01 December 2025

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #538 and Like A Hood Ornament #84: Continuing a Rocketeer Resin Casting Project -Making the Prototype

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast

About

In today's episode, I'm continuing what I started in episode 536 - where I wanted to turn a Rocketeer figurine that I found on eBay in to an articulated action figure. But in the episode, the silicone I had gotten turned out to be bad, so I had to get some more in order to make a mold. In the past two weeks, I bought a new kind of silicone (Smooth On Mold Star 30) as well as a new kind of resin to try (Smooth Cast 57D). I was successful in making molds of the parts of the figurine. It wasn't the most efficient use of silicone, I will say, since I probably could have found containers that were a bit smaller and wasted less, but if I don't use these molds in the future, I'll chop them up and use them as filler when making future molds. Here are the two pieces:

This is the lower body mold.

This mess is the upper body mold; you may be able to see both sides of the figurine in relief on ether side.

This is what it looks like when you are taking the casting out. You can see here (my first attempt) that one arm didn't quite fill. That happens sometimes if you don't quite have the air vents in the right places.

Pictures at https://13thhr.wordpress.com/2025/12/01/the-thirteenth-hour-podcast-538-and-like-a-hood-ornament-84-continuing-a-rocketeer-resin-casting-project-making-the-prototype/⁠

I was also curious to see if the resin I was using could be heated up with a heat gun to further bend the pieces. Yes, the resin did get soft, but it ended up just breaking. I did use a woodcarving tool to cut the limbs up further (never a bad idea to wear some eye protection and a N95 or equivalent mask when dealing with hot plastic) and then used epoxy resin (what I normally use to add details on custom figures) to meld the limbs back together in a new position.

Here, I have the parts of the figure with newly formed arms and legs next to the original:

I just need to clean up the dried epoxy resin, probably with a Dremel, and then figure out how to make joint pegs for the limbs and neck. Then, I'll make one last mold of all the parts - 4 limbs, torso, head, and rocketpack so I can make resin copies of all the pieces. That's what's to come in the next few weeks.

If you haven't heard them yet, check out the conversations with Andy Last of the Beyond Synth podcast and Richie Billing, author of Together We Rise.

Check out my interview on the Planet Texas Podcast, where we touch on toymaking - find it on Youtube. Thanks, Javier, for having me on!

I was also on Let's Talk Media with Vedant Akhauri for another fun conversation. Check out the episode on Spotify. Thanks, Vedant, for having me on!

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Once Upon a Dream, the second Thirteenth Hour soundtrack, is now out in digital form and on CD!

It is out on most major streaming services such as Bandcamp, Spotify, and YouTube Music. (If you have no preference, I recommend Bandcamp since there is a bonus track there and you will eventually be able to find tapes and special editions of the album there as well.) The CDs are out now!

-Check out the pixelart music videos that are out so far from the album:

-->Logan's Sunrise Workout: www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7SM1RgsLiM

-->Forward: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9VgILr1TDc

-->Nightsky Stargazing: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S0p3jKRTBo

-->Aurora's Rainy Day Mix: https://youtu.be/zwqPmypBysk

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The Thirteenth Hour,

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