The Moulding Process

First the impression is made of the item. As you can see above we have made 2 impressions - an SA80 Bayonet and a Fairbairn Sykes Commando Dagger. A Royal Marine and The Parachute Regiment capbadges have also been used. The two blocks you can see are made of silicone rubber, and are therefore reusable. Each mould is thoroughly cleaned prior to casting. A removable bung is added to the Bayonet to ensure the handle is hollow.

Next we measure out our acrylic resin. This is made up of two parts - a liquid and a dry powder. The resin is non toxic and is environmentally friendly. The resin we use has been specifically identified a it produces a high definition of the original impression. As you can see our technician isn't wearing gloves. He is wearing a mask, but purely to protect him from breathing in the powder you can see in the next picture.

A colourant is then added (not pictured), and the whole mixture is then placed in our vacuum chamber and is worked to ensure the resin thoroughly mixed. As soon as the two elements are added together, a chemical reaction commences whereby the mixture begins to heat up and begins to set. The mixture is useable for around 10 minutes, depending on room temperature before is goes solid.

The lid is then placed on the vacuum chamber, and air is sucked out until the atmosphere is equal to 1. The reason for doing this is to remove all air bubbles that are produced when mixing from the mixture. This step is repeated twice.

The liquid is then carefully removed from the chamber, and is slowly poured into the moulds.

After 24 hours the casts are removed from the moulds before being painted and mounted on fabric in frames.

The finished product has a low toxicity and in these days of heighten security are designed to break if any attempt is made to removed them from the frame. As a replica, the moulding is only a half impression of the original item.