"bring a spring upon her cable" - I'll bet you are thinking "WTF", it its quite appropriate for this post. It means to come around in a different direction, a surprise maneuver.
After making a few Palm Trees (thanks again to Will Holland for the inspiration) I realized I was running very short of bases and connector "buds" so I resolved to use Instant Mold to make a few extra, so I get to use up all the foliage.
I'm re-using old Instant Mold (it tends to pick up the dirt off your hands with reuse and off cuts from other projects (if you can't find Instant Mold Google "Oyumaru" and Greenstuff World stock their own version "Blue Stuff").
In addition you will need something to use as molds and to put pressure onto what you are casting - I'm using the bottom of a spray can (for the taller tree stands/roots) and the bottom of a Lynx Africa Can (for the connector "buds").
You need a decent sized bowl, so things don't boil over (thats what the microwave is for) - put your molding material - nicely chopped up - into the bowl.
Add boiling water, and just to be certain every-things softened - "nuke" it in the Microwave for about 60 seconds.
Use a fork (its VERY hot) to remove the "Blob" from the now steaming hot water - and dry it a little on an old tea-towel (don't use kitchen roll or the fibres break free and stick in the molding material).
Put a decent sized lump of the softened molding material in the indent at the base of your spray can, enough so its slightly above the level of the rim.
Then press the piece you want to cast into the center of the mass.
Turn it over, then put pressure on the molding material till it starts to show "leaking" from underneath.
The same applies to the smaller can for casting smaller pieces - Put the required sized lump of the softened molding material in the indent at the base of your deodorant can, enough so its slightly above the level of the rim.
Then press the smaller piece (or pieces) you want to cast centrally into the mass.
As before - Turn it over, then put pressure on the molding material till it starts to show "leaking" from underneath. With the smaller mold, it sometimes leaks more than the larger mold.
Give it an hour or so to cool, you can speed this up by putting things in a refrigerator - when its cool/solid, use an implement (dinner knife, screwdriver, scissors) to pry it free.
Use your Scissors to cut around the mold, use straight lines - trying to cut around the curve through this stuff never goes well. This way you can return the off-cuts to the bowl and re-use them straight away.
When you've done that, put pressure on the back of the mold and push the original piece out.
As you can see, though far from perfect (though pretty darn good) - they make perfectly respectable additions to my terrain building selection (as you can see I've also made some straight stalk molds too).
Once put together you can see that painted, it will be hard to tell the difference.
And even MORE difficult to detect the copied parts when combined with the originals!
