And now for something completely different

step 1

My goal here was to do a faux antique ruin or semi ruin. The subject is a Greek bas relief dated 500 B.C.

In the photo at left is shown a plaster mold cast over a rough clay model. There's no photo of the model but you can see the remnants on the board beneath the plaster was cast onto. I had to make sure there were no undercuts so a new plaster model can be cast from it. The final mold will be rubber and so the new plaster model can have undercuts where needed and will be carved to greater detail than the clay ever could, especially at this size, which is 8" x 10"

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step 2

This is the new plaster model cast from the plaster mold. It always helps to brace yourself when first seeing step 2, as it always looks like total crap at this stage. Elements are all bigger than they need to be because there is no adding on like you can with clay. Carving in plaster is similar to sculpting in marble in the sense that if you run out of material there is no adding on.

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step 3

Having worked on the figure on the left for a while restores hope that all is not lost and there may be hope yet.

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Model complete

Final model. The cornice work was cast and added separately.

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Rubber mold

Here is shown the model with three coats of Smooth-On PMC724. Momentarily a plaster mother mold will be formed over this so that the rubber portion of the mold will retain its proper shape when casting. The rubber and the mother mold are two separate items. The rubber will slip out of the mother mold and then be peeled off the casting.

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Ready for casting

Here is the rubber mold sitting inside its plaster mother mold ready for some concrete.

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