Making The Grenade

I chose to make a mills bomb replica for the grenade as it is one of the most used and recognisable grenade that were used by the British in WW2. I also chose it because I liked the shape and details.

Mills Bomb Replica

I started making this by using a resin replica of the bomb to cast. I did consider making the grenade from scratch but I had no real idea of dimension and detail even after the visit to the war museum so I could never really have made it as realistic as I would have like to in this way. To make the rubber mould I made a wooden box which was sealed with clay the stop hot rubber leaking out and also used clay to stick the grenade to the bottom and to seal the holes left by the pin in the replica. I heated up the vinamould and poured it, unfortunately the box was too large and the rubber didn’t cover the grenade fully which was frustrating but I melted more and poured that over, but by this time the first batch had already cooled. Once the second lot of rubber was completely cooled I removed the box which revealed the mould to be in near enough two parts, whilst more convenient for pouring I was worried about the affect this would have on the finish of the grenade if there were big obvious seams and cracks.

Only partially covered

Concerned over the quality of the mould

 As with the boots I wanted to add flowers inside the grenade to contradict its initial purpose as much as possible so the flowers were where gunpowder and explosive would have been. It help that this also made it look much more feminine.  The initial plan colour wise was for the resin to be clear but after looking at the gas mask goggles with the sepia looking colour but with a bit of transparency I though that would be a more interesting effect that would pay more of a homage to the era than a more polished but modern looking clear resin. I also used a purple resin to highlight the detail at the top of the grenade.

Purple Resin in the top

I poured the resin in added a few of the foam roses and real flowers and left to dry and repeated that until I reached the top of the mould. One idea that I really wanted to pursue for this object was to make it in to a light. I just liked the idea of have an explosive device which as a weapon would have caused fires, therefore light, doing the some but as a small homely product, it felt contradictory but made sense still because of this. I have some small lights which replicate the light of a candle so the light flickers like a flame and had a plastic fake flame at the top. This was perfect to use as the source of the lighting for the grenade but the white plastic bottom was not fitting so I made a crochet cover for it to disguise it but still make the battery accessible. To attach this to the grenade to make it in to a lamp I put the plastic flame part in to the hole in which I poured the resin (which was the bottom) and it dried in to the resin making it a whole product.

Light inside the mould when drying

This is how the grenade looked just from the mould

            When I removed the grenade form the mould after the resin was dried I was pleasantly surprised with the results as I thought the two sections may have warped the shape too much or the plastic in the flame may melt, but this didn’t happen. However it defiantly didn’t some out finished as some small bits around the seams of the rubber were in need of sanding and filing to get a good finish. I used a combination of rotary tool fittings to sand down intricate areas quickly and then wet and dry sand paper to get a smooth finish.

Finished Grenade

With Light on

One thing I think about this product it that the light isn’t quite as strong as I would have liked, but this may be because of the resin not being a proper transparent colour and the flowers my cover the light a bit. This process has taught me a bit more about the process of rubber mould and making sure the box is an appropriate size because the one I used was just too big which has affected the outcome. I would like another go at doing this with a smaller box to get a better mould but I cant because time constraints. I am pleased with the outcome despite this though and the light work nicely, it’s just frustrating that I know I can do this better, but as I said the grenade as it is looks good.