Advanced Lifecasting

Important! This page is for advanced lifecasters who already understand the basics of lifecasting with alginate. These silicone lifecasting techniques take time and experience to master. Start small and work up to large scale casts.

On this page we demonstrate both standard alginate techniques as well as silicone lifecasting techniques.

Our new CopyCat Silicone is great for face casts, body casts, and full head casts.

In the next video we mold a face with CopyCat silicone and plaster bandages and pour a Hydrocal positive. We used additional CopyCat silicone to seal the nostril holes of the lifecast.

In the next video we mold a front torso cast using CopyCat silicone.

Lifecasts with silicone can sometimes trap air bubbles in the surface. If the bubbles are small, sometimes they can be carefully repaired with additional CopyCat silicone. This should be done as soon as possible to get a good bond between old and new silicone.

In this next tutorial we cast resin and foam into a CopyCat Silicone mold to produce a tough, lightweight positive. A positive like this can be finished with Sculpt Nouveau Metal Coating and Patinas.

In this tutorial we demonstrate a simple partial cast for a breast form. This tutorial is a great introduction to CopyCat as well as basic body casting techniques.

This next cast also uses CopyCat Silicone for a simple back lifecast.

PlatSil Gel-25 may also be used for Lifecasting applications. Gel-25 is something od a "Swiss Army Knife" silicone in that is able to perform a wide variety of molding, casting, and lifecasting functions.

This next tutorial is one we did in conjunction with Polytek. Here we made a simple face cast with PlatSil Gel-25. This is a good introduction to the basic process of lifecasting with Gel-25.

 This next video is a slightly different approach to a Gel-25 Full Head Cast using a Vinyl Bald Cap.

The next video illustrates a fairly simple mold, but the scale is such that good experience is required by the lifecaster(s) to ensure an understanding of both the process and a good estimate of the materials to be used. A lifecast like this can easily use 3 16lb kits of PlatSil Gel-25 so be prepared! This was done using PlatSil Gel-25 thickened with TinThix and the mother mold made with 6" and 8" Plaster Bandages.

The next video explains the use of key forms with a Gel-25 torso cast.