We have made the mold and now I will show you how to make the miniature duplicate. This is the fun part and it took several hours for your mold to try but the plastic miniature we make will only take a fefw minutes so you are only a few minutes from getting your miniatures!The duplicates I make are of the treasure chests that I sculpted in another tutorial. You can see that sculpting tutorial here. And, if you came to this webpage directly from a search engine this tutorial that you are currently looking at begins here.

Once the rubber has completely cured you gently peel away the paper or cardboard. This is why you use a paper cup or a pringles can. Because the mold container is effectively destroyed and you want to remove it easily without damaging the rubber mold.

Take a good look at the mold. Inspect it for something called flashing. This is little extra bits of rubber that you can remove with a very sharp hobby knife. My mold looks terrific and it is almost ready to cast two different treasure chests. My mold is also rather big. I didn't need to make it this large for these pieces. You might want to make your mold smaller so you conserver the amount of rubber that is used.

Now Lets cast the miniature

If you have a mold release spray or liqud you should spray it into the mold now and use a brush to brush it around. Then let it dry (usually ten minutes) This will insure the miniature doesn't stick to the mold and it comes out cleanly.

Now we mix the plastic that will become your miniatures. And you only have a couple of minutes to do this so work efficiently. No need to rush, just be aware that this plastic will be hardened in ten minutes.

Grab two small cups and pour equal amounts of the plastic into each one. One type of plastic into one cup and the other type of plastic into the other cup (these are the blue cups). Then pour them both into a third container and gently mix them for a minute (no longer). Try not to cause air bubbles. The third container shown in the picture is the orange can.

And gently pour the plastic mix into the mold. This is an important step. Use a very thin stream of liquid and be sure the mold is filled right to the top. If you rush this you might end up with air bubbles and gaps in your miniature.

Once the plastic is poured you can tap the mold very gently with a pencil to release any air bubbles.

Now, this will harden in ten minutes so wait ten minutes and....

You can gently remove the miniature from the mold. Don't hesitate to flex and bend the mold a little bit. That is why we cast the mold in rubber - so you can flex it and remove the part!

The miniature might have a little bit of excess plastic so inspect it and remove any flashing with a sharp hobby knife.

And there you have it! A successfully cast miniature duplicate. Your mold should be good for many more uses so go ahead and make some more of them!

Painting and finishing the Cast Miniature

The process I used in this portion of the tutorial uses plastic and that means that it is different than metal or sculpting putty when it comes to painting the miniature. I recommend you use a primer before painting and preferably a grey primer. This will make the painting easier and more vibrant. Or, you might want to consider using enamel paints like those that Testors makes. These are the kinds of paints that model builders typically prefer. The picture below shows the original and the duplicate after painting. Which one is which? The duplicate is a bit shiny because the paint is still wet :)

Continue on and learn how to do a two part mold for complex miniatures like figures