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Gary Gifford wrote on Sun, Nov 19, 2006 03:28 PM UTC:
James Spratt wrote [in the last DragonChess comment] that you can make
heat-free rubber molds ...out of simple clear silicon window-caulking (see
his complete comment for details).  Another method is to use Sculpy which
is a registered trademark name for an elastic polymer (like clay) which
you can add great detail to exacting shapes.  Sculpy comes in various
colors and can be bought in stone textures (great if you want pieces to
look like stone).  After you make a piece (one of each type you need) bake
them iin a standard kitchen oven per instructions.  Once cooled, the
hardened pieces can be pressed into sculpy to make molds.  The 2 mold
halves must be baked for hardening.  Once you have all your molds it is
easy to make uniform sets of pieces.  You can read a lot about Sculpy on
the internet.  I have made quite a few things from it myself... some of
which people didn't even belive that I made (they appear to be of store
quality).  Note: you can also paint Sculpy, but I prefer to use the
exisiting colors so I can avoid painting.

Tony Quintanilla wrote on Mon, Nov 20, 2006 03:12 AM UTC:
Gary, I've used sculpy too, but how do you make sure you get a smooth and
even split when making the 2 mold halves? It's a nice and simple idea. As
you mentioned, the colors are very nice and come in a large variety. Do you
have pictures? Thanks.

Gary Gifford wrote on Mon, Nov 20, 2006 05:44 PM UTC:
To get a good mold line-up - do this, assume we are making a pawn mold for
this example.
1) Have 2 slabs of soft Sculpy ready (for 2 mold halves).
2) Use some type of post (such as 4 nails) to act as line-up pins
   (Push these through bottom of mold slab) one at each corner
3) Add talcum powder to lower mold to minimize piece sticking.
4) Push pawn half-way into lower mold
5) put wax-paper around non-piece area of mold
6) add talcum powder to top of piece 
7) press top slab down, then remove (you may need to practice with
wax-paper and talcum powder)to prevent halves from sticking
8) Remove pawn and wax-paper.  Leave the guide posts(nails) in place
9) bake mold halfs (apart) per sculpy instructions 
the nails and molds will be hot, so allow sufficient cool down.
10) Later: when you use the molds, apply talcum powder (light dusting) to
both mold halves; then add the soft sculpy.  The alignment nails should
give you a good alignment.
11) when you remove the pawn, trim away flash and smooth out the
mold-lines so they cannot be seen.
12) After all pawns are made-- heat them per instructions.

Note: for large items I put aluminum foil at the center of the piece to a)
minimize sculpy use  and b) allow a better hardening

In regard to photos - I have not taken any.  Also note that I have mostly
made characters from sculpy, also a dog, elf, strange guys, pumpkins, a
cow, ghost....  I do have a box with a partial Sculpy chess set
somewhere... perhaps lost in the garage.

James Spratt wrote on Tue, Nov 21, 2006 04:31 AM UTC:
Hi, Gary:  If you say it works, I'll take your word for it; I've seen
some of your artwork, and am not surprised that you get professional type
results with little sculptures:-) Sometimes hard molds are all you need,
and if you can do hand-finishing, well, okay.
I usually use a pourable silicon rubber for most molds, a rather pricy
specialized stuff, but the window-caulk works fine for a semi-stiff, tough
flexible mold, the advantage of which is the ability to make tricky
undercuts and highly detailed surfaces, and ease of removal when
demolding.
For a 2-piece mold:
1. Lay the pattern on its side on a small, clean work-board, and build a
vertical plastalene wall which covers the bottom of the pattern and
creates a flat area all the way around it for at least an inch.
2. Use Klean-Klay (sulfur-free, commonly available oil-based plastalene
clay, never dries or hardens) to build an area of 'land' around the
pattern, using a small knife to dress the edge up to the side of the
pattern at a clean right angle where you want the parting line to be.
3. Use a blunt tool to make a 'ditch' in the area of 'land' around the
pattern, or push a few shallow holes into it; these will register the two
halves of the mold into alignment.
4. Brush-apply the silicon all over the pattern and the land; let dry and
repeat until at least 1/8-in. thick all over.
5. When dry, mix a small amount of plaster and make a 'mother' mold on
top of the rubber; mix it thick enough to not be runny, but be quick
laying it on, maybe a half-inch thick.
6. When the plaster piece is set, flip the whole rig over and carefully
remove the plastalene clay, revealing the pattern, now buried halfway in
the rubber, and clean the area well with a small knife.
7. With a small brush, very lightly coat the exposed rubber with vaseline,
then do the other half of the rubber, just like the first half
8. When dry, make another plaster, right on top of the rubber; you now
have a sandwich of plaster, rubber, (pattern), rubber, plaster.
9. Remove plaster housings and gently peel the two rubber pieces apart,
completely or only down one side, if you like, and remove the original
pattern.  Now you have a mold that you can cast almost anything into, many
times. Reassemble for pouring and rubber band around to hold it together as
you pour into the exposed hole made in step 1.

Gary Gifford wrote on Wed, Nov 22, 2006 01:56 AM UTC:
Hi James:  I will need to give your silicon method a try.  Thanks for
elaborating on the steps involved.  In regard to Sculpy, I prefer not to
use molds (i.e., use free-hand modeling) ... but if one wants nearly
identical pawns, etc., then molds will save a lot of work and time.

James Spratt wrote on Wed, Nov 22, 2006 05:21 AM UTC:
You're welcome.  I invented this method by trial and error and long,
frustrating effort, then came to find out, much later, that the basic
principle of the process has been known and used for about ten thousand
years.  If you want to try it and get stuck at some point, feel free to
ask me; I've already made most of the mistakes.:-) Good luck.

Claudio Martins Jaguaribe wrote on Fri, Nov 24, 2006 04:39 PM UTC:
It's a question, not a response.

When dealing with pieces that occupies more than one square, like the dev,
how do you create the piece, a normal piece or a big one?

Thanks.

James Spratt wrote on Sun, Nov 26, 2006 09:06 AM UTC:
Hi, Claudio:  Well I'm a little muddy (no clue) what a dev is, but I'd
say, if you're making a real set using it, and the one piece spans more
than one square, make the piece of a size to match the squares of the
board; if it goes a long way, say, over three or four or six squares, you
might make two and just remember that they are really one piece.  The
Elephant in Elephant Hunt Chess spans four squares, so I'd just make him
big enough to put one foot in each of four adjacent squares.
I usually use modeling wax to make the original models of small chess
pieces; the wax off a Gouda cheese (if you just want a little bit to
fiddle with) is quite moldable, strong and obedient--that is, if you put
it there, it stays there, and doesn't have a rubbery resilience, which is
irritating, and can be extruded into long, tall forms without flopping like
some soft modeling clays do.

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