This page covers all sorts of stuff.

To the creative mind nothing is ever useless or out of date, so that's why it's here, you will find it useful.

The above is a photo of a two part plaster mold which still contains the cast hollow latex rubber spaceman suit.

The object was to make a  stop motion character with armature inside so it could be animated on film.

I made this years ago and now use 3D computer animation instead. Then the other day I was in the library and came across a book on how to make models for stop motion filming. I was both surprised and disappointed at the same time. This must be an old book… but no it was published in 2004. What I would not have given for such a book years ago and I thought … typical they never show you how until it's too late.

Then this morning it  occurred to me (yes I should have thought of it sooner,) that the reason I did not think of it sooner was that I'd thought of all the possibilities that were available to me at the time and stored it in the back of my head as nice idea but not really practical.

But then this morning I thought almost anyone could afford to do this now with just a digital camera and a tripod. Hardly a new idea I am sure but it illustrates how we put ideas away and don't revisit them later with new tools and technologies as we decided long ago that what ever the idea was did not work then so move on. This modern notion of moving on is quite an uncreative concept and leads to nothing but lost opportunities. Let me make a new saying which is more useful then the MOVE ON version…...MOVE ON, BUT KEEP AN EYE ON THE REAR VIEW MIRROR.

So in the interest of ...nothing is obsolete… I have put this page together hopping it might be useful information.

Keep modeling  till he looks correct. You will see in the modeling of the heads I use ball bearings for the eyes, makes it a little easier to model.

At left you see the almost finished latex model all painted, but put the skeleton in through the neck first otherwise all the stretching will mess up your paint work.

Now for the info about casting as seen at top. Make a two part plaster mold from your clay model with skeleton still inside, let set, remove clay model, pull skeleton out of clay, clean it, it will later go inside the latex hollow model.

Carve fill channel and air holes so that you  don't trap air inside when filling with latex.

Close mold, seal with clay. Caution, do not put any release agent, clay, or Vaseline on the inside of the mold because if you do it will never work.

Totally fill mold with liquid latex , plug any air holes as latex comes out and leave it standing full over night (put it in a bucket in case it leeks, you will never get set latex out of your carpet if it gets on it). In the morning pour the latex back into it's container( what comes out is still good and you can use it for other models) let the mold sit undisturbed for a day, then carefully open it to reveal a white coloured model. Be very careful, it is quite fragile while it is white, only after it is a honey colour is it strong enough to insert the skeleton .

Powder the inside of the latex figure with baby powder or chalk dust because the inside will stick to itself if you squeeze the model and will not want to easily pop back to it's original shape, but only do this after it is set and is turning light brown. No need to do it to the outside as that is not tacky and besides that you'll have difficulty painting it if it has chalk on it.

How does it work and come out hollow? The plaster sucks up the water from the latex leaving a thickish latex layer, you pour out the liquid part and the thick latex left on the inside walls of the plaster mold sets to become your model.

Word of caution. Keep your plaster mold as the rubber latex model will only last 5 years or so, maybe less as it putrefies, so keep in mind that you will need to replace it in the future.

So now you have a character that you could use to make a film. Just move it frame by frame and take photos with your digital camera, put the sequence together in a editing program and out put as say QuickTime .mov

I know it's not an original idea, but it may prove helpful to some one.

First I made a skeleton. The ball joints you see are ball bearings. I heat them red hot and let them cool slowly so that they are now soft enough to drill a hole through, the size of the wire rods. Then I sweat solder it to the wire rod. I originally tried skipping the drilling and soldered it to the wire end but if you do this you will find that it break's off. If you had a lath you could turn the ball and rod as one part, but I don't have a lath.

The balls are clamped between two brass plates with counter sunk holes to hold the balls in place. One of the plates is taped and a brass screw is adjusted so the pressure is enough to still allow  movement, You will note in the photo the screws still need to be cut short .

The body is two sheets of Perspex with counter sunk holes to take the balls and it is clamped with three screws and nuts.

This skeleton is later inserted through the neck of the rubber latex suit which will be cast in the mold you see above.

Now model your character over the skeleton (this way you know it will fit.