Cast Bat Plaque

Cast bat plaque

Acter his stunning success with cast plaster skulls, David tried his hand at molding and casting something different.

[photo] David shows off one of his cast bat plaques. Painted with "leather-brown" paint, it looks like it's made from chocolate.

General Procedure
The Mold
Painting

General Procedure

David started with an inexpensive decorative bat, made from some sort of foamed plastic resin. In general, the procedure is like the cast plaster skulls:

Coat the original with liquid latex; the first layer captures the details.
Make the mold stronger by adding more layers, some with cheesecloth.
Gently peel the latex mold off of the original.
Mix plaster and pour into the mold.
After the plaster hardens, peel the mold off the casting.

The Mold

We wanted to make plaques with a flat back, cast with an embedded wire loop for hanging.

[photo] This edge-on view of the original bat highlights the challenge - he's not flat on the back.

David temporarily gave the original bat a flat back. He did this by tracing the original bat on a piece of masonite. He then fastened the original to the masonite and used plasticine clay to build up a wall, projecting the bat down onto the masonite.

[photo] The original is shown next to the rubber mold made from it.

[photo] Because of the size of the piece, and difficulty in keeping it unbent while the plaster hardens, a "mother mold" was constructed.

Painting

Once you have the mold, you can cast as many bats as you desire.

The top bat is unpainted plaster, as it comes out of the mold.

If you want the castings to look like real animals, use a flat paint instead of glossy. Or consider flocking them.

[photo] This close-up of the original black bat and a brown-painted casting shows that the casting preserves all the detail of the original.

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