I’m trying to turn this mask
into a codpiece for a friend. It only needs to be decorative. My plan was to use this piece (the face piece minus the sword and the horns) to get a plaster casting of the mask, then vacuform the plastic into the negative. Is there any advice that anyone can give me? Or can you think of a better way to accomplish this? The main goals here are, in order: cheap, good looking, and fast; if at all possible.
Soooooo… are you 3D printing the mask? I was under the impression that one used a positive to vacuform. The vacuform piece is what you’re planning to use as the codpiece, yes?
i was planning on 3d printing the mask, casting it in plaster, then drill a few holes in the resulting negative cast (probably through the eyes and mouth) and having the vacuum pull the sheet down into the mold
Zach unfortunately this piece is going to be incredibly difficult to recreate in any casting method due to the amount of undercuts. Areas like the eyes and cheeks the vacuform isn’t going to pull into without serious swiss cheese holes and if it does, your original is going to be trapped. If you are absolutely needing a hollow version, my suggestion would be a thin slip over silicone mold with a plaster mother mold. You could then back fill it with a roto casting of plastic to get the thin positive and peel off the silicone. It’s hard to describe the process, but if you want to meet up at space sometime, let me know.
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To Make a Vacuformer Buck
I’d pull the 3D model into Blender or TinkerCAD and digitally subtract the horns and sword, then 3D print the mask using a mechanical high density fill setting. Grind off anything you missed digitally, then clean up undercuts with modelling clay.
You could make a negative silicone mold of the model and a plaster positive, but I suspect instead that you could use the 3D printed model as your buck for the vacuum former directly. You could strategically drill a few vent holes in the corners of eyes, etc. to encourage the plastic to wrap in better, but the ABS part is likely to be a little leaky anyway.
OPTION B
Skip the vacu-former altogether by printing the hollow part directly.
Use NetFabb or TinkerCAD to flatten the back of the mask by chopping off the back half. Reorient the part so that the face points up when printed, then print the part with 5 shells/loops and 3-5% fill. Cut away the back of the part, clean out the fill (if any) and then reinforce the back side with some bondo. Fine tune the fit with a Dremel.
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This is what was running through my mind. It sounded like way too many steps when the 3D print would probably work Just Fine.
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