Pokéball Prop 2015
Pokéball Prop 2015
After the first run, our Pokéballs were a huge success so we decided to make a larger batch for next years Toronto Fan Expo and experiment with paints and colors. We used new methods and it was a group effort versus a one man team this time around.
Our Pokéballs are made using Smooth Cast 325, an equal part, high quality casting resin. To blend the previous years progress into this project, we made a "Master" copy of the Pokéball. This would be the original Pokéball part used to be copied to create multiple batches. Every Pokéball will look like this. We used a hollow rubber ball to pour Bondo body filler into and make another make-shift mold and cast.
Full Sized Pokéball Half
After many coats of primer, spray-able filler. We dry/wet sanded these using multiple grits of sandpaper starting with 400 going all the way up to 2000 grit.
Mold Prep
After countless sanding sessions, the halves were ready to mold! We hot glued the halves to a clean glass plate and made mold walls. We used thin PETG plastic sheets for the large Pokéball halves and Solo cups for the smaller Pokéball halves.
Mold Walls + Silicone Poured
After sealing all the holes with hot glue, we poured in our Mold Star 30 silicone over the Pokéball half.
Smooth Cast Poured
We poured our casting material into the silicone molds. This material starts off as viscious as water and shortly solidifies.
Uneven bottoms
The halves were coming out very rough at the bottom due to the "lip" of the silicone that got underneath the half and bubbles that rose to the top when curing. This would become an issue when we wanted to glue the halves together.
Halves sanded
After many weeks, all of our Pokéball halves were sanded at the bottom and top and were ready for paint!
Painting Setup
To keep the Pokéball halves off the ground and away from dirt, I constructed painting stands for the Pokeballs to stand on. This was made with scrap 2x4 wood and 2 inch PVC piping. This gave the Pokeballs enough room to be painted at the top at different angles and underneath.
Red Paint
A coat of shiny red lacquer paint was applied on top of the silver base coat. Each half has about 2-3 coats of each colour.
Bottom Half
The bottom halves of the Pokéballs were painted with different coats of paint. This shows the different between a plain cast and a final painted bottom half.
Gold Paint
A metallic gold paint was applied to some of the top Pokéball halves.
Blue Paint
This is our "Water" Pokéball half. A custom concept we came up with.
Fan Expo Prize Pokéball
These were custom made Fan Expo Prize Pokeballs that we made to giveaway to fans each day of Fan Expo 2015!
Classic Pokéball
Critical to a Trainer's quest, used for catching and storing Pokémon.
Miniature Sized Pokéball Half
Using such a high grit sandpaper meant that we could achieve the smoothest possible finish to allow a great coat of paint to shine without any deviations.
Molding Material
We took a trip to Sculpture Supply Canada and purchased some Mold Star 30 Silicone rubber. This has a pot life of 45 minutes and a cure time of 6 hours. This gave us a lot of time to mix and pour our material. Since we weren't making many molds, 1 batch was enough for us and the cure time was not an issue.
Cast Material
Smooth Cast 300 comes in two clear liquids, that when they are equally mixed, they will solidify white in times ranging from 5-30 minutes depending on the product.
Cast Halves!
Our first pull out of our molds! Using a high quality material meant that we got great looking copies. In a few minutes, the halves cool down and are ready to work on!
Problem Solved!
We purchased a belt sander and sanded the bottoms completely smooth. On one of the ends of the sander is a 90 degree level to make sure we had a perfect level each time!
Primered Pokéballs test fit!
I took all of the parts of the Pokéball and attached them together to give me a quick glance at the progress so far.
Silver Base coat
After a coat of white primer, the halves are painted with a metallic aluminum paint. This will act as the base coat for the red lacquer paint.