Stoumont Sanitarium - 6

So I placed the air hardening clay on top of a box under a clamp light to help it dry over night. In the morning I removed the wood and granny grating as carefully as I could from the mold. (Don't worry - they're reusable!)

Here is the finished mold (note granny grating underneath to help air cure the clay). I decided to try baby powder as a release. Normally I don't use a release, but decided the detail would get lost rather quickly if I did not.

First casts came out pretty good for a half-assed attempt. Not only will these windows be used on the ends of the buildings, but I will cut out the middle timber and make double hung windows for the sides. So that's two for the ends and then 40 divided by 2 = 20 more castings to go. Try to keep the hot glue as thin as possible over the mold.

A test shot of a cleaned window section on the end of the building. I'll cut a recess into the foam core and then flank the windows with a faux stone treatment. Not bad, looks okay to my war gamer's eye.

I had a series of good runs when all of a sudden I start to develop bubbles. Not sure where these came from. Now, for a shot up building these would work just fine, unfortunately I'm looking for newer windows. These go to the urban junk pile to be used for debris on my city boards I'm building for WWII ( some day... ). *sigh*

Despite my best effort I still develope bubble for no good reason on one, two or all three of the pieces. These I've decided I'll keep and use on the second floor where it'll be harder to see their detail, but five or so were too junky to even think about using so I chucked them onto the ruble pile. I tried different technique, pouring high, pouring low, pushing the glue through fast, letting it come out slow, angled the glue one way while pumping it, then the other. Nothing seemed to work with any degree of certainty. A bit frustrating.

But I did manage to score some pretty good results. I think that the clay mold may be 'breathing' bubbles into my glue casts some how when it gets hot, so I'm going to call it a day for now ( getting frustrated) and see if I can't make my last two batches or so tomorrow morning with better result. Regardless I stand by this glue cast mold in certain circumstances - the thing I love about it is that I can peel the window in about three minutes, and immediately start working it. Keep this technique in mind when you need to mass produce a bunch of things (dragon's teeth, etc.)