Amongst the many trophies and awards we have produced, one prominent award was for 6 highly polished chrome finished rats. The customer allowed us to use an original of the award in order for us to make a silicone mould and then vacuum cast the rats in polyurethane plastic. We chose to use the vacuum casting process as the rat award had detail, and these can be highlighted in this process.

As we are sometimes working to a tight budget, vacuum casting is also a very cost effective way of producing replica models, and a multitude of finishing techniques can be attained to create effects such as gold, silver, bronze, antique or a distressed finish, and many other surface appearances that can be requested. To achieve the highly reflective, mirror-polished finish our model makers used a special 7 coat paint process which results in the effect of polished chrome.

In order to complete the trophy, the rat was mounted onto a wooden plaque ready for their presentation. As with many of our projects, award ceremonies create a tight deadline for us to meet, and in turn, a fast turnaround has become our area of expertise.

When an original piece is unavailable to copy, our in-house designers can create a 3D CAD model which we can then use to manufacture a master model either as a rapid prototype or using CNC machining.

Read more of the many types of models JH May have created over the years with the expert team.