Rat Snake cast

[jeremy]

I forgot to throw this up on here yesterday, here is a 59" Ratsnake that ive skinned and have in the pickle. I molded him first with alginate, Bondo/Resin, one for a replica and for a mannikin. I like to do this on all my Collubruid snakes casue I think they are to hard to carve and you will never find a mannikin for one. Enjoy

[Travis de Villiers]

Hey quick question, do you you make a final mold using latex and do you mould the snake itself or the cast copy from the aglinate mold?

[Redwolf]

You just build a damn around the snake, pore enough alginate to cover the whole snake and let it go off.
After it goes off you pull the snake out and pore 50/50 resin/bondo into it. Wait till that goes off and and pull that out and you have a snake repro.
The alginate mold is the final mold.

[freeze_1]

Redwolf,  I noyiced that you do'nt have any flat spots on the top of the snakes.
  Are your snakes frozen hard when you make the pour?

[Redwolf]

Those aren't my snakes. They are Jeremy's
But frozen or semi frozen snakes keep their shape better. You can inject them with water before freezing and they will have better shape, but you have to give the alginate a bit longer to go off because of the coldness. If you totally freeze the snake it's harder to get it out of the mold without ruining it. So be careful.
I cast night crawlers the same way. Inject them with water and freeze them in the pose you want. Then they stay plump.

[Travis de Villiers]

thanks for clearing that up man, I've done the same thing exept I cast one out the aglinate or plaster mold and make a proper silicon mold with a fiberglass mother mold for multiple uses, I suppose it would be better to perhaps just cast the frozen snake with the silicon much like fish, but then again it works better for me my way....

[Plaisance]

I can't seem to make a cast without having the flat spots and indentions.

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