Another productive day. I Laser cut the center ring and lettering out - the swiftest laser cutting session I've had to date! The 'S' wasn't as curved as I thought it needed to be so I redrew it on Rhino and then recut it.

Talking to Paul (tutor), I explained my idea for creating the textured ackground behind the lettering using low grade sand paper impressed into a layer of sculpey. He thought that there may be other methosd of achiving it and recommended scaling up the bitmap image and printing to scale to get an idea of the size of the textured bits. He also said that the sand paper idea was good providing the grain was big enough to represent the badge.

I began rubbing down the edges of the letters. I think I'll attatch the centre ring to some wood and then, using the lathe, get an even chamfer around the inside and outside.

I took the master point out of the mould I poured yesterday and it worked better than I expected (see below).

I then began to mix and pour segments of the star using Fast-Cast Polyeurethene Resin (mixed 50/50 part A/B Each star uses approx 16g total - 8g of each).

Below: The poured fast cast before it begins to cure.

Below: The resin begins to cure and changes colour within minuets.

Out of 8 poured, 2 were defects. I can only put this down to something going wrong during the mixing. The mixing of catalyst and resin has to be done so that the 2 are as well mixed as possible, however Julia from the workshop said it could also be due to 'over mixing' which can introduce air into the mix resulting in an uneven mix of parts A and B (see top right studs in the photo below).

I poured one last cast and am left with one more to do tomorrow which should complete the outer points which will then be ready to assemble as the 'master sculpt' of the whole badge.