Blood Angels - Knights of Blood - Shoulder Pad Press Mold

After sculpting my initial test models shoulder pad icons, minus the swords, I decided to try and see how difficult it was to replicate the design over an entire squad of 10 men. So time for the old Press Mold !! see the link here for the original post on how to make press molds.

http://aureliuslegion.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-to-make-green-stuff-press-moulds.html



As I have already explored the press mold technique previously it gave me some confidence that it could be done with a single piece so theoretically over a whole squad it should be no different right?
So off I went and built up an Assault Squad as these are a first choice for Troops in any Blood Angels Army and the perfect choice for my experiment.

To start off make sure the surface of the model is nice and clean and dry or the greenstuff wont stick so well. Next place a small amount of greenstuff on the shoulder pad and smooth down to the desired thickness, I use oil as I find it a bit better than water ( see picture at top of page ). Once you have done that take your mold and press firmly down until you think you have pressed out the design.

Leave to set for a while and then gently remove the mold making sure you don't rip off the greenstuff.

It should look like this ( see picture below ).

Now you need to carefully clean up the excess, and voila! a nice looking icon.

So rinse and repeat : ) till you complete the entire squad. Its not all plain sailing though as I had to redo several presses as they didn't work or I fluffed the removal of the mold and tore the design. 

In the end it came out really well.

This is the final result.

Let me know what you think.


Vitor.