Casting the different parts of the
'Uluburun type' ship.
Front and aft decks embedded in clay:
The blue silicone rubber is Moldstar 30.
When the brown resin is still soft, it is removed from the mould and pressed into the shiphull. So it will fit in perfectly by the time it is completely hardened.
The centre of the beams supporting the deck is pulled up with a finger while the resin is still soft to create the curved shape that is missing in the original wooden deck.
An iron pin to support the mast:
A failed mould: because too much parting agent was applied to the wooden objects to be moulded, in the inside of the mould this created extreme bubbles.
The green silicone rubber sold by Hagen Miniatures is the most expensive of all but also gives the best result until now. So I made a replacement mould with it.
Steering oar and rowing oar: Wooden originals:
Metal enforcements:
Resin copies:
The broken ladder was moulded with silicone gel, the cheapest kind I could find in the tool shop, a technique I learned from Phersu. The result was a disaster, the ladder came out in many pieces, the silicone gel tacked so extremely to plastic, wood, white metal and putty, even a second layer of parting agent did not prevent this:
So mold star30 rubber was used again:
Both shipboard canvases laid together into a single bed of clay to save rubber:
Removing the clay after casting the first mould part:
It turned out to be almost impossible to make two perfect canvas copies at the same time because funnel openings and air duct canals are positioned at both sides:
When casting one canvas at the time, the resin leaked into the hollow space of the second, lower one.
Also lots of small resin bubbles because of a porous rubber mould:
The resin bubbles can be removed easy but it is not perfect:
Another plan to cast the shipboard canvases:
Not two together but just a single one at the time:
This is the single part mould technique I was thought by Kostis, placing the object on a (foam) stand before moulding, which will serve as a resin reservoir during the casting:
Iron pins to enforce the stocks holding up the canvases:
Now some parts of the extreme top corners got stuck in the single part mould during removing the resin casting and got broken.
I tried to prevent this to make incisions all the way down at both sides of the mould. Its still very difficult to get it out in one piece.
The wicker board sheets: Here is Phersu's method again, it keeps fascinating me: how does he succeed in making a simple two part mould by using ordinary cheap silicone gel?
This time I used another, translucent, type of silicone gel. The moulding and casting turned out to be reasonable. Apparently, some silicone gels contain so much grease-solving component (ammonia?) it eats away several layers of parting agent. But others don't. Its the same mystery Phersu told us about in one of his threads and since no content information is given on the silicone tube labels, it will always be a guess which silicone gel is usefull and which one is disastrous.
Work on the anchors again:
Except for some flash the anchor's one piece resin castings turned out to be perfect:
Strips of amphora, tied together for transport, were the main ancient ships cargo:
Its very difficult to get the two halves of these complicated shapes fit together: a lot of correctional cutting with a side cutter is done on the first mould halve before the second halve is moulded.
The problem is to get the amphora's back into that deep, complicated mould before pouring the second halve. First results:
There is another method of casting without making a clay bed first but pouring in the silicone rubber upto exactly half way the object: a method I have to develop and try a little further later on.
Copper and bronze ingots were another important product to be transported by merchant ships during antiquity:
Its rough casted shape is designed with the aim of carrying by men and tying several ones together.
Sculpted with brown stuff and the chopped off injection needle: