Make: Technology on Your Time Volume 24

PRIMER

Photography by Adam Savage

HARD-SHELL MOLDS

The science behind the art of prop making.

By Adam Savage

Silicone block molds are fine for making casts of small objects. But for larger items, like this 3-foot multi-piece prop gun (Figure A, page 111), you’d need hundreds of dollars’ worth of silicone to make a block mold.

An excellent and inexpensive solution is to use a thin layer (or “blanket”) of silicone that’s keyed to a hard-shell or “mother” ...