For all the curious minds out there regarding the ROCKETPOXY astronaut that was included in the Wildman special XMAS black Sat. sale. No 3-D printing was used.
It was made in the same way a lot of movie props; toy prototypes and even small production runs are done. Sort of like an economical way to do a similar process known as plastic injection molding. Except the molds don’t cost $20K, we can make molds for about $5 each
The ROCKTPOXY astronaut was originally sculpted out of a special soft sculptor’s clay by a master sculptor then cured in an oven to harden. This sculptor uses many very fine detailed tools that look almost like very fine dental or eye surgery tools, all of this was done by “old school” sculptor eye to hand coordination (No 3-d graphics or cad program to printer is used at all). The sculptor who made this is a very good friend and resin casting customer of Glenmarc. You have probably seen some more of his work in the background prop pieces on the set if you have seen the new blade runner movie or Star Wars movie. He also does many prototype toys for Mattel and others. This sort of “old school” approach to making parts and props like this is still widely used.
We based The ROCKETPOXY astronaut on the old route 66 theme. The actual statue that was used for inspiration was the Gemini Giant, which is a landmark statue on U.S. Route 66 at the Eastern entrance to Wilmington, Illinois. Standing outside the Launching Pad Drive-In restaurant, the 30 foot tall statue is one of many giant "Muffler Man" advertising props found throughout the USA and especially old route 66 in the Fifties/Sixties. The Gemini Giant is named after the Gemini space program and holds a silver "rocket ship" in his hands, while sporting an astronaut's space helmet that resembles a welding mask. This is currently still located at this area, so stop by and check it our next time you are in the area of Wilmington, or doing the Old route 66 trek from Chicago to Santa Monica, CA.
We did our own “artists” interpretation of this.
After the sculpture is hard from curing in an oven, a flexible silicone mold was made around the sculpture. This is done by mounting the sculpture in a wooden box and using a two-part liquid silicone mold material, that is mixed and poured around the sculpture until the silicone hardens but is still flexible to a Shore A 30 (hardness scale). There is also a complete knowledge of how the mold was set up to be split in half, items added for the mold to line up perfectly again, sprues, runners, etc. that the molder has to possess, but is beyond the scope of my quick response here.
Than a color pigmented two-part polyurethane casting resin (Glenmarc also formulates and manufacturers urethane casting resins) is mixed and poured into the mold. The material sets off in about 3 minutes and is ready to demold in about 8 to 10 minutes when it cures to about a Shore 75D (hardness scale). This can be repeated hundreds of times and/or with multiple molds all made from the same original sculpture. Each silicone mold can yield up to about 300 casting before needing to be changed out. Using 10 molds we were able to make about a hundred replicants in about 90 minutes, try doing that on a 3D printer, some times "old school" is really very efficient!
And that's how the ROCKETPOXY dude was made.