http://www.replicasinresin.com/

Replicas in Resin, Wesley Chapel, FL (2025)

10/23/2024

More Milton aftermath: about an 80’ oak tree downed on our property, the top is up against the (distant) neighbor’s house. Had it fallen the opposite direction we would be homeless. Thanks, Milty, for your forbearance!

10/12/2024

Lost power Wednesday evening. Due to my 24/7 oxygen needs we bugged out to a neighbor/friend with a generator. 48 hours until power was restored. Tons of tree debris and water standing on our eastern acre, but the house was untouched. Tamara & houseguests got stung by black-face hornets in a nest on a downed branch by our front porch (pictured).
Other than that we were spared the worst of Milton!

09/26/2024

Heard a crackle, looked up from the screen porch just as this came down, maybe 12” diameter base. Nice kettledrum audio when it hit the ground!

07/24/2024

It is with great sorrow that I share the obituary of my brother, Richard Chapman. He was a man of intelligence, warmth, and humor, and is sorely missed.

05/13/2024

“Old mold makers…
just mold away!”

I’d like to indulge in a recap of my experience in sculpting, mold-making, and casting.

In my elementary school years I was bedridden with mononucleosis and my amazing mother taught me how to sculpt with oil-based clay, building forms from simple rolls, spheres and discs.

In 1964 I made my first molds and casts to create a monster-themed chess set. The only available materials were latex rubber and a funky translucent pink polyester resin from the Castolite company.

My professional career has been a wild mashup of overlapping and interleaving jobs. I spent 8 years as an archaeologist, 10 years as a museum exhibit technician, over 6 years as the chief mold maker at a manufacturer of artificial cadavers, 2 years as the sole mold maker at a concrete statuary company, 2 years as the custom mold maker for concrete stamping tools, over 1 year making molds for ceramic slip-casting – all interspersed with creating monumental-scale sculptures, molds, and resin replicas for private individuals, commercial display companies, and theme parks and entertainment companies such as Walt Disney World Resorts, Universal Studios, Busch Gardens, and Nickelodeon Studios.

Now it’s wrap-up time. I have been diagnosed with acute pulmonary failure – fibrosis and emphysema, including “particulate groundglass infiltration” of my lungs from years of fiberglassing (despite my rigorous adherence to wearing organic fume respirators). After 2 weeks in the hospital, I am home under the care of hospice services. I will be on oxygen 24/7 the rest of my life, with my activity level severely curtailed. My molding and casting days are over, although I hope to keep up a little sculpting. I’m going to be offloading tools (including a large motorized rotation casting machine), materials, supplies, cast resin products including fossil replicas, and usable molds.

I may be withdrawing from the field – but, hey, I figure 60 years was a pretty respectable run!

02/15/2024

As well as Valentine's Day, today is the birthday of my mother, Eleanor Eliza Finley Chapman. She was a woman of so many talents - author, artist, professional illustrator, to name a few. She read me aloud The Lord of the Rings trilogy in its entirety as bedtime stories, and taught me to draw, paint, and sculpt. She was such a genteel, urbane, and loving woman. After 37 years I still miss her deeply.

12/18/2023

Started on a different kind of project - feline gravestones in the style of old New England monuments. The tricky part is figuring out a way to cast them with changeable epitaphs, rather than having to carve the letters into concrete.

03/26/2023

I’m finally able to post pictures of my latest project – one hundred 6” tall figurines of a cliff diver, for the Rosa Mexicano Restaurant in the Swan and Dolphin, in Walt Disney World Resorts, Orlando, Florida. (The restaurant is inside the Dolphin Hotel.)

John Gay, the Project Manager, sought local artists rather than farm out the work to distant corporations – an attitude I respect and for which I’m grateful! It was a rather tight deadline. I had 23 working days to create molds of the figurine I was given, then cast, finish, paint, and deliver them. I made 2-piece poured block molds as that was the most expedient. The rubber was SmoothOn Rebound 40 (turquoise color), simply because I had it in stock from a previous project, and didn’t have to wait on shipping. It’s good material but this was not the best use of it – I “burned up” 4 molds producing the figures! I then switched to Rebound 25 (salmon color) which I also had in stock. The pieces were poured in SmoothOn Smooth-Cast 305, a polyurethane resin. It has very low viscosity and a longer working time than many others, allowing me to cast 3 figures at a time before the resin began to gel.

I admire the way the figurines were installed. They are mounted on vertical panels of wavy, blue-green tile, reminiscent of water. The figurines form vertical columns that are like stop-frames of a cliff-diving video, with the divers upright on the top row and sequentially tilting forward until the bottom-row figures are head-down. There are 2 panels, each with 2 sides facing adjacent rooms in the restaurant. In total, 84 figurines were mounted, with the remainder reserved as replacements in case of loss or damage.

This was the largest number of casts of a single object that I have made in one run, in nearly 35 years of professional mold making and resin casting!

You can see more of my work at:

www.replicasinresin.com

03/12/2023

I have been making jewelry molds for Debra Peisner of Creativeflow Jewelry Design & Repairs in Tampa, Florida (see link in comments). The rubber I use, Nicem 940, is very translucent and correspondingly hard to photograph!

Here is a typical mold I produce, from which wax copies are cast before investing for casting in precious metals. This set of rings has decorative elements that protrude on each side of the shank (the main body of the ring). I rolled a thin layer of clay and imbedded the rings up to the shank on one side. Reusable walls made of cut strips of melamine board were built around the array and the first half of the rubber poured over them. (I vacuum degas the rubber before pouring and place the mold afterward in a pressure tank at 60 psi.)

The first picture shows the rubber half with the ring models still in it and the bedding clay partly rolled back. Notches are cut into opposite edges of the rubber to provide registration for the second mold half. The second photo shows the mold half with the melamine walls reassembled around it. Amaco Permoplast clay is heated in a microwave, quickly rolled into coils, and finger-smoothed around the seams to prevent leakage of the rubber. This takes far less time than using tape or hot glue and is reusable and easy to remove. After the second rubber half is poured, I cut sprues with a sharpened brass tube and widen their outsides to form a cone that fits the wax injection port. The mold is labeled on both halves using a small metal cutting gouge. The final picture shows the final mold - and demonstrates how unphotogenic the material is! Only a few of the 8 sprues can be seen.

It took a few molds and feedback from Mrs. Peisner before we found a procedure that yielded consistently usable molds. Wax is fussy stuff!

You can see more of my work at:

www.replicasinresin.com

10/13/2022

Halloween skulls – lot of 15 - $75

Pickup only in Quail Hollow area of Wesley Chapel – no shipping or delivery

Back row, left to right:

Commercial clear/mirror light plastic; commercial translucent light plastic; 2 commercial opaque light plastic; heavy clear resin (see full description below); medical grade resin with acrylic eyes; medical grade resin.

Front row, left to right:

4 prematures, cast resin with mandibles; 2 juveniles, cast resin with mandibles (one is partly translucent & has a hole in the back for lighting); 2 medical grade resin with aged patina.

The clear resin skull at center back and in the second photo is hollow-cast in heavy, clear polyurethane resin and has a hole in the back for lighting. Shown lit, but it is clear, not blue – the second photo is better.
Many of the skulls (prematures, juveniles, and clear) were molded and cast by myself.

07/07/2022

Toilet molds for Mr. Beast!

A couple of months ago I posted a teaser about something I called “Mr. T’s Wild Ride” (no, nothing to do with the A-Team actor, nor with the Wind in the Willows character). I can now finally reveal what the project was.

The “T” was for Toilet! I was approached by Liz Marek of the Sugar Geek Show, who was apparently working for the famous YouTuber, Mr. Beast, for an episode called “Toilet Bowl Cake – W***y Wonka’s Chocolate Factory by Mr. Beast”. If you haven’t seen it, the basic gig was contestants guessing which of four toilets was NOT real, but instead was made of cake. There seems to have been a lot of confusion and controversy involved in the production. My understanding at the time was that Liz was going to create the toilet cake for Mr. Beast’s show, and she was hiring me to make a mold of a full-size toilet, which she would use to cast a chocolate copy.

So, I purchased the actual toilet she specified, along with a considerable quantity of molding rubber and fiberglass supplies. I worked daylight and starlight (getting up every two hours to build up new rubber layers) to meet a 10-day deadline, to produce 1 small and 3 large molds. I was under an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) not to post progress pictures. I just found out the video was posted about a month ago, freeing me to show what I made.

The large molds – the toilet bowl, seat/lid, and tank – I made as multiple-piece, brushed-on silicone rubber, encased in sectional fiberglass support shells. The rubber had keyways – raised rectangular ridges – on the exterior, to lock the rubber into the corresponding shell segment. The seam lines were flanged and bolted together; the exteriors of the shells were coated and sanded for safe handling. I created a removable pour plug for the seat/lid element, allowing it to be poured solid or laid up in layers. As well, I made a small poured-block mold of the flush handle (not shown – I was too rattled to think of it!)

The largest of the finished molds topped 30” long and weighed 40 pounds.

My best understanding is that it was decided not to use the molds to produce the cake toilet for the show; perhaps it was formed by hand? In any case I was paid, and pleased with the results I achieved.

This may have been the most grueling project I have ever taken on, in terms of the amount of labor within such a tight deadline. I’m both proud and grateful that I was able to complete it in time!

05/15/2022

Dramatic “life” size wall hanging of a Gorgosaurus libratus skull in faux bronze, 26” long. I was lent a cast of the actual skull, AMNH 5664, a famous juvenile specimen from Alberta, Canada. The perimeter on the original fossil was slightly cupped, and the nasal ridge was caved in, so I made

05/05/2022

TBRLT (To be revealed later teaser!)

I just finished what I’ll call “Mr. T’s Wild Ride” (no, nothing to do with the A-Team actor).

I worked daylight and starlight to meet a 10-day deadline to produce 1 small and 3 very large molds. I’m under an NDA (non-disclosure agreement), so for now, I can’t share pictures or even descriptions. Phooey – but “it comes with the turf”!

I can say the large molds were multiple-piece, brushed-on silicone rubber, encased in sectional fiberglass support shells. The rubber had keyways – raised rectangular ridges – on the exterior, to lock the rubber into the corresponding shell segment. The seam lines were flanged and bolted together; the exteriors of the shells were coated and sanded for safe handling.

The largest of the finished molds topped 30” long and weighed 40 pounds.

This may have been the most grueling project I have ever taken on, in terms of the amount of labor within such a tight deadline. I’m both proud and grateful that I was able to complete it in time!

04/13/2022

I'm clearing old stock found during cleaning my studio.
Here is a 6" Megalodon shark tooth replica, cast in cultured marble from a mold of a real tooth found in Florida. It has the weight and feel of the actual fossil. Only 4 are available, as I can no longer procure this resin in affordable quantities.
$35 each; add $10 for continental USA shipping in a USPS Small Flat Rate box.

04/05/2022

Going through old stock in my studio. Here's the latest offering:

Miniature Tyrannosaurus rex skulls (not my sculpture). 5” long, average weight approximately 5 ounces. Made of cast marble. Hand-painted on integrally colored black resin. The bottom is felted to protect the surface below it. The top is slightly concave, making it handy for storing keys, coins, etc. (The quarter is for scale only.)

Currently only 3 sets of 4 available.
$25 per set, add $10 for shipping in a USPS Small Flat Rate Priority box.

For more offerings, please check my website:

www.replicasinresin.com

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02/13/2022

SOLD... to the client who originally commissioned it. I'm delighted!

$750. Absolute bottom price, half off the original listing! I need the room it takes up.

A large, dramatic wall hanging of a Viking ship prow with a dragon figurehead. A colossal décor conversation piece for Mediaeval and/or Viking enthusiasts!

5’ 8” high, about 30 pounds weight. Entirely handmade. I molded and cast it from a client’s classic 1950 sculpture. Appearance is of carved wood with metal fittings. Made of hand painted, rotation-cast resin with a rigid foam and steel core. Hanging hardware included.

This is part of a VERY limited edition – only 3 were made – this is the last one! Pickup only, Quail Hollow area of Wesley Chapel, FL. I can meet you at the 7-11 on the corner of Wesley Chapel Blvd. (SR 54) and Old Pasco Road.

01/29/2022

The Malden “A” plate, 15” high by 5-1/4” wide, is a Native American copper plaque of the Mississippian culture, made around 1300 A.D. It portrays a hawk figure with a human head, the top piece of a stack of 8 plates found in 1906 in Missouri. My mother, Eleanor F. Chapman, used aboriginal-style tools to craft an exact replica of it in sheet copper. The tail of the original was missing due to plow damage, so Eleanor reconstructed it, drawing on her extensive experience working with similar plates from the same era.
Almost 50 years later, I have made a silicone rubber mold of her artwork and reproduced it in resin with a realistic copper finish. I first formed a clay bed to make the plate thick enough (about ¼”) to cast in integrally-dyed resin. The plate is available as a wall hanging, with a “sawtooth” fixture on the back. Included with it is more detailed information about the history of the original plate and its replica.
$35 ($38 through PayPal), with $8 shipping to anywhere in the continental USA.

11/21/2021

Bindi, 13 but still kitten size, atop a resin replica of a crocodile skull I made in 1997 for Busch Gardens' Edge of Africa.

Replicas in Resin