I started the mold for this this morning, so the progress on that is happening, the rubber portion should be finished late tonight.
Now the rubber portion of the mold is completed, having used up 3 gallons of the compound. I ordered 4 gallons knowing that like the first one it would take more than the single 2 gallon kit, they run $200 each so this one model used up $300 worth but I have enough left over now to replace 1 or possibly 2 small corbel molds that needed replacements for a long time.
The next step is building the complex plaster support shell for this, I figure about $100 worth of materials there to complete the mold plus my time, so it’s easy to see how this size model takes around $400 in materials alone just to make the molds for, it’s easy to see why I no longer just make molds automatically of new models untill there’s a firm purchase for the cast. In this case the model was finished in 2007, had I made the mold back then it would have sat around unused for the last 6-1/2 years before even selling the first cast.
The rubber portion has an unknown shelf-life purportedly being many years, but even without being used at all the rubber eventually will chemically break down, weaken and have to be replaced at some point.
