Hand Casting Part 1

BRAAIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNS!

Alright, readers, I have to admit that there aren't a lot of fake food props being made here in the Fake-n-Bake kitchen lately. For the past few weeks, I've been up to my neck in breakaway plates that aren't breaking and script covers that are being manhandled to death.  So, I haven't had much to report. Since there aren't any fake food projects on my horizons, I thought I'd take a look back at some older casting projects, and write a few posts about those.

These lovely beings are the first step in a pair of hands that got crushed in a trap door in 'The Government Inspector.'

Materials: Alginate, Hydrocal or Dentstone (or any high strength casting plaster), your carpenter (or any pair of hands), Petroleum Jelly, and Buckets

The first thing you need to do is convince your shop's carpenter to let you use his hands. Why do you need to use his hands? Because he has the most marvelously huge hands you've ever seen. His hands are like hams with fingers. You can use no lesser hands- only these will do.  Our carpenter was pretty easy to convince, but if yours isn't, I recommend baked goods. Real ones. No nerf muffins.

Once you convince your carpenter to allow you to cast his hands (or her hands, but ours is male, so I'm sticking with that pronoun), make sure your set up is comfortable for him.  Set up your containers near a chair or stool that will allow your carpenter to easily hold his hands in the alginate for fifteen minutes or more.  This make take some adjusting, which is why it is important to do this before you have mixed up your alginate.  Uncomfortable models lead to bad life casts.

Once you've got your set up ready, have your carpenter apply some petroleum jelly to his hands. Alginate (of dental impression fame) releases very well from skin, but petroleum jelly will help with any hair on the hands.

Once your carpenter is lubed up, get him settled into his position, and talk about how you want him to hold his hands; we went for a relaxed curl.  Then, mix up your alginate (follow the directions) and pour around the hands, and wait for the alginate to set.  It's important, when lifecasting, never to leave the model alone.  If a fire or other emergency occured, you'd need to be there to help. What's more common is that you'll need to make slight adjustments for the model's comfort. Can you imagine having both hands encased in goo, and then get an itch on your nose? TERRIBLE! 

Once the alginate is set (it will be stiff and won't be tacky) have your carpenter start to gently flex his hands and wiggle his fingers.  As he does so, the alginate will release, and he can slip his hands off from the mold.  Hand your carpenter one of the clean towels you had waiting (ha, gotcha) and send him off to wash his hands. Thank him for his time.

Alginate molds don't keep well for long- they dry out and shrink.  You can usually hold on to a mold for a day or so by wrapping it in wet cloths and keeping it in the fridge.  For best results, I recommend pouring your cast right away.  In this case, we only got one shot at the casting (some shapes allow for more), so we had to make it count. 

Mix your casting plaster according to directions, and pour it on in. Jiggle your mold to make sure you aren't trapping any air bubbles.  Once your plaster is set, you can remove the mold from the casts. I did this by removing the mold from its bucket, and carefully tearing away the alginate.  I did break a finger or two, but a little white glue took care of that. Oh, you can also see on the finger pads where some air was trapped. I sculpted those bits in with clay before making the next mold.  There you go! The first step of smashy hands! More to come soon, happy propping.

Read more

Hot Pour Vinyl Fishies

Materials:  Hot Pour Vinyl, Plaster, Vaseline, Acrylic Paints, Mold Box (wood or other), Modeling Clay
 
The mold for these herring was made for our production of 'The 39 Steps', by our clever and hilarious intern, Jess Smith, with guidance from yours truly.

Intern shown actual size.

 It is a simple two part plaster mold made from a fake fish that we had in stock.  See! Casting and faux foodstuffs in one convenient post!

The Original.

The first thing that Jess did was to determine where the seam of the mold wanted to be. With a symmetrical piece like a fish, this is a pretty easy task, especially when the fish you are using is a cast piece that already has a seam!  Using a wooden mold box, Jess built up clay around one side of the fish, taking up the space that one half of the mold would eventually fill.  Before applying a release agent, she built up clay near the mouth to form a pour spout, and carved a trough with a carving tool to act as a registration.  (A registration is made to keep the two pieces of the mold in the correct alignment.)  Once the clay dam was complete, Jess used petroleum jelly (good ol' Vaseline) to coat the clay dam, the wooden sides of the box, and the fish. This acted as a release agent so that the plaster would not stick to any of the surfaces and prevent the mold from being removed.  Jess then poured the plaster into the first side of the mold, and allowed it to cure.

Here you can see the first half of the mold and the clay dam that has been removed.

Once the plaster set, Jess removed the whole thing from the mold box (some disassembly required), flipped it, and settled in back into the mold box, plaster side down. She then removed the clay dam, built the second half of the pour spout, and gave the whole shebang another coat of petroleum jelly before pouring side two.  Once side two was poured, she removed the mold from the box, removed the fish from the mold, and gave both pieces of the mold a good scrubbing to remove the release agent.

See the registration trough/ridge?

The next step was to pour the castings.  We used pigmented hot pour vinyl to do this (see last weeks post here).  After securing the mold halves together, Jess heated the vinyl until it melted, and poured it into the mold.  The vinyl itself isn't sticky when it's dry, so no release agent was needed.  Then, once the vinyl had cooled, we popped it out of the mold, trimmed the sprue from the pour spout and painted the fishies silver with acrylic paint.  We did try to brush silver bronzing powder into the mold before casting, and while it looked good, the powder came off on our hands too easily when handling the herring- so we went with the paint instead.

The best thing about these fishies is their floppy quality.

Read more

Safe Dial Part 2- The Casting

I cast the dial from Smooth Cast 325 using what they call a 'cold cast' technique, or what I call, schmooeying bronzing powder into the mold. This technique gives a metallic look to the resin. Here is how the process works.

Once I finished demolding, it was time to reassemble the mold.  The bumps and ridges formed by the cured rubber actually act as registration points for the mother mold. There are three important things to remember here. First, make sure the mold is seated well into the mother mold. The rubber should be solidly seated into the plasti-paste, without any wiggle.  The seam should be flush, and almost invisible, you don't want any leakage. Second, the mother mold should be clamped/taped/banded together- whatever it takes to get it secure and level. Leveling is very important for this casting, more so than usual because the back of the dial needs to sit flat on the safe, and the large surface area makes it harder to sand flat. Third, RELEASE RELEASE RELEASE. I used a liberal amount of Universal Mold Release in the mold before applying the bronzing powder. Release agent is important! Urethane resin is adhesive, and it will stick to all sorts of things- so I like to get some release agent pretty much anywhere I think I might get casting resin.

After the mold release was applied, I brushed bronzing powder into the mold. The idea here is that the resin will trap the powder in its surface and the finished casting will have a metallic look. Bronzing powder is another dangerous substance though, so before you use a soft brush to apply an even coat of powder to the inside of the mold, make sure to wear proper respiratory protection.

Once the bronzing powder was in place, it was time to pour the mold.  Following the directions, and wearing the proper protective equipment, I mixed the Smooth-Cast 325 and poured it slowly into the mold. It's always good to pour into the lowest point of the mold, and slowly allow the resin to rise. This will help prevent bubbles from forming in the casting. 

Once cured, I demolded the dial by gently removing the mother mold and peeling back the urethane rubber mold.  TA-DA!

 
I actually made two castings of this piece so that we could cut the center piece from the outside ring, and mount them to the safe so that the interior could spin.  To store the mold, I like to keep the mold in its mother mold, in a cool, dry place.

Read more

Safe Dial- The Mold

So, I haven't blogged about many of my casting projects here on Fake n' Bake yet, even though apparently this is some sort of blog 'dedicated to casting and molding....blah blah blah.'  The reason is that fake food is just so much more fun. Sure, sure, casting is great, I love my job, but who doesn't love fake cocktails? Or fake TV dinners? Am I right? That said, casting and molding really are a large part of what I do, and there are some fascinating things to be done with casting and molding- so I thought I'd start to share a few fun things with you. 

This first little project is a dial for a safe.  We have a beautiful antique safe dial in stock, it just happens to be permanently attached to one of our other prop safes. So, what to do? Our carpenter, Erik (a props GENIUS) asked if I might lend a hand by taking a mold of the existing safe dial and casting a new resin dial for our new vaccuformed safe.

Materials: Visqueen, Universal Mold Release, Smooth-on Brush On 40, Smooth-on Sonite Wax, Smooth-on Plasti-paste, mixing containers and utensils


Safety Gear: Splash Goggles, Apron, Sleeves, Nitrile Gloves, Ventilation Hood, Respirator

I started by making sure that my original was clean, and by shielding the things that I did not want to cast. I placed a layer of visqueen on the safe, cutting a hole for the dial, and taping the edges of the opening down with packing tape.  Next, I applied a release agent. This is so incredibly important in casting and molding, especially when working with adhesive mold materials like urethane rubbers.  I applied two liberal coats of Universal Mold Release, making sure to cover all of the nooks and crannies of the original.

I made the mold out of two layers of Smooth-on Brush on 40.  I like the Brush-On 40 because it is brushable (who would have guessed), strong,  and just the right amount of flexible. Also, you can really glob it on to get nice thick, strong support for undercuts, and spread it thinner where you need more flexibility.  Be sure to read all of the directions carefully, and don't forget about the MSDS. Although they play it down in the literature, and although the Smooth-on guys do demos at trade shows without any Personal Protective Equipment, all two part urethanes are bad for you.  They contain sensitizers, which means that the chances of allergic reaction increase each time you are exposed to them. While you may never have a reaction, why risk it? I say, err on the side of safety. So yeah, read the MSDS, read the Technical Bulletins, and protect yourself.

Once both layers of the mold were cured (I tinted the second to ensure coverage, hence the pink), I began on the mother mold.  Before smearing on the Plasti-Paste, it was time to put on another release agent.Smooth-on Sonite Wax is a petroleum based wax that works as an excellent release between the cured Brush-On Rubber and the Plasti Paste. Because the rubber will not be fully smooth, the Plasti-Paste can register into all of those little nooks and crannies- making it difficult to de-mold.  The Sonite Wax is thick and slippery, and helps the de-mold process immensely.  I made the mother mold with Smooth-On Plasti-Paste, a thick, goopy two part plastic which hardens into a strong mother mold.  This is another Urethane, so use that safety gear! Also, the Plasti-Paste can become very sharp if it is peaky when it dries, so try to smooth it as much as possible. The mother mold is made in two parts to allow it to come off of the mold easily. I waited for the first half to cure, then applied more Sonite Wax and spread on the second half.

Once the mother mold is cured, it's time to de-mold. I removed the mother mold, and then used an X-Acto knife to carefully cut a slit in the mold....just enough to allow the head of the safe dial to slip out. Any seam in your mold is a potential flaw in your casting, so it's important to plan ahead and cut carefully.

Next, the casting.....stay tuned!

Read more

Welcome to the Fake 'n Bake Kitchen

Welcome to the wonderful world of culinary fakery!

My friend Eric Hart has a lovely props blog where he expounds on all things props. Since I saw his blog, I've been wondering about how I, too, can contribute to the general knowledge of prop artistry flying about the internets. So, I've decided to do a blog of my own, specifically related to fake food craftsmanship and casting and molding - the two things I specialize in here at the good ole MKE Rep. I am by no means the leading authority these topics, but I have a few years of propping under my belt now, and ever-mounting experience in the dimly lit props kitchen. I think it's time to share some of my successes (and some of my hilarious failures) with you lovely people.

The first step was choosing a name, and I have to say that my friends were full of helpful suggestions. As promised, Sarah Heck (a propster extraordinaire herself) will be rewarded with a plate of (actual, edible) chocolate chip walnut cookies for her suggestion of Fake 'n Bake. Special mention should also go out to Linn Elliott for her hilarious, if cumbersome, Pate de Faux Gras. Other contenders included Sham Cast Bakery, Inedibles, Easy Fake Oven, Fresh Faked Goods, and Kitchen of Lies. Thanks to all.

I hope you'll find this blog to be helpful and amusing. Please send comments and questions, I'll do my best to answer you or to point you in the direction of an answer. So, let the fakery begin.

Read more