After a rough Monday morning with my car breaking down in rush hour traffic. The problem was a broken valve spring for those that know what one is, meaning I needed to take the head off the engine and rebuild it for a second time in less than 6000 miles/7 months. The only upside is I do the work myself so now over priced garage costs. The downside, I have no car until I can find/make the time to work on it.
Anyway, I managed to get in early on Tuesday morning and mix up another batch of foam latex and get it in the oven before anyone else was in to use them.
For this mix I added some orange ink, in the hope that the fox would turn a fetching orange colour and it would mean I would'nt have to struggle sorting out a method of painting it.
However, this didn't quite go to plan.
Although the fox came out amazingly well, alot better than the first one, fewer imperfections and tissue paper thin flash lines giving me a nice clean seam, he came out a fetch pink.
All the foam that was on the outside of the mould and open to the direct heat of the oven, turned the orange I was hoping to. But, all the foam in the mould/up against the side of the mould stayed pink.
My only explanation for this, is that the direct heat from the oven brings out the colour, meaning my only chance of turning the fox orange, from this is to cook it in the oven, out of the mould in the hope that it darkens.
Failing that, some different avenues will have to be looked into regarding the painting of foam latex.
However, for now I'm just happy that it worked, and worked so well, as it hasn't all been plain sailing. I had 2 batches of foam latex the week prior fail, setting in only 2 minutes, rather than 20. For this batch I reduced the amount of gelling agent but 2 grams and this game a good 20 minutes to work with the foam before it gelled.
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