To make these, Steve has been busy developing and perfecting a technique he first tried a while ago using luminous green pebbles and liquid cement. He says:
The pebbles are rock hard, i cut them in half to speed up the melting time, but they are so hard i have to use my razor saw. Even so, it takes 2-3 days for it to melt down. You might have noticed the plastic is tough, this is no bad thing but they are probably brittle and might snap if bent.
At first, he used:
Tamiya liquid cement and the result was horrible, hundreds of small bubbles. It looked like Aero mint chocolate but with smaller bubbles, also ,it started to set too quickly in the mould, it "skinned over" before id finished filling the mould.
Undaunted, after getting hold of good old Humbrol Liquid Poly, he tried again:
the main trick for moulding success is to have the mix THIN. Thin enough to drip readily off the stirring stick in little round droplets. Well, initially, after stirring it will run off in a stream, but then it should readily drip quickly in round droplets. If it drips reluctantly in a sticky string, its too thick. If in doubt, thin it some more with liquid poly. I dont think you can overdo the "thinness". There are 2 reasons (i think) for having it thin. First, it "finds" all the detail in the mould, and secondly, no bubbles seem to form. I always stir the mix before use in case the luminous bits settle, but as youve seen, the glow is patchy, which is the main fault. I pour a bit of mix into the mould, straight out of the jar, then carefully push the mix into all the nooks and crannies with a cocktail stick. This is necessary because although the mix is thin, it has surface tension and needs coaxing into, all the extremities, especially" at the edges. You may have noticed, at the edges, some "repairs" on some of them where the mix failed to reach the extreme edge, and i had to add an extra blob of mix after removal from the mould, wait for it to set, then trim and file it to final shape, using the original as a guide. All good fun though. The mould takes 3 or 4 filling sessions until its full because a lot of the mix evaporates. Also, its a good idea to do it in the shed or garage because the fumes are powerful and im sure they are not good for you. After leaving each "coat" overnight, you can give it the next one. When finally full i put them in the airing cupboard for 3 or 4 days to fully cure. This seems about right.
Well done Steve for persevering - the results are amazing!
And here they are along with Winnie and Whitie, in Stewart's Haunted Manor, all glowing very nicely under UV light! You will see that Bertie was so excited, he wouldn't stay outside!
For the suspended Spooks, I made small loops, all the same size, from white thread wound around a cocktail stick. A small dollop of Copydex glue was put at the back of each Spook (I reused the cocktail stick for that) and then the loops were carefully positioned with tweezers and bedded into the glue (again with the cocktail stick).
I made stands for the other Spooks by bending some paper clips and securing them (for now anyway) with sellotape.
Thanks so very much to Steve and Stewart - I'm absolutely delighted to now have my own set of Spooks on display in their own Haunted Manor!
(Not shown is Alf's little brother, courtesy of Stewart, who will be housed ASAP).