Fibreglassing Models Cast
To prepare for Fibreglassing, I attempted to superglue the silicone cast to the plaster bandage shell. This only worked in a couple of places, meaning my silicone wasnt entirely secure.
When laying in the gel coat, I was very careful not to take each half too far, so that I allowed room for seaming when fibreglassing the two halves together.
If I have an applicable reason for using a full silicone cast, I will do this as I feel that this would create a neater, more successful fibreglass core. This would also give me the option to fibreglass the whole cast in one go.
I decided to use a small clamp to ensure that the fibreglass didnt morph, as the silicone wasnt sticking to the plaster shell.
On the right shoulder of the plaster back, I had to fibreglass to a certain point as the front had an overlapping section, meaning when put together, they would create a double layer fo fibreglass and may not fit together, so to avoid this i marked on where the overlap finished and fibreglassed the appropriate areas. This would mean that when cured, the fibreglass pieces should slott together, neatly, ready for seaming.
20/10/15
Today I demoulded my fibreglass head and realised that my back piece wasn't releasing from the mould. The plaster bandage was breaking as I used chisels to pop the core out. At this point I decided that it wasn't completely neccessary for me to use the back of the head, so long as the ears were successful ont he front half of the cast.
I decided to continue with the front piece by tidying the edges up in preparation for mounting onto a board, this will then allow me to build it taller to ensure there is room for the ears to be sculpted onto.
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From the left we see the damage caused to the plaster bandage when trying to releas the back half of the core. There was some damage inside of the head left from using a clamp to hold the silicone skin and fibreglass snug to the plaster shell. Once the face was pulled out of the cast, the piece looked successful apart from the blocked nostrils and the incomplete ears.
As the ears hadn't completely filled during the fibreglassing process, I decided to mix up a thick batch of gel coat and talc to create a texture thick enough to fill in the required areas. I used the excess gel coat mixture to patch up some thinner areas where matting was visisble on the chest.
An apropriate alternative to having a back to my fibreglass core, was to mount my core onto a board which will resent it neatly, and will be a stable surface for me to sculpt onto.
To do this, working on a board, I used small blocks of wood to raise the level of the fibreglass which i then stuffed WED clay underneath and bought out at an angle which a
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PVA Release Agent-
After spraying the board and WED clay I was fibreglassing onto with hairspray, I applied three layers of PVA Release Agent, which helped me to remove the extended core from both the board and the clay, using chisels and a hammer to break the suction.
The images show using chisels to remove the fibreglass from the board, then the cleaning out process of the WED clay.
These videos demnstrate the cleaning up process of the fibreglass. Using a vibrasaw I sawed off the excess fibreglass and ensured it was neat and symmetrical. This made it appear neater and more professional. I then sanded any sharp areas.
I then primed the fibreglass with a grey primer in the workshop spray room. This prepared me for spray painting a brick red colour to complement the Le Beau Touche I will be suclpting with.