Another metal casting tutorial

Best wishes to everyone for the Holidays.  I am back to my core mission - primarily - creating chaos in the kitchen with my white metal casting experiments.  This is the 28 mm knight I sculpted a while back.  Unlike my first 28mm figure, I decided to go for it and make his sword and scabbard integral to the main cast and not separate pieces.  I gave myself a very slim chance of success with this in a drop cast figure, but it worked!  This is revolutionary for Knight Craft.  I can see myself moving forward with all sorts of figures now - I still need to add the shield as a separately cast object.

You are all familiar with these steps.

I have actually started casting dolls for myself so I can start producing figures more efficiently, making multiple figures from a base cast.  This is actually a doll for a 54 mm figure.  That is why I made the mould of him in the buff. Armor, helmet, clothes and weapons all get added in different ways to this figure.  You can see I have long rectangular drop holes in the top of the mould.  I've discovered that having this large void to pour into at the top of the mould provides material that forces the white metal through the entire mould.

 This is one 54mm doll and the 28mm knight cooling after I have removed half of the mould.  If I am too impatient and try to remove the cast from the mould before it has sufficiently cooled, I end up breaking delicate features like the sword and scabbard.

Here are two dolls I've cast to use to make multiple figures at 54mm.  One is standing and one is running.

Heads, yes I sculpted and cast a number of different heads at 28mm and 54mm to swap on the dolls that I've created.

This is a 28mm doll that I will use to make multiple figures.  I decided to do this doll without a head.  The stance is intended for an archer, but I think it can be made into a few interesting figures.

Here is another image of my final cast knight coming out of the mould.  The base is a bit thick.  That wierd little bubble between his legs wasn't in the original sculpt.  I think it was from an air bubble that got stuck in the silicon when I was making the mould.  The little bubble under his arm pit pops right off, but the bulge between his legs is sort of permanent.

Thanks for dropping by.