12.05.2016

HOW TO: Easy mold making and casting with Blue stuff

Blue stuff sticks is a new generation of thermo plastic moulding material which can be reduced to mouldable conditions by immersion in hot water during 3 minutes. It will allow you to create an instant mold of any piece you wanted by pressing the pastic material against the piece you want to have mold made from. After that, make copies by using any kind of putty, polyester resins or even epoxy resins. Nothing will get stuck. And when you don't need the molds anymore, just cut them in pieces, dip them in hot water and reuse them!

That was a quote from green stuff world, the company that makes this incredible product. I am in the process of making a small diorama and I needed about 12 pieces of liferaft  containers. So I said to myself, why not give it a try. And - it works! On simple casts at least. 

First make a master for your mold. I used milliput and styrene rods 

There are 8 bars of Blue stuff in the package.

Cut them in small peces

Put them in the bowl and pour boiling water over them

After a minute or so, they will melt to a consistency of a soft chewing gum.

Now, impress the master into first half of the mold. You have about 3 minutes of working time before it starts setting.

I even made casting pins for the second half of the mold. Leave this to cool down. It will take about 15 minutes.

Melt another half of the blue stuff and cover your master  with it. Leave it to cool down.

Separate the two parts of the mold.

And with some luck, You will get the perfect imprint.

Now, mix the desired putty and stuff it in the mold. I used milliput superfine. 

Pres the two parts together and leave them for as long as the putty needs to harden.

And here you have it. Really nice casts of the original master that will need some minimal cleanup. Happy casting!