The retroactive Denmark Superpost

As a part of  the Propmaking-programme I went to Copenhagen for an internship at 10tons (a company specialized in making zoologic models and paleontological reconstructions) for three months.The notion of living in Denmark did excite me (as most Swedes I don't really like Denmark because they don't have any cheese cutters), but 10tons did.

A propmaking company that makes fish, squid and scaly things is perfect, those are my favourite things to make. 

The Denmark Aquarium

As stated above I really like fish and sea creatures so I was looking forward to visiting the Denmark Aquarium again, but it turns out that the aquarium had shut down and was moving to a huge new facility.

The new Denmark Aquarium (Den Bla Planet) was to open on the same day as my flight back home.

I accepted defeat and was rather disgruntled.

But it turns out 10tons had made a bunch of models for the aquarium and we went there two times before the opening to install the exhibition, and later to an early premiere.

Some of 10tons creations at Den Bla Planet

The Great White Shark hanging from the ceiling is life-sized and is made from 3D-scanning a small model and getting the full scale version CNC-milled in styrofoam before applying the hard surface, details and paintwork.

Reef in construction and a very friendly octopus

A tunnel leading through the big reef

The leather seals

We spent the first few days covering a styrofoam seal with fiberglass mesh, jesmonite and foam sheets, preparing it to be covered in leather as part of a leatherworking course held at the company by Mark Beabey.

The seals were made for a seal exhibition at Fimus fishing & seafare-museum, as sort of interactive climbing things for children.

One of the finished seals and a huge leather crab, By Esben Horn and Mark Beabey, pictures from 10tons website

The project

The best thing about this internship was that instead of spending three months performing the kind of boring, simple tasks that interns usually get, I was asked to start a project of my own choice.

My original plan was to make a coelacanth but realised I should probably use the opportunity to try out clear casting.

I eventually settled on a translucent deep sea squid.

Sculpting the squid

I started by sculpting two kinds of tentacles with water clay and cast them in polyurethane plastic instead of sculpting them all individually, and integrated the castings into the body-sculpture.

The tentacles are spread out to make the moulding easier, when the finished cast is cured the tentacles can be heat-bent into a different shape.

Before starting the moulding process I covered the sculpture in clear varnish and a few layers of a schellack- and ink-mixture to even out small imperfections and give it a smooth and shiny surface.

The mould

I covered the squid in three layers of diluted spray-on silicone, three layers of regular silicone, and three layers of thickened silicone. The keys along the edges are to lock the silicone into the jesmonite and fiberglass shell. 

The mould is essentially like a bag that opens at the big flat side, allowing the resin to be poured in.

The squid within or... the Squidin.

I wanted the squids body to be layered, so before making the final cast I had to make a new "inner mould", so I took a plastic cast from the big mould and sanded it down about a centimeter on all sides and made a new mould from that.

The picture on the right is the inner layer cast in CrystalClear with some wool to immitate organic tissue and cryptolyte (gives the material a faint blueish sheen in daylight and glows in UV-light). 

The intestines are haphazardly sculpted (they wont show that much anyway) from water clay and cast in polyoptic.

The eyes

I made two moulds for the eyes, from a water clay sculpture, one with the inner shape of the actual eye and one with a lens.

I vacuformed clear shells over a plastic cast from the inner mould, airbrushed the inside of the shells with mirror ink, popped them back onto the plastic "body" and added the colour and spots on the outside.

I then used the other mould to cast a polyoptic lens onto the eyes.

The final cast

I didn't have time for this to go wrong so to ensure a perfect, bubble-free casting I diluted the polyoptic resin with acetone to lower viscosity, degassed the mixture in the mould in a vacuum-chamber and, just in case, let the casting cure under high pressure.

Painting and finish

I didn't want to paint the spots, because it's hard to make it not look "painted" on a transparent material, so I tried adding tiny spots of thin, dyed paper to the surface.
And this is as far as I got before I had to leave, I did however bring it home (it made the x-ray guys day at the airport) to complete it.

When I got home and got my normal brain back, after the Denmark-brain had convinced me the spots looked fine because there wasn't enough time to change the spotting technique before I had to leave, I realised that this looks like crap, so I promptly sanded the spots off again.

At home I've been trying out masking the squid with a layer of latex, leaving the spots to be airbrushed. And it worked out great, except the paint didn't adhere to the material properly.
I'll be trying it again when I find the time (masking just one side like this took a full day, latex is bothersome to work with), this time using plastic primer and the proper paint.

The squid masked with latex in various colours

Working with the squid was my main project during my time at 10tons, but of course I performed various regular intern-tasks as well. I did my fair share of sanding, gluing, mixing stuff, assembling tiny sharks and bending tentacles.
And I got to try out what felt like thousands of new cool materials, casting techniques and machines.
I probably learned more in those three months than during my two years at the prop-making programme.
I was asked to come back and work at 10tons when they need more workforce and will hopefully be going there again soon.


TL;DR: Went to denmark, made a squid, learned a lot.