Well, the rubber impression worked. It's nice and thick and holds its shape well. And it's good that it's flexible. Wouldn't have been able to peel it off the clay head otherwise. Which is why I did it with rubber.

The pink thing is an alginate test cast of the inside of the rubber impression. It's full of bubbles (another indifferent casting job), but it tells me what it needs to, that the rubber impression came off without any glitches.

Aside from the more glamorous stuff, i've been doing inumerable little tests. The plan is to make two halves of a full-head liquid latex mask, which i'll then attach (in certain points) to a resin shell. I was thinking that I had to account for the thickness of the rubber mask when making the resin shell, and somehow cast the inside of the rubber mask. But a previous attempt with the mask told me that I might not have to; can just stretch the mask a little bit over a resin shell of the exact same size. It'll increase the size of the head slightly, which would be good.

But I have to figure out;

Will liquid latex bond to itself, and if so, what kind of mold release will work

Will epoxy glue bond the latex to cured fiberglass resin

Will fiberglass resin bond to the rubber impression; if so, mold release.

Can I make the shell out of pure resin, or do I need to embed reinforcement in it

Is the resin going to be brittle enough to saw and cut

Is the resin going to be so brittle that bolts will crack it

What colour and how much do I have to tint the rubber mask

Is the rubber mask going to be opaque enough so that the whole thing won't be see-through in strong light

There's lots more I can't think of of the top of my head. Point is, there's all sorts of ways for it to not work. And i'd like to forstall all those potential screw ups to make this thing work.