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Okay, I've not done much in the way of casting and such, so hopefully one of you ingenious types has something that will work for me.  I was wondering if there is a down & dirty way of casting chapter badges/icons for shoulder pads - preferrably something where I can use green-stuff as the casting medium.  I've more or less settled on an icon for my DYI chapter and can sculpt at least one onto a shoulderpad (basically to create a master to make a mold from), but I'm really not looking forward to doing a whole company's worth.  I don't need to cast entire shoulderpads, just the contoured icon.  Is this doable?

well im no expert - in fact i downright suck at GS but i was reading something this evening about molding... i cant recall the site now, but basically the guy used lego... thats right i said lego... and GS to create the mold.

Go figure.

He built a little lego square (with a space inside) packed it with GS and then pushed the thingy he was making into the GS. He did mention something about mixing a "soft" batch of GS for the mould - ie. more yellow than blue. I haven't tried it yet - im all out of lego's. But in principle it seems like an ok idea.

Then once the mould cured he just pushed GS into it... using GS to mould GS - haven't tried it yet. I imagine it could get anoying with very finely details things like icons or heraldry - but it may be worth a try.

Here's how I do mine:

Sculpt a master copy of your badge out of GS, on a flat surface (I use an old mirror, just because it was handy).
Once it has set, paint the master and the surface around it with a thin coat of baby oil.

Mix up a blob of GS, and push it down on top of your master. You want about 5mm around each side of the master, and about 5mm thick. Leave it to set, then pull it off.

You now have a mold. To use it, paint the inside of the mold with a thin coating of baby oil. drop small balls of GS onto a flat surface, and then push the mold firmly down on them to form the shape. You want to try to get the GS balls at a size where you can push the mold right down onto your flat surface without any excess squeezing out of the sides... takes a little practice to get just the right amount, but saves some work later.

The mold should just pull off. If the shape of the pressing distorts a little as the mold pulls away, just push it back into shape with a sculpting tool. Let the pressings set, and then peel them off the surface. If they have excess GS flash around the edges, trim that off with a hoby knife. You can also lay the pressing flat on a piece of sandpaper or a fine file and sand it down a little if it is a little thick.

Then, drop a little superglue on the back of the pressing, and fit it to the shoulder pad (or whatever you want it on). The beauty of GS is that it is flexible, so will curve to match the shoulder pad as you push it into place.

And that's about it. It may not be the best way to do it, but it's a method that's been working for me so far.



Another way to do it, if you're only after a couple of badges and don't want to mess about with molds, or if you're not up to sculpting the badge from scratch for a master...

Roll out a thin (about 1mm or so thick) layer of GS and let it set.
Print out or draw a copy of the badge at the size you want. Cut this out, leaving a bit of spare paper around the edges of the badge.
Apply small drops of superglue to the corners of the paper, trying not to get any glue under the badge pic itself, and stick it to the cured GS.
Grab a sharp hobby knife or scalpel, and 'trace' the outline of the badge onto the GS. If you can't cut all the way through the GS in one go, try to just leave a slice in the surface, and you can go back and cut the rest of the way through afterwards.

By the time you have traced the whole outline, the paper should just fall off, and you're left with a GS copy of the badge, which can be sanded if necessary and glued in place, or used as a master for a mold.