Okay...

So The silicone still ended up being thinner then I would have liked but it holds up okay. I created a plaster shell over it and decided it would be helpful to lock the silicone into the shell for support. Unfortunately I didn't count on the fact that I'd have to do some deep cutting to separate the two halves of the silicone.

I ended up having to break off the plaster shell which fortunately remained in one piece (more or less) since I had reinforced it with cheese cloth. It's still in very rough shape however so it's future as a mold shell is still a question.

 These are the ruins of the original sculpt. As I peeled back the silicone, the top layer of Sculpey was already flaking off. Since the future of the statue is uncertain I'm back to wondering whether or not I should have baked the sculpt. If I had, I would be able to try the silicone and plaster over again. Then I look at my container full of Sculpey scraps and realize how much materials I saved to use over again.

 Now the issue is re-closing the silicone. There are keys in the wall but they serve little purpose and I can't rely on the plaster to hold everything in place. I'm toying with different options to keep it closed.

I don't have enough surgical clamps to close the whole thing and tape won't stick to silicone so I might be stuck with paperclips.

I also coated the interior of the mold with baby powder. Theoretically this will help make the resin cast paintable but it remains to be seen. If it doesn't work, I'll have to find an autobody primer.

Silicone

Here's my progress on the silicone so far and I way underestimated how much I would need. You can see where it's still very thin (almost everywhere) and there's still a lot of grey showing through. I've started building up the mold walls and I'll start adding keys soon.

I'll probably build up keys on the front and back as well to secure into the plaster shell. I won't have enough silicone to get it as thick as I'd like so I'll be relying on the shell for added support.

Almost done

Okay, here it is. I still have some clean-up and detailing to do but it's otherwise finished.

I'm debating whether or not I should bake it before I start applying the silicone.

Pro: In case anything goes wrong in the casting process, the sculpt will survive and I can cast it over again if necessary.

Con: I'd be losing a lot of sculpey.

Anyways, I'll hopefully be starting the silicone tomorrow so I'll have to make a decision by then.

New sculpt

I've been working on this for about a week now. You can see a larger abandoned project in the background; you'll find I have a bad habit of doing that. 

It's my first time using Sculpey Firm and I'm impressed so far but I mixed it with some Sculpey III to make it a little more manageable. I still have a lot of work to do but hopefully I'll be posting some pics of the finished piece in a few days.

Moderate success

I decided to test out two new materials to give my sculpts some permanence: Smooth-cast 305 and Rebound 25. Choosing some relatively easy subjects, the process went as well as could be expected for a first attempt. Both casts survived the demolding and look good on a desk.

"Rageguy" turned out okay except for some weak spots that broke early on. I fixed them by adding on some half-cured smooth-cast and sculpted it until it set. I was surprised by how well it took the enamel paint.

I was a little cocky going into the process with "trollface" and it came back to bite me. I didn't properly monitor the curing of the silicone and ended up with a lot of bubbles. The bubbles were an easy fix but my lack of patients in the actual casting left me with a few weak spots in the final product. I'll see what I can do to fix it up a bit.

I think I'll throw them up on ebay to make some materials costs back. The molds are still in great shape so I can reproduce them if I want one of my own.