Chavant, Tin-Cure Silicone and Legos

I took a break workin' on Drogo after I realized that I was not going to have it completed for Otakon, but after getting some silicone in the mail, I realized it was time to get into gear and start on the other parts of the costume.

The Girdle/Belt is basically completed. I finished it up and I'm pretty darned happy with it. The last thing that needs to be done is adding a backing with some suede leather to it so it rests a bit more comfortably on my skin.  Beyond that everything is tied up, secured and finished!

Anyway, back to the medallion. As I'm looking to re-create what he wore on his wedding day, the medallion is a relatively important part of the costume. I started out by using 'medium' Chavant NSP clay:

And it worked pretty well ... but I still wasn't happy with it, and finishing the piece was going to be a little bit more of a hassle, so I re-did it with Chavant 'hard' and it felt a lot more natural to sculpt.

Chavant is cool stuff. I've got a heat gun that a quick blast will soften the hard enough to move large amounts around with ease. The longer you blast, the softer it gets. This is especially helpful for smoothing small imperfections, as the surface will melt smooth and shiny. Apparently you can also double-boiler melt it down into a liquid state and cast with it. I'm considering trying it with my first silicone mold, though I've got to figure out wether my silicone will deform or not with the heat.

Given that I've never casted in silicone before, I figured it'd be prudent to start small before attempting the complex medallion above.  So I figured I'd give the beads from the medallion belt a shot first.

Breaking out the 'ol toys of youth - the amazing, incredible playthings known as legos, I made a basic frame for the beads, and sealed off the bottom with some extra chavant.  Here's what I used:

The above are what i used ... OOMOO 25 silicone, Ease Release, and SuperSeal.  I started by sealing the beads with a few spritzes, and then following up with a coat of ease release. I then also ease release'd the mold, twice.  After following the manufacturers instruction for OOMOO, I then poured it into the mold, and sunk the beads into the silicone

I also experimented with using chavant for registration marks, as this was to be a two-piece mold.  Next time around, I'm going to make sure to have some toothpicks to hold the marker upright ... or just wait until the silicone has begun to set and is thicker.

After it set, I applied another 2 coats of Ease Release, and then built up the mold higher, added another coating of silicone, and this morning this is what I got:

Experienced mold makers might notice that I completely forgot to add channels to pour whatever I'm going to be casting with ... you may also notice the hastily carved channels on the left side piece. We'll see if it works, and how my resin flows.

I noticed in the casts that there were some bubbles in the crevices, thanks in part to how I sort of  ... unceremoniously dunked the clay originals into the silicone. On the top I tried drizzling the silicone into the crevaces first before pouring the rest. When i'll be making the mold for the medallion I'll be using a soft brush to force the silicone into every detail before slowly drizzling a good coat on, and finally inverting the medallion into a pool.  This should hopefully reduce bubbles to a minimum, as I don't have a vacuum chamber.

Before that though, Ill be further testing by working on the knife, and casting that.  Then I'll move back to the medallion, and once the belt is finished as well as the knives, probably the Arakh. I'm thinking though of using brush-on silicone for that instead, given its size.

Through all of this too, I'll probably also be working on the pants, which I'm likel putting a lot more time into than i perhaps should ... given that I need to sew together a bunch of pieces of upholstery leather I flayed off of a chair being thrown out.  Currently I'm cleaning up the ripped seams with a little bit of barge. After that's complete I'll sew the two large sheets together and then cut out the pattern.

Finally, thanks to the kind folk over at dothraki.org, I've learned a few phrases so far:

Yer jalan atthirari anni: "You are the moon of my life"
Shekh ma sheiraki anni: "My sun and stars"

OOOOO romantic xoxoxo

and also:

Dothras chek: "Be cool" (lol, chill bro)
Fichas jahakes moon!: "Take his braid!"

Remember, the Dothraki measure status by how long the hair is - whenever a Dothraki is defeated he will cut his har. Drogo, has never cut his hair :P