Ideas for molding and casting?

[Iruka]

Everything about this is a bit over my head and I was wondering if anyone had any sort of advice on where to start. I made these foo dogs for my intro to 3D class and used our campus 3D printer to get a nice figure, unfortunately, I lost my 3D files to corruption and a harddrive wipe, but I want to make copies.


If it helps, here's some info on the foo dogs and what I want:

-They are about 4 inches tall and 4 inches wide, robust and ridged but also hollow with a small hole on the bottom.

-They do not have any tiny thin parts, and are fairly simple in shape.

-I'd like to cast my smaller, already painted one without ruining it, it possible

-I'd like to make maybe 20 to 30 copies so I can start thinking of selling them at the school art market/ the summer anime convention. And if that's successful etsy in the future.

Heres some pictures of them:
http://iruka.iseenothing.com/toy/pics/DSC04442.JPG
http://iruka.iseenothing.com/toy/pics/DSCF0849.JPG


If any of you have any advice I'd love that, Im just not sure where the easiest and cheapest place to start for this. The material sites have seemingly a wealth of choices and its hard to know whats good and whats a pain in the ass.

I'm probably going to ask a few of the sculpture majors I know as well. But if anyone has just a tiny bit of knowledge to throw at this please do!

[VulgarDragon]

Oooh! Nice sculpts! Here are a few links of products that are available for molding and casting. If you aren't going to make that many casts, I suggest using urethane rubber...it is cheaper than silicone rubber and will last for quite a while, like 100 or so castings.

http://www.smooth-on.com/
http://www.polytek.com/
http://www.alumilite.com/products.cfm

We have a sculpture/3D forum...maybe better to ask there for more specific questions.

[Iruka]

Thanks, mad cross, I appreciate the links. Urethane rubber, you say. I'll have to do some research into it. Thanks for the tip. If I get to 100 cast I'd be pretty happy with myself, so that seems to be a long enough time for it to last.

I'll look around the sculpture forum too, thanks.

[pabrad]

I would recommend using silicone rubber - if you plan on painting these pieces after they come out of the mold. If you use a urethane rubber, then you will need to use a release agent in the urethane mold to prevent your casting media from sticking to the mold. That release agent will leave a foot print of residue on the surface of the casting which will need to be cleaned off prior to painting. This step will be time consuming and perhaps you will not get the release agent off. By using a silicone mold you can avoid using a release agent which will make your life easier.
I would recommend using Mold Max 20 by Smooth-On.

[Iruka]

Thanks for the advice. The rubber is way more expensive than I thought it would be, So I think ill try with the smaller foo dog and some starter kits. Hopefully I can get a small test going for only 100 bucks or so.