend wanted some horns for Halloween..  OK, lets see what I can do…

Starting on Thingiverse, I found some horns that were remixed a couple of times, but started out as this Teddy/Dovahkiin Helm (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:417014 ).

I got them into Blender, stripped off what I didn’t need, scaled them to about 13cm long and flared them out at the base, so there was more to use to stick down.

Although the final cast was going to be used with latex, and so could be a one part mold, I decided to make them multi-part so I could use supports when printing and be able to get it out easily.  The supports would give a better casting surface.

Here’s what I ended up with;  a 3 part mold.  The first latex cast made a real mess…  I forgot that the surface is likely to be porous, and it was.

So some time later.. And 3 coats of shellac, the mold was ready for another go.  The shellac worked well as a barrier, but it came off with the latex, which was annoying form the mold point of view, but the latex gave the horns a nice horny colour…

Not tried yet, but intend to paint the inside with Poundland epoxy resin glue to give a permanent seal.

Thanks to Simon at The Making Space for supplies, expertise and cleaning up!