Frog Of Thunder.

[TommyTheMad]

Apparently I bought the crappiest ping pong balls, because when I went to cut them in half, they would either break, or the Xacto knife would cut through them wrong, and then of course... Gouge me.

I made a set of molds, and instead of fighting with ping pong balls, I can just drill a hole and mount them with a pop rivet and a plastic backer.

 

[CoOKiE]

how'd you make the molds? i'm a complete newb to the whole molding thing

 

[TommyTheMad]

Cut some ping pong balls in half, glued them to a piece of foam core. Made a box for it to sit in, and then poured silicone in over top. Waited for it to cure, and voila, molds.

 

[CoOKiE]

hmmm... and is silicone something you make with things around the house or can you go to Michaels, AC MOORE, or Joann's and buy? I'm also confused on the "foam core"... if its easier, maybe you can direct me to a site, if used, where you learned this.

Are the silicone eyes the result of glossyness that are on the actual muppets? My ping pong balls aren't too gloassy... and i had a horrible experience painting large ping pong balls with glossy white paint, for another charcter i made before.

BTW, thank you for answering all my questions so far.

 

[TommyTheMad]

Expect some pics in a bit.

The silicone I buy is not something you can get at Michaels. You can probably get it from Smooth-On. I buy some stuff called GI-1000, which is blue in color when cured. I use 80331 polyurethane resin for the eyes. After they've cured, I polish them smooth with steel wool, then give a coating of primer, then white.

I cast some in translucent clear, so I could add LED's for another puppet I'm working on.

 

[CoOKiE]

Once again, thank you for answering these questions and can't wait to see more pics

 

[TommyTheMad]

I got sidetracked with work. Pics coming tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get a few minutes to upload something.

 

[TommyTheMad]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vd2DcGnwhw0/SUkuf0h0VGI/AAAAAAAAANM/K097IvUfc2c/s1600/eyes.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vd2DcGnwhw0/SUkufyf9mqI/AAAAAAAAANE/-X01o10iefA/s1600/eyemold.jpg

One of the Hero Kermits is going to have Glowing Eyes, More pics coming Friday.

 

[rtgentry]

links do not work

 

[TommyTheMad]

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/4791/eyesvo4.jpg

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7806/eyemoldvt6.jpg

Hopefully that works.