arisia | Molding, Casting and Thermoforming (oh my!) (Reply)

Hello everyone,

Since Arisia is just days away, I thought it would be good to post up about 2 panels I'm doing this Sunday.

At 12:30 PM I'll be doing "Thermoforming: Bending Plastic to your Will"

One of the common questions stormtroopers get is about making the armor. This panel will be focused on thermoforming plastics: Heating it up, pulling it over a mold and using a vacuum to pull in fine details.

My goal for this presentation is to walk through the basics of how it all works, and provide examples of equipment ranging from salvaged home appliances to commercial grade formers.

I'll be bringing a table top vacuum forming machine built from a broken bread machine, and power willing will be able to do some live demonstrations.

At 3:30 PM I'll be doing another one about mold making and resin casting.

This will also be a fairly "hands on" panel in that I'll have molds and fast curing resin on hand so that we can actually cast up some simple pieces right there. Be careful, I may be looking for a volunteer assistant!

I'll also be giving away a molding and casting starter kit that includes silicone for the mold, resin to cast, an instructional DVD and more, donated to me by my local supplier, Reynolds Advanced Materials in Brighton.