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So I want to do a little project where I replace all the plastic parts of a highly poseable/detailed figurine with metal duplicates. How would I go about doing this? Anyone have experience in this?
My idea is to make molds for all the parts, pour molten metal in said molds, and viola. Easier said than done I'd imagine, especially since I've never worked with metal outside of bending sheet metal.
First off, what material could I even use for a mold that would withstand the high heat of a molten metal? Something that would also retain finer details of a part too?
I understand different metals have different properties, so selecting a metal or alloy would probably be very important too. I know bismuth has an interesting property that when it transitions from liquid back to solid, it expands, which would make for a useful component to an alloy to cram itself into finely detailed grooves and crevices (though, that may prove to be disastrous if the mold cannot handle the forces delivered by the expansion). Another thing that may be of consideration is perhaps a metal/alloy with a low melt temp (if making a mold that will not hold up to the high heats of most liquid metals)? I could use solder for a low melt point metal in that case.
I guess the other problem would be in articulation. I'd imagine using metal would completely fuck with the poseability of a figure since it was designed to hold up lightweight plastic (given that the metal/alloy I end up using is heavier that the original plastic). I guess, a way I could mitigate that problem is by adding more friction at the joints/hinges by throwing in some rubber polymer?
Would love some advice/guidance. I know I'm a complete newbie, but I think I could pull it off with the right direction.
