Aves woes

[Thrusterhead Jones]

Yea, verily…

I finally got some Aves Apoxie and am having mixed results.

So far I’ve used it to fill an unsightly gap between the cargo bay doors on my Orion II cargo shuttle, and it has performed as advertised. Then I tried to make an impression of one of my favorite greebles after fifteen minutes I was able to peel the putty off- in chunks. Lastly I tried to make a mold of an antenna dish. I let the putty sit for about five hours. When I tried to remove it and it also came off in chunks, albeit larger chunks. This morning, the putty had set up solid and so far has refused to be removed. Damnation! That stuff is hard…

Both the greeble and dish were lightly dusted with cornstarch.

So here are my questions:

1) Is there a substance that will work better than cornstarch as a release agent? Silicon spray was suggested to me and a friend thinks that PAM nonstick cooking spray might prove to be effective. What about a liquid paint mask product?
2) I there a way to remove fully cured Apoxie from a steel part?

I’m getting closer to figuring out haw to use it- it’s obviously a far superior product than Squadron’s Excremento Verde.

I humbly implore the faithful to join hands and pray for my salvation.

[JadedMonk]

Petroleum Jelly, no seriously!

Also cling wrap.

Used both with great success.

Cheers,

JM

[eeun]

It's good for simple shapes, but unfortunately I don't think Aves is the best option for making more complicated molds.

That said, I just used some of my wife's oil-based skin stuff for squishing Aves between two plastic parts. Feels like mineral oil, but more expensive.

I needed to make an eyepiece for a Gundam mobile armor kit, and squishing the Aves between the parts, then removing it to shape and detail seemed the easiest.

Also used ground chalk pastels, but the oil worked fantastic and cleans off well with detergent.

Just watch for undercuts, and it helps for removal if the part you're casting can flex a bit, since cured Aves won't.

Oh, sorry...gotta put it in the vernacular...

Verily, the anointing of thine castings with scented oils shall free Aves from its bonds, yet it shall hold true its shape as well as thine faith[/i]

[Ant-Man2]

…Is there a substance that will work better than cornstarch as a release agent? Silicon spray was suggested to me and a friend thinks that PAM nonstick cooking spray might prove to be effective. What about a liquid paint mask product?

I'd go with PAM. There was someone from this board who routinely does Wonderfest Demos/Semiars on the various uses of Aves. During one that I viewed, he placed a blob of Aves that had been mixed together into a plastic bag which he had sprayed PAM into. He then proceeded to flatten it (using dough roller). Once it was flat enough, he used an X-Acto knife to cut a rectangular shape away, peeled the flattened Aves away from the sandwiching plastic skins and proceeded to shape it into a cape for a B5 figure that he was working on.

(He was able to time it so the Aves cape was just hardening when he started forming cape folds into it).

...I(s) there a way to remove fully cured Apoxie from a steel part?

Yeah, break it.

As a recent experiment, I mixed a small batch together and pressed it into the skin/texture of an assembled Polar Lights Godzilla. I didn't use any type of lubricant or releasing agent. I just pressed it on, and waited several days.

After a bit of prying, I was able to peel it off of the surface, with it retaining the skin texture and not damaging the plastic in the process.

[Lt. Z0mBe]

I don't know about steel parts, but I routinely remove Aves from steel sculpting tools with other steel sculpting tools. I "sheer" it off by holding the sheering tool at about 80-degrees relative to the Avesed tooland pushing it forward. This induces a shearing force on the Aves, separating it from the tool. All you need is a heavy, straight steel tool to do it with. The side of a chisel works great.

I hope this helps.

Kenny