Here's a guide to re-casting figures or parts with FIMO clay. FIMO is a cheap, non-toxic, oven hardening clay, which you get from craft & hobby shops.  I've been using this technique to make drivers and tank commanders. They come out alright; a little thick at the seams, but certainly useable.




What you need:
- The 'master' figure or part you want to copy. In this case, i'm using the petrol pump man from Airfix's RAF refuelling set
- Clay (FIMO or 'Sculpey III')
- Talcum powder. This is the 'mould releasing agent', which stops the clay pieces sticking together
- Aluminimum foil, to make the mould on and cook it in
- Paintbrush (preferably an old ratty one) to apply the talcum powder
- A modelling knife
- A small drill bit
- An oven (your wife it going to love this...)



Stage 1: Create the base piece of the mould
- get a blob of clay, larger than the figure, put it on the aluminum foil
- dust the clay and the figure with talcum powder
- press the figure into the clay, then gently remove
- check its looking ok, then cook the clay loosely wrapped in foil (130 celisus for 30 mins works in our dodgy gas oven)
- remove from oven and let it cure for 20 mins







Stage 1A: Cut alignment marks in the base piece
- you want the mould pieces to align, so cut some v-shapes around the edge of the base piece


Stage 2: Create the top piece of the mould
- put the figure back into the base piece, and talc the lot
- get a blob of clay, larger than the base piece, then press it into the base piece
- gently remove the top piece, then cook it
- remove from oven then burn your fingers and swear. no, er, let it cure for 20 mins


Stage 2A: Drill shallow holes for excess clay
- the mould pieces will squeeze together better if you add some holes for excess clay to get into. Get your drill bit and add
some shallow holes around the impression







Stage 3: Cast your figure

- dust both the base and top pieces with talcum powder
- get a small piece of clay, roughly in the shape of the figure. place this in the impression on the bottom piece
- squeeze the top piece onto the base piece
- cook the combined mould (FIMO is recookable), then let it cure






Stage 4: get the figure out of the mould, and clean up the flash
- Now for the exciting bit! Gently prise the mould apart.
- The cast figure will stick to one piece. Gently prise it out (knife can be handy here)
- Theres loads of flash around the mould seems. Carve this off with your knife.






And there you have a passable copy of your master figure. Now what to do with him? I'm thinking i'll to chop the top of his head off, sculpt a beret on, hack his trouser cuffs into anklets, and stick him on top of a Scammell tank transporter...

Wow, what a fantastic technique!  :blob:  :clap: Never knew you can do that! Thanks to you I'll be able to mould a replacement part for my Walrus, if I ordered one from airfix it would take months to be delivered. Thanks tomholio!

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Seems easy enough, thanks for posting it.

Have you tried removing the moulded figure before cooking , reposing and then cooking out of the mould  :?:

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Loll, i've found its tricky to get the uncooked clay out of the mould (without squishing it or breaking it). You might have more luck?

For conversions, once you've got the cast figure, you can chop bits off (amputate their limbs, hehehe) and sculpt new bits of clay on as you need. FIMO is recookable, and adheres to itself - so you sculpt on the new bits and cook the figure again. Matchbox Monty's caravan chappy with modified arms below -

Can the fresh clay be chilled/frozen to remove from the mould perhaps ?  :?:

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Chaps and chapesses:
Get those symptoms checked NOW Look silly a dozen times, that next time might be the  important one.

Rigid is liking this.

Now to find a source of FIMO in Cyprus.

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on bench:
Italeri HU5 Wessex 1/72
Lindberg General Belgrano 1/600

With a lick of paint, here’s the re-cast petrol pump man at this new job:



Good luck Rigid, suggest try craft shops (there’s a fabric/craft chain here called ‘Spotlight’, they are surprisingly useful for modelling supplies).

Loll, i haven’t tried chilling clay yet (‘FIMO on the rocks’?), don’t know what would happen. What is it you are thinking of making? If the pose is drastically different to any existing figure, you could go to the extreme of making a wire armature and sculpting the figure yourself. Only that would be difficult. Possibly crazy. In fact, i’m going to have to give it a try...

There's the Rainbow Art Shop in Nicosia, I'm pretty certain they have it, or something very similar. I'll check next time I'm passing.

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Rich
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Great stuff  :)  :)  Good luck with the figure sculpting..I had a bash at this...I won´t show the results ...there might be children looking    :)

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The trick is to know your limitations, only sculpt what you have to sculpt.....If you can scrounge usable parts (heads & hands) from other figures do so, it will save you a lot of work.  :idea:

HTH & All the best
Sgt.S

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does this Fimo stick to other plastic parts with glue? And if so which type of glue?

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Tom

I've never sculpted figures with FIMO, only Milliput and a brief mess with Green Stuff, but CA works OK with both of those, so I'd imagine it will probably work OK with FIMO too.  :idea:

All the best
Sgt.S
PS - Come to think of it, I've made marbled FIMO bases for lead figures and glued it to plastic bases with CA.  :idea:

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ok cheers sgt.

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Tom

Great stuff, tomholio.

Won’t cooling / freezing the clay before removing the figure reduce distortion in the cast?

edit: ups! I just found Loll's question about the same thing.  :oops:

I have a Supermarine S.6B kit where one underwing is missing.
The missing part will certainly be made from a copy of the other upperwing, in the way you describe.

-Jesper.

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Update: June 2013

I used superglue to fix Fimo parts on my Revell 1/96 Saturn V.

I have only moulded/sculpted from scratch but I am definitely going to have a go at this technique! Thanks Tomholio  

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cheers

I think i may have to try this stuff out sometime

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Tom

The sculpted 1/76th-ish figure has been coming along. Its meant to be a tank crewman in his 'pixie' suit, although looking at the photo i cant help thinking i have created a monster...



Never know, he might look alright once hes painted.

Has anyone tried FIMO re-casting yet? How did you go?

He does look a bit...............scary doesn´t he  :fear:  :)
Still better than any attempts I have made  :thumb:  :thumb:

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Phew - viewed from a safe distance with one eye squinty, the painted figure isn't so bad...




In a 'mr ugly 1/76th' competition, he might just come second to the Airfix paratroops  :lol: