Once again, using two separate coats of Rebound 25 thickened with Thi-Vex, I created a new rubber mold; using PlastiPaste 1, I then created the mother mold.
Now I decided to try something I haven't successfully done before: cold casting.
Cold casting is a process by which a fine metal powder is mixed in with resin, which upon curing, can be buffed and polished to a real metal look. I've seen it done before, and the effect is truly amazing - if done right, you cannot tell it's not solid metal!
So, I acquired 5 pounds of 325 mesh aluminum powder and set to work! Using Smooth Cast 65D as the main medium, I measured out equal parts of part A and part B to about 3 parts of aluminum powder, and mixed it all in a red solo cup.
NOTE: though the pictures show only 1 part powder, after snapping the photos, I quickly added two more scoops. I read somewhere that you can add as many as 10 parts of powder, though I didn't want to go that far. Anyway, I didn't have time to take a photo of this as I had very little time left to mix (as technically, the powder should be mixed into part B first, before adding part A).
Also, A breath mask is crucial at this point, as the aluminum powder is extremely fine and can be easily inhaled.
I dumped this mixture into the mold, smushed it around with my finger to drive out any bubbles, and slush cast the first layer. Since the mask only needs to look metal on the outside, the two subsequent layers were done using 65D without adding aluminum.
The final cast came out quite nice.
Next, some trimming and sanding, and buffing using #000 and #0000 steel wool, and the mask began to shine! Really happy with the way it turned out!
Since the photo doesn't really do it justice, here is a video of the results.
The cast was finally ready for painting and visor installation. (To create the visor slit window, I used a welder's face shield, which I cut and installed into the mask using velcro for easy removal and cleaning.)
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- Cold Casting