I decided to start work on another gauntlet project as I want to try out a few new techniques and try out some ways to pattern the plates. Renaissance guantlets tend to be made up of a lot of small overlapping plates, which should be really useful for working on some skills I need to improve.
It suddenly occurred to me that it’d be a lot easier to work on gauntlets - both at the pattern stage and the actual metal parts - if I had a copy of my hands to work off. There are loads of videos/web pages of people having done this and it looks really achieveable. Most people cast their hands in plaster of paris, which would work fine but I’d guess I’d end up smashing a finger off sooner or later as I moved the casts about.
So!
1: Has anyone ever cast their hands or something similar?
2:Does anyone know of a more flexible or forviging material to cast in than plaster of paris?
I have done hand castings a couple of times in the past.
It all comes down to 2 things:
Repeatability
Budget.
If you need one-off cast, the mould can be done with alginate; cheap and cheerful, but single use only as it will require ripping the mould away from the casting.
If you want multiple copies of the same mould, then you need to look into other materials, like silicone; great moulding materials, but way more expensive.
Once you have your mould, you can fill it with pretty much anything (cold).
Plaster of Paris is fragile, but it is probably the cheapest option.
There is a wide range of 2 parts plastics that are a lot more resilient but the cost tends to go up A LOT.
Alginate should be fine - I only need a pair and even then could probably do with one provided that I don’t need to replace them, hence the issue with plaster. I was thinking about whether multiple casts would be necessary but I think just one in a neutral position should be enough.
This rubber compound looks ideal to me - I guess expoxy would also be an option but my instinct is to go slightly soft rather than hard. Have you used it yourself?
That would probably be overkill for what I want it for for now but I’ve picked up some old warhammer minis I’d love to edit without actually damaging the original models which I wondered about 3d scanning. Does anyone/the space have that kit?
On the other hand (unavoidable joke) it’d be very cool to just be able to print a spare hand when I need one… In fact, if I ever get to the point of making armour I want to display, it’d be awesome to put it on a 3d print of me!
No, I only used plaster of Paris, and once a 2-part foam, but it comes out like a puppet hand. very soft.
Epoxy is not recommended, it creates heat when curing, and if it cures fast, it will damage the mould, and if it cures slowly, the alginate will shrink before the epoxy has a chance to cure.
In the thickest part of the hand, we are looking at approximately 2 inches of materials, so you’d have to use deep pour epoxy, which cures very slowly, giving time to the alginate to shrink and ruin the cast..
I recommend an hard rubber or some kind of phenolic 2-part plastic.
fantastic, will do! - I think that makes the use case for scanning and 3d printing clear as well - it may be a simpler route to a high resolution copy of my hand than moulding and casting in a harder material.
