Cheap, DIY plastic figurine modeling?

Has anyone had the chance to follow up on this and see if Shapelock can be used in molds? It would be good to know if it can also take to primer and be painted.
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TAZ

A while back, I worked with Kneadatite (a putty that came in a tube in two colors - blue and yellow). Basically you mix small bits of it together to make it into a green, horribly sticky putty, then shaped it, let it harden for a few hours, and then you had a piece perfect for molding and whatnot.

I have a couple of models I made with the stuff, and the hardened product looks and feels like those little plastic army men you used to play with as a kid. Of course, there are different kinds of molding materials as well as casting compounds that might or might not work depending on how you want your pieces.

I got my Kneadatite from Dick Blick art studio. You'll also need a few tools to shape the putty (stuff just lying around the house also tends to work well), as well as something to lubricate your tools, hands, and the putty (I personally used Chap Stick, though you have to wash everything afterward). If you don't, the stuff will stick to anything and everything!

If you want any tips or anything, be sure to ask.

The places I've seen actually use a special machine that takes 3D model data and uses that to build the mold. I don't know how it actually works, but the reason it costs so much to get a prototype from such a place is because of the cost of the equipment. Some places will make a mold for you if you send them drawings of your figure, but that means it will cost more since they do the 3D modeling to feed to the machine themselves. Of course, that's the method I've seen used. It's possible that if you shop around, you'll find a place that will sculpt your prototype by hand... but I suspect that won't exactly be cheap, either.

Have you guys tried Sculpey?

It is a clay like plastic that is sculpt-able and then you can bake it and it becomes hard like plastic. You can make molds from it and you can machine it once its hard. You also can paint it like pottery.

I don't recommend the "Original" flavor of Sculpey. It is too soft. Maybe I am just not a very good sculptor (I'm not) but each time I touched it when it was almost done I would deform it and then have to fix it. I think Sculpey PRO is better and will try that next.

I learned about useing sculpy fo molds and wanted to try it about the same time I was proto-typing a game so I decided to try and make proto game pieces. I bought some sculpey at Blicks and bought a mold making kit from my local hobby store.

1st I made the pieces I wanted and baked them. Then I made the positive mold. Next I made the negative mold using RTV rubber.

Then I made a bunch of pieces with resin. It was fun.

My sons then helped me paint them.

The mold was about $25 maybe $30. Because of my mold design and my inexperince the mold started to crack as the iterations went by. By the end I had several rubberbands on it to hold it together.

The Resin was another $30 but I only used half of it.

its expensive when I could have prototyped the game with cardboard but I wanted to experiment with molding something anyway.

- Dwight