Crafty people your suggestion please, I'm trying to fill a mold...

Question

I want to fill a mold of a mannequin with some type of styrofoam that will harden and I will be able to get it out of the mannequin and be able to kind of hack and carve into it to make a zombie torso. Is there some kind of evil Dr. in the house that knows of such a substance? I tried great stuff but it was just too light and fluffy to take the shape. I would greatly appreciate any sound suggestions.

Answer 1

Spray foam (as the above answerer's said) You spray inside of the area & it will fill in every single crease & give you great detail. You can carve it after it cures/hardens or even cast it with other proper mold steps. However, the torso/mannequin can't have any undercuts that would hang up the foam from pulling out of the mold. (Think about a jello mold, it needs to slide out.) If it has no undercuts the foam should work, just make sure you use a release agent first, spray the entire inside of the torso with something like a door lock spray, otherwise it would stick & ruin your piece. If it DOES have undercuts, then the best thing you could do is make a rubber mold (like silicone or alginate-check out "Por-A-Mold" on Dickblick.com) but this needs to be done on the outside of the mannequin & then spray the foam into that rubber mold. But that's a whole other process. Have fun!

Answer 2

Try a two pack polyurethane resin it expands and ends up like that light yellowy brown honeycomb like foam. that can be carved. Try hobby/craft store or fibreglass manufacturers or even surfboard manufacturer as they use a similar foam for the inner part of their board.

Answer 3

I'm assuming the mold is completely enclosed except where you put the stuff into it.  I would try construction foam.  You can get it at a hardware store. It comes in aerosol cans and it expands when you spray it in.  The main thing is what kind of coverage you could get before it expands (which happens fast).  Its pretty solid so I think it would carve OK. Anyway, its not expensive so I would try it.  I wish I new more about the mold.  Do you fill the whole body at the same time?  I think it would work great if you could fill the torso and legs seperately.  If not, stand the thing on its head and fill through one foot - trying to get all the way into the head and then up through the leg. Then fill the other leg. Or maybe 2 cans simultaniously, one through each leg. Might work. Good luck.

Answer 4

try that foam stuff that they fill holes in houses with.  you spray a little and it expands a lot.  I dont know how well it carves though.  but it drys REAL good