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First silicone toy cast!
18 years ago
Yaaay - I've finally finished it!
This is the very first casting of the "Ripple" toy I had a shot at designing several months ago. It's sat on my shelf collecting dust until I decided to use it for my first full-process test in silicone, and without further ado, here it is!
http://picasaweb.google.com/varka3/.....eToyStudioPics
Now, it seems as though FA absolutely refuses to do image tags (Even though there's buttons to do it), so you're going to have to bear with me a little here and skip through the gallery and read my text at the same time. :P
If you're lazy, you can hit up the proper blog here at Bad Dragon: http://www.bad-dragon.com
The material was everything I hoped for, and more. It's soft, flexible, yet holds its shape - this is light years away from 'jelly' toys, with the same initial firmness as Zeta's vinyl material but a LOT more stretchy and 'squirmworthy' once you start to flex it...
And oh my god it's expensive. Eyewateringly expensive. I'd be cheaper casting toys out of 12-year-old vintage Champagne...
I also noticed that the moulding method I've used captures every single last tiny detail, right down to the brush strokes... For the next toys I do, I'm not going to smooth off details with brush on sealer like I did on this one - I'm going to leave all the little murrry details in there and try to make it as accurate as possible... especially as I've solved the problems with surface bubbles. Here's a closeup of the untreated surface before painting... notice the brush marks and tiny little details?
I'm planning to do a full scale test of the nice silicone pigments I'm going to be using for these things - they're absolutely wonderful, unlike just mixing acrylic paint in with the silicone this stuff bonds chemically to the silicone, embedded in a special, transparent platinum coating which won't rub off, tarnish, stain or wear out (because it's *part* of the silicone)...
I can't wait to make a Ridgeback (if there's ever any demand for it... wistful sigh) with fully realistic painted colourings... this is going to be awesome.
As far as I know, nobody else has ever done this with a toy before. Here's to innovation!
And in case I don't get to say so again before Tuesday... Happy Holidays!
This is the very first casting of the "Ripple" toy I had a shot at designing several months ago. It's sat on my shelf collecting dust until I decided to use it for my first full-process test in silicone, and without further ado, here it is!
http://picasaweb.google.com/varka3/.....eToyStudioPics
Now, it seems as though FA absolutely refuses to do image tags (Even though there's buttons to do it), so you're going to have to bear with me a little here and skip through the gallery and read my text at the same time. :P
If you're lazy, you can hit up the proper blog here at Bad Dragon: http://www.bad-dragon.com
The material was everything I hoped for, and more. It's soft, flexible, yet holds its shape - this is light years away from 'jelly' toys, with the same initial firmness as Zeta's vinyl material but a LOT more stretchy and 'squirmworthy' once you start to flex it...
And oh my god it's expensive. Eyewateringly expensive. I'd be cheaper casting toys out of 12-year-old vintage Champagne...
I also noticed that the moulding method I've used captures every single last tiny detail, right down to the brush strokes... For the next toys I do, I'm not going to smooth off details with brush on sealer like I did on this one - I'm going to leave all the little murrry details in there and try to make it as accurate as possible... especially as I've solved the problems with surface bubbles. Here's a closeup of the untreated surface before painting... notice the brush marks and tiny little details?
I'm planning to do a full scale test of the nice silicone pigments I'm going to be using for these things - they're absolutely wonderful, unlike just mixing acrylic paint in with the silicone this stuff bonds chemically to the silicone, embedded in a special, transparent platinum coating which won't rub off, tarnish, stain or wear out (because it's *part* of the silicone)...
I can't wait to make a Ridgeback (if there's ever any demand for it... wistful sigh) with fully realistic painted colourings... this is going to be awesome.
As far as I know, nobody else has ever done this with a toy before. Here's to innovation!
And in case I don't get to say so again before Tuesday... Happy Holidays!
They're $100, plus about $15-18 shipping, assuming you're in the US.
Drop me a note - if we get paypal sorted, I could make one up today and have it on it's way within 19 hours ;)
Thanks for the nice comments and the watch!
Varka
I'll take photos of it with a coke can next to it for comparison next time I'm taking pics.
Thanks :)