SixFootBlue

I'm in awe at how well they recreated as much detail as possible from the original commercial. From the atmosphere to the pacing to the lighting. Everything. Wow.

I just noticed the post updated with some up-close photos of the new bionicle sets. It looks like the beasts and umarak all come with a toa head in trans-neon green Though from the looks of it, it also seems the jaw pieces are attached to the axle hole meant for connecting the toa brain to the head... Would that mean they don't come with toa brains, and rely on the entire head for eye colour? I mean if they did come with a toa brain, then the mask would pop off every time you closed the jaw, which feels like an odd mechanic. Also lava beast is the only one to have a gear function at the waist apparently?

I'm kind of bummed out that the "poisoned" masks that come with the beasts changed from how they looked in the leaked images. Gunmetal grey marbled with trans neon green was a real nice look for them.

Don't think he ever posted a tutorial on it but I saw a comment posted on one of the photos saying the process involved soaking the mask in a special dye and then baking it in order to bond the dye permanently. Could try googling stuff along those lines. Granted it won't be specifically about dyeing masks, but you should be able to find tips on how to dye clear plastic and bake it without it melting.

I found a local store that sells it. It's Alumilite Quick-Set RTV Silicone Rubber. You can order it online from their site if you can't find it locally. There's also another silicone formula they sell that I think you can find at a Michael's art store, for about the same price, but it's softer. I don't really recommend using silicone caulk. I've tried it out a few times with mold making and find that it tends to react chemically with urethane resins (you get a ton of super tiny bubbles just coating the surface of your piece). Epoxies don't seem to react with it though.

Smooth-on was the first site that I was referred to when researching materials for casting, and they've got quite a nice selection! Unfortunately I live in Canada, so shipping up here gets to be pretty expensive on top of the cost of the materials. I get all my alumilite casting materials from a local store I found online, and they're pretty much second only to smooth-on so it does the job just fine. But hey whatever works.

Honestly coding-free 3D multiplayer game makers and nearly impossible to find nowadays. Though there's one suggestion I could make. This is more to just keep track or it's progress, rather than buy it straight away. http://store.steampowered.com/app/329890 MyRPG is a 3D game engine based off of Torque3D and it's designed for setting up 3D multiplayer RPG worlds without any programming required. It's still in development though, and has a few mixed reviews, so maybe best not to get it straight away. Though in the end, you'll have a lot more flexibility with picking up some programming language. If it's a bit too much for you to handle, but you think you have a solid idea for a game, and have the dedication to bring it to life, you could put a little team together to work on it. Games are difficult and time consuming to make on your own. Also for 3D modeling, I would suggest blender 3d. It's awesome. It has a slight learning curve, but the website provides excellent and easy to follow tutorials on all the basics you need for 3D modeling. You can also find tons of helpful tutorials on youtube. I've been using it for years now.

For replicating colours, I'm not sure how accurate my answer is since I only have blue and neon green dye. Off the top of my head though. Medium Blue, Yellow, light grey, dark grey, black, white (white dye makes the plastic more opaque), and tan are likely easy to replicate, since you should be able to make them from single dye colours without having to do any colour mixing. A lot of the other colours may require subtle hints of other colours in order to get the right shade. (For example, mata blue is going to require maybe 3 parts blue dye to one part fluorescent green or a smaller part of yellow pigment.) As for masks easiest to mold... Well the silicone captures all the detail perfectly, though if you have a mask with a lot of deep pits in it, you're going to want to fill them while pouring your silicone, and fish out any trapped air with a toothpick, so you fill them completely. I've yet to try anything beyond 2001 kanohi, but perhaps masks with lots of thinner parts sticking out (ie Tahu Mistika's mask or Antroz's mask) may be a bit more challenging because you'd need to make sure the resin fills those gaps without any air gaps or bubbles. So I'd say 2001-2002 kanohi are the easiest. Also krana and kraata should be easy to mold as well. One tip I have for casting any mask is basically to do it in two steps. More often than not if you try and cast the entire mask all at once, you'll have trapped air where the mouth peg should be, even if you try to avoid it. An easy solution is to just fill the mouth peg and any surrounding depression with resin, lay it face up, and then put the other mold half on it so it takes the appropriate shape. Then once that's cured, mix up some more resin and pour it into the main mask mold, and then cast as normal. You don't need to worry too much about wastage since this process will only use like half an ounce of resin. Even less if you have mixing containers that can measure smaller amounts (My mixing cups go by 1/8th ounces so I usually just mix up a quarter ounce at a time).

So a couple updates. Used the last of my silicone to make a 2001 Kaukau mold. I managed to dodge the errors I made with my first mold cast. Had some issue with bubbles on this one, but I figured out how to fix it when casting the front. I've also been working on replicating some of lego's plastic colours using alumilite dyes. So far I've pretty much matched Medium Blue, and I'm close to matching mata blue. I don't have any other dyes other than fluorescent green though so I can't experiment with others just yet. I've also got some glow in the dark pigment powder coming in the mail, so that should be fun to play around with, especially when I get some clear resin. I think more often than not I'm going to stick with resin dye. It's quite a bit cheaper than using paint, especially since you don't need to buy primer, and you can have more control over the colours compared to spray paints. Though given I'm mixing quarter ounces of resin at a time, it can be a bit tough to measure out exact amounts. (I've had to work with a system of dabs or drops of dye on the tip of a toothpick, haha).

It looks great! Nice work :3

Tomorrow I'm going to start work on making a mold for the 2001 kaukau mask, and eventually buy some clear resin for it, so you should be seeing more from me soon! Also the thought did cross my mind about selling masks to help pay for materials? (Silicone is kind of expensive). Problem is that would probably be illegal since these are basically bootlegs. I mean I know they aren't manufactured anymore, but I'd still be getting money from lego's IP and idk how they'd feel about that.

I'd probably not recommend melting down bricks, at least without using a dedicated oven for it. Melting plastic often releases fumes that can be hazardous to your health. If you're still set on it, maybe you could ask flintsmith for some advice on it. Last I remember they were casting hard plastic krana using melted down lego bricks.

Nah the "moustache" pattern was unintentional. Since this was my first time using liquid silicone, mistakes were made of course. Basically I cast the front part of the mask mold first. The back of the mask was filled with modeling clay, so I needed to remove the mask in order to get it out. The problem was removing the mask broke the original seal it had with the cured silicone, and thus a thin film of silicone leaked through the eyeholes when I cast the second part. There's another part like that on the top left part of the mask as well. Two ways to avoid it that come to mind are A) Carefully dig out the modeling clay without removing the mask from the mold at all. B) Cast the back part of the mold first. That way, after the seal is broken, any leakage will be behind the mask instead of in front. Basically just hide all the imperfections on the back where no one will see them. As for making custom masks, I have yet to try it, but I would consider using a platinum base silicone for making those molds. As it turns out, tin base silicone has a very very VERY small amount of shrinkage. On a single cast it's not very noticeable. Maybe some slight looseness on the mouth peg, but nothing major really. But after repeat casts of a duplicate, it's possible it could start to become a problem. According to the Alumilite brand's website, their platinum base silicone experiences zero shrinkage, so it's probably the one to use. Also, if you can, try and get as many of the pieces that you need off of bricklink or something, or try and find a resin that's rigid, durable, and not too flexible. I used polyurethane plastic for this, and although its very durable, it's a little more flexible than lego plastic. Also f it's exposed to higher temperatures, it becomes much more flexible and there's a possibility the shape can warp. I'm only planning on using this method for casting masks, and some other simple parts, mainly to get them in colours they were never manufactured in, or colours that are tough to get. It's not the best method for casting an entire bionicle figure. Best of luck to you. :3

So I also found that urethane masks are pretty easy to spray paint. No primers or surface sanding required. :3 Have a random ta matoran.

I actually have been brainstorming ideas on how to create streaked/marbled kanohi so I'd be able to create metru-matoran type masks . The resin I typically use starts to solidify within 2-3 minutes after its activated, so I'd probably need someone to mix one of the colours of resin alongside me so I could have enough time to get both of the colours mixed and ready to pour. Afterwards, it should just involve some streaking with a toothpick, then sealing the mold. I considered using 24-hour curing resin, but given the amount of time it would take to cure, the colours might blend too much. Also this process has been pretty prone to error so far, mainly in finding some noticeable bubbles that need to be filled in later, so the prospect of spending multiple days to finish a mask isn't to appealing.

So recently after a (failed) attempt at casting some bionicle 2015 parts... I figured using DIY silicone putty wasn't going to cut it very well when putting mask molds together. So I dropped 30 bucks on some legit tin-based liquid silicone for mold making and gave mask making another go. Same mask as my very first attempt last winter, with more or less the same techniques. And here are the results! Kanohi Rau The mold: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=6311224 Side-by-side comparison: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=6311225 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=6311225 Spray painted duplicates (Bonus Ta Matoran): http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=6311226 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=6311227 (UPDATE) Dyed resin: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=6313152 (UPDATE) Kanohi Kaukau The mold: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=6309106 Comparison: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=6309107 Matoran: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=6309108 The pics don't really do it justice, but trust me, the mask is just as glossy as a fresh-out-the-canister 2001 kanohi (though unfortunately the silicone picked up some of the handling ware on the surface). The best part is silicone molds can be re-used hundreds of times as long as you don't stress them too much, and clean them properly. The mask is glossy and fits nice and snug on mata and metru toa heads. Some imperfections on the surface were due to some errors in the casting and mold making, as this was my first time creating a mold from pourable silicone. I should be able to avoid these in the future. Other than some super tiny bubbles hidden away behind the mask, and greater light passage due to the type of plastic used, the final product was more or less a near-perfect replica of the original mask. Once I've practiced the method enough, I may put together a tutorial video on how to cast masks out of resin.

Another nice brand of casting materials to use is Alumilite. They sell a variety of plastic resins and molding silicone you can use for this type of work. They also sell a variety of pigments which you can use to colour your plastic resin, including metallic powders which can create both frosted metallic, and pearly metallic effects depending on how you apply them. Also, at least in my experience, you should be able to find a place that carries it locally. Ordering online is always an option, but if you buy local, you'll save quite a bit on shipping costs, since higher quality casting materials tend to cost a bit. If you don't want to shell out too much money for fancy silicone solutions for mold making, there is a much cheaper solution, but it's more difficult to do it properly. Essentially you can create your own silicone putty which you can handle with your hands, and it hardens up in about 5-10 minutes or so. (Most silicone solutions take about 5-24 hours to set depending on the formulation.) You can search DIY Silicone Molding Putty on youtube for a variety of tutorials on how to mix a batch together, but the short form is essentially this: Buy a tube of 100% clear silicone caulk (Not all formulations work. If you're buying GE brand silicone, make sure you buy their Silicone I formulation. Silicone II will not work.) You'll also need some corn starch, and a bit of acrylic paint, but the paint is entirely optional. Just eyeball how much silicone you need for the mold and squirt the amount into a mixing container. Then add a couple drops of paint if you like, and then start mixing in corn starch. Keep adding it until you have a soft putty you can knead with your hands (Dust your hands with corn starch before handling as it can get pretty sticky). It starts to set up fairly quickly, depending on how much corn starch you add, so once you can knead it in your hands, start applying it to your mask to create the mold. Keep in mind it's not food-grade, so don't try making candy masks using the molds you make with it. Also make sure you do it in a well ventilated area. One of the chemical components in silicone caulking mixtures is acetic acid, which gives off a VERY strong vinegar smell. A lot of silicone formulations also have chemicals in them which prevent fungal growth, and can irritate the skin, so it's best to wear gloves, or just work as quickly as possible, and then thoroughly wash your hands after. Another thing to note is that, at least in my experience, polyurethane plastic resins will react a bit with this type of mold. When you pull the final mask out of the mold, you'll see some super tiny bubbles coating the surface of the plastic. This is likely due to the activated resin mix reacting with the components in the putty. Could be the acid, or moisture trapped in the corn starch. This can be masked by using several coats of spray paint of your desired colour, but it's just something to keep in mind. It's also likely you'll need to sand out some imperfections on your cast mask, since the putty may have some creases in it when applied to the mask. Again, you can mask this with paint after sanding. I used this method to cast a Kanohi Rau a while back, which you can see here. I'd still probably recommend pourable silicone, or the paste that was mentioned above, mainly since you have a greater working time, meaning you can prepare your mold more carefully, as well as do a lot of prep work before pouring. I've yet to try pourable silicone yet, but coincidentally I was going to run out tomorrow and buy some, and see how it turns out. The product I was considering was Alumilite QuickSet Silicone Rubber. I can update my recommendation after giving it a go if you'd like. One last tip I can give in regards to plastic resin is that with some (or most, I'm not sure) types of plastic resin, once the mask hardens up, you're going to want to heat it up under a hair dryer or something. This is mainly because a handful of resins rely on heat producing chemical reactions when you mix the two components together in order to help cure it, but when the solution is spread thin, like in a bionicle mask, it can't generate enough heat for it to harden fully. With polyurethane, heating it up is kind of a must. The mask will still be flexible after heating, but just leave it in the mold so it retains it shape. Once it cools down, it should be really solid, and ready to use. And that's about all I know. Also, keep in mind this is essentially bootlegging, so don't try and sell these XD No matter how good your mold looks, people can always pinpoint subtle imperfections in the molded shape, or different density, flexibility, or texture of plastic. Best of luck to you! UPDATE: Took a stab at casting a kanohi rau again, using the pourable silicone, and it turned out great. You can see the results here. The silicone itself cost me $30.00 for 16oz. The net amount of silicone used to create the mold was about 5oz or so, and I spent two days creating both halves of the mold (Made each half in the afternoon, and let them harden overnight just to be sure). One jar of the QuickSet silicone should be enough to create two mata mask molds, depending on how you build your mold box. It's definitely more expensive than using mold putty, but the results are incredible. If you create the mold properly, and are generally careful with mixing and pouring in the resin, the only work you'll need to do afterwards is just trim away the excess plastic, and sand the edges of the mask down a little. The silicone captures every detail of the mask perfectly, and cleaning your mask before molding ensures a glossy finish, just like a legit mask. I 100% recommend using pourable silicone if you can afford it.

So I got ahold of a waspix set recently, and found it had some pretty useful parts. Today it hit me to try and use one of them to construct a rakshi spine, and wound up building the rest of it. Front Side Flight

I'm debating on it, but even casting a mask is a fairly difficult process in itself, and there's all sorts of complications that can arise because of how dodgy the method is. Right now I figured I would just limit it to masks and hero factory armor shells since their shapes aren't too intricate and can be cast using two-piece silicone molds. I debated on casting my own ball joints and whatnot, but analyzing the seams on the actual pieces tells me their molds are made of at least three pieces, which is kind of difficult to set up using silicone putty. I debated on adapting custom designs to Gen 2 masks, but it'd be a really involved process. Unless I wanted to sacrifice a Gen2 mask in order to have a base for the head mount to derive molds from, I'd have to cast a new one, and then build off of that. And unfortunately, home-duplicated masks tend to be of lower quality than the official lego ones. Even after sanding down my Rau there were still faults caused by air bubbles, and some creases in the plastic from where the seams in the mold met up. Basically from the looks of things, adapting Gen 1 masks to Gen 2 heads seems like more trouble than it's worth.

In time, yes. I eventually want to start casting some of the Gen 2 masks, so I can get them in different colours without having to buy entire new sets to get copies. For now though I want to practice casting a little more since this was really only my second time casting with resin, and the mask still has a fair amount of faults I need to work out. I may have some painted raus cooked up by the end of today. o3o

Managed to track down a place that sells quick-setting polyurethane resin at a low price. I made the mold out of DIY silicone putty (Silicone caulk + corn starch) and then cast the mask using the resin. It's not perfect though. Had to do a fair amount of sanding. And for some reason the resin stuck a bit too well to the mold, possibly due to the corn starch. I plan on painting it and applying some varnish eventually. I might paint it black and re-create Mata Nui Akhmou. http://40.media.tumblr.com/c5e24934d5f0f5ff37b27ae271ebe993/tumblr_nl4srlyhzH1sapiqzo1_1280.png http://41.media.tumblr.com/43e97e09f07992fc427e7bc5b08766c4/tumblr_nl4srlyhzH1sapiqzo2_1280.png Bonus MOC http://41.media.tumblr.com/faf3705d9189aeaa88ad684ccad758f2/tumblr_nl4srlyhzH1sapiqzo3_1280.png

Gates are something I need to practice integrating into my molds, yeah. I made the glue krana by squrting the glue into one half of the mold, then in some of the narrower depressions in the other half, then I pressed the two halves together before the glue set, and left it to cool, so that's probably where the bubbles came from, since the air had nowhere else to go. I'm still looking into whether or not the putty I made is oven-safe or not, because I kind of feel like polymer clay would be easier to use as far as masks go.

Hello BZP! I'm hoping this is the right section for this sort of thing. I've been a long-time lurker, on and off since as far back as 2006. One of the things on BZP I was fascinated by was Flintsmith's custom cast kanohi and krana. Now that I've grown up a bit, and have the means to actually obtain the materials I'd need, and the knowledge to use it properly, I started delving into it myself. I made some DIY silicone molding putty and was able to reproduce a krana out of hot glue for a test run. http://i.imgur.com/iBlL0aD.png It turned out pretty nicely, despite taking four attempts, and it fits onto the toa head perfectly. I'm hoping to move on to using either resin or polymer clay to cast actual kanohi, since hot glue is rather flimsy and a bit fragile. Though I have a couple questions for anyone who has experience with this sort of thing. 1) If anyone's been successful at using resin with two-part mask molds, is there any effective method of eliminating air bubbles? One thing I noticed with the glue krana is that there was actually a fairly large air bubble embedded inside. 2) Is silicone caulking oven-safe? The mold putty I made was a mixture of GE All Purpose Silicone I, Corn Starch, Acrylic paint, and a little bit of baby oil. The polymer clay I have my eye on is fimo, which cures at 110C, and the silicone I bought is resistant to at least 200C-250C. Looking over MSDS sheets for GE silicone, it looks like it releases formaldehyde when you exceed the recommended temperature, which is worrying. Thanks!