To achieve the glossy insect eyes we wanted for the mantids I tested a variety of options for vacu-forming over the eyes.
I separated his eyes and head core from two plastic casts, and carved them to fit together with the dremel; the eyes and head core were then molded individually. This was done so that the edge of the vacu-forms could wrap around and nest in between the two pieces without being seen.
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Originally, we were planning on back painting vacu-forms to nest over the mantis couple's eyes. After trying out two different thicknesses of petg we decided the thin back painted vacu-forms didn't give us the machined look we wanted, and the thicker petg smoothed the planes of the eye too much. I did a test with thin clear petg on top of a painted eye and we decided it gave us the look we were going for and kept the integrity of the sculpt.