This is an instructable on how to make your own Han Solo in Carbonite chocolate bar! But using these basic instructions you can make ANY kind of chocolate bar or mold!

So what I used was food grade silicone. There are many brands who have different names for it.

There are different grades, cures, durometers, (how flexible it is)pot life, (how long you have to work with before it cures)

So you must double check each products specifications.

The main difference is that food grade silicone is non toxic and is platinum cured versus tin cured.

The specific product I used was Smooth on Sil 940, sampler size.

http://www.smooth-on.com/liqrubr.htm

It's 2 lbs and about 40 bucks. But it's easily enough to do a few molds. The kit comes with complete instructions and there is a phone tech support in case you get lost.

Just googling "food grade silicone" will find you what your looking for.

Here is the same product, different company, on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Food-Grade-Mold-Making-Silicone-36oz-Kit-ChocCandy_W0QQitemZ110068383572QQihZ001QQcategoryZ41207QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

Find some place near you that sells it, Tap plastics will be carrying it soon.

You will need the following materials:
-Han Solo in Carbonite toy
-Foamcore (it's usually white paper with a foam core)
-Glue gun with a few sticks
(Big tip here, you can use Legos instead of the foamcore/gluegun method, I'll explain later)
-Food grade silicone ( if you ever wish to use food products in the mold, otherwise regular silicone will work)
-Baking chocolate

I watched all of the videos available on Tap plastics website before I even started. I suggest you do the same to make the process full proof :) Especially on mold making!

http://www.tapplastics.com/info/video.php

Remember you can cast any object. And if you can cast any object you can mold anything into chocolate!

Someone out there is already working on a battle of hoth scene in chocolate. Complete with chocolate AT-ATs and powdered sugar for snow!

Step 1: Building Your Box Mold.

You have to build a box around your object out of foamcore.

Or even cooler you can use your old Legos to make a box mold.
Here is a link with the basics.

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/basics/jc_molds.htm

I however had my Legos maliciously taken away from me at a very early age so I'll be using foamcore.

First using your glue-gun, glue your object to be molded onto a flat foam core peice. You want to create a seal all around the base of the object so silicone does not flow under the object.

Using the glue gun then glue a box around the object leaving a quarter of an inch to a half inch all the way around. This will make the mold strong and less prone to warping.

The particular food grade silicone, the Smooth sil 940 is easy to mix. I just poured the complete bottle into the silicone tub.
However each silicone is different. Double check your silicones instructions.

'Pouring silicone'
You're going to pour in your silicone. Best way is to start at a corner and let the silicone flow in/onto the mold and not pour directly on the mold. This helps reduce bubbles.

Let it cure for 24 hours then you remove the cured silicone from the foamcore box mold.

It's going to need post curing in a oven but use the instructions for your specific silicone product.

Step 2: Melting the Chocolate, Making Your Mold

The silicone will take 24 hours to dry.

The specific product I used needs post curing in the oven for 4 hours at 212 F.

After baking your mold, wash it out and it's ready to use.

There are two ways to melt chocolate
Here are the videos I followed, using only the first two links.

http://www.ghirardelli.com/bake/chocolate.aspx

Basically you put a pot in boiling water and your chocolate into that pot. If you put your chocolate on a regular pan over a flame you risk burning the chocolate!

Melted chocolate on fingers isn't as bad as a melted glue stick on fingers! And you get to lick them clean.

mmmm chocolate...

Step 3: Demolding

After a few hours in the fridge Han Solo was ready for Jabba, I mean for demolding. Here is the final product. Since I gave it to my brother early I now plan on making a wrapper with graphics for my brothers birthday present. Mom's life mask was given as is and she loved it.

I noticed a few air "voids" on Han Solo and these are just really small spaces that are hard for the chocolate to flow too. In order to avoid the voids just use the spatula to force the chocolate into the small spots. Also a vibrating source will let the bubbles flow out. Sometimes massaging tools are just enough.

The possibilities of chocolate making are unlimited. Some other ideas include making a hollow cast, much like chocolate bunny and then pouring ice cream into the hollow cavity. Or adding cocoa powder, or powdered sugar, there are special edible transfer sheets that are often seen on the more expensive Godiva chocolate.

This was my first attempt and I hope you enjoyed it and it inspires you! Feel free to email me or instant message me!

All comments are welcome!

Thanks,
Chris Koehne