RE: Scratch Built 1/8 Scale Azure AZ279 Build Thread
After sanding the rough mold, I sealed and flexed (waxed) the rough mold. In real boat manufacturing, the top builders do not hand wax the molds. This leads to wax buildup, which leads to dull parts.
I chose to seal the mold with a sealer that fills all of the tiny pores in the mold that would trap gasses or styrene in full size boats. I then applied 6 coats of FLEX 5 mold release. Flex 5 is a very slippery release agent that is too aggressive for production boat building. If the mold is too slippery, the part will detatch from the mold before it is cured, and the hull or deck will look "dented" or wavy down the sides. Since my rough mold had many tooling marks, rough surfaces, and foam texture, this "pre-release" issue would not be a problem since I had a stronger mechanical bond with the mold surface.
The final fiberglass plug came out just as I had imagined. It looked like the foam plug with all of the tooling CNC marks and rough texture, however, the convex shapes were slightly sanded to remove the tooling marks.