Thread: Mold-able material for scales

Has anybody tried to use anything like this to make scales?

InstaMorph - Moldable Plastic » About

I don't like how low the melting temp is. I would hate for my scales to start to deform under hot water! 140 degree F melting? hmmmm...

Just curious!

" Mold-able material for scales".
You just made my day, and now I've got coffee everywhere!

I think it's a bit low, 60°C / 140°F, I've got hot tap water hotter than that, but there is other thermoplastics you can use.
No links, sorry but shouldn't be to hard to find.

Horn is a thermoplastic, isn't it?

Originally Posted by Baxxer

Horn is a thermoplastic, isn't it?

Haha, no it's not, but it can be soften by boiling and some chemicals to make it plastic and other chemicals to make it hard.
It can also be pulverized and cast in any form again with water, heat and chemicals.
Sorry I don't remember exactly how, got some old books about it somewhere.

This seemed like an easier product to use to try and re-produce a good marble-ized plastic such as the old Celluloids... I am trying to find something that I can cast that re-produces that look. I guess I will need to mix up several batches of epoxies and play with mixing them properly to get the look!

You can make Celluloid plastic yourself, nitrocellulose dissolved in camphor and/or acetone but if you live in the US you better put on some coffee for the ATF guys.
There is lots of modern castable plastics to choose from, it all depends on what end results you want and your casting/mold making resources.

If someone is up to making things out of horn/bone castings I'll look for the books...

It looks really easy and melts very fast a few seconds and it turns clear and mold-able in hot water.

Originally Posted by Theseus

Most hobby stores sell acryllic molding kits along with the dyes to color the acryllic however you want.

Hmm, I'll really have to check into this. I didn't know about that. Thanks!

I didn't know Kydex was too bendy or soft. Maybe the Kydex you have had experience with was too thin, but I know from experience that .093 Kydex is quite stiff. That's exclusively what thickness I use when making Kydex gun holsters, and even over a 6" run down a slide, I still find that it's not very flexible. Not anymore so than any other plastic. FWIW.