Jugs, jugs, jugs!

I made the first copy yesterday, had to trim off a lot of excess material and it turned out not too bad. They're going to be made with a 2 part expanding urethane foam, it's really messy to work with until you really get used to it. It expands a lot, so it's tricky finding just the right amount to you don't end up wasting a lot of it.

Here's the original and the first unpainted copy.

I used a 2lb foam, that basically means that for every square foot of material it weighs 2 pounds. The more it weighs, the denser the material and the less brittle it is because the cell structure is finer. I was worried this stuff would be a little brittle, but the mold works really well releasing the copy so not a lot of pressure is put it on it. And I think the larger the object the less brittle it is.

I reckon I can get a few more out of the stuff I stil have, I would love to have about 20 of them. Right now I'm burning through a quart kit of the stuff, the next up from that would be a 2 gallon kit - I think it'd do it.

There's a few weak spots here and there on them, so I'll probably do a light coat of paper mache over those areas and on the bottom of them. The edges have a bit of a skin, but when I hack off the excess from the bottom it exposes the cells and is pretty porous looking. It should also give it a little strength.

Last week things kind of began falling apart just a little, luckily everything's coming back together even better. I mentioned the last blog I had to replace one of my cast, she had a work schedule conflict, I have that all wrapped up now. I really hate replacing actors, no because it's a pain in the ass, but because I always feel sort of bad when you have to tell someone they're replaced and you don't need them anymore. She was pretty understanding though, it wasn't like there was much either of us could do. She had to work, I had 50 extras organized the same day with week to go before the shoot - there's not much room for any other options.

I also have more foam latex on the way for a small prosthetic, it's not supposed to arrive until July 2nd, which is a Thursday so it's cutting a little close.

Well, I'm off to fight evil - and by fight evil I mean make more jugs.