Whilst on a recent visit to the Manchester Museum with my four year old son, we went to the natural history section as he wanted to see the T-Rex skeleton. Whilst he was being amazed by the skeleton, I glanced at the exhibit description on the far wall and and stumbled upon a rather good technique.

Named after Stan Sacrison, the amateur palaeontologist who discovered the skeleton, Stan the T. rex was excavated by the Black Hills Institute in 1992 from the Badlands in South Dakota.

What interested me was how they built the exhibit in the museum. It turns out that the 'bones' on display are not the real ones but exact copies, duplicated using silicone. When I looked a little closer at the duplication technique, I noticed that due to the complex and varied shapes and sizes of the bones, they were using LEGO to make the moulds. A large grey baseboard was placed on the table and the bone to be duplicated was placed over it. Then a wall of LEGO was built onto the baseboard around the bone to the exact size and dimensions required to create the mould. I immediately thought about maxillofacial technology and dental technology to a point. I know I am not a practising maxillofacial technician but I could see a place for this when labs need to make customised moulds for different shapes and sizes.

I 'Googled' some keywords and found out that I am not the only one to have noticed this technique. Some amateur model makers have documented one technique using LEGO here.

I'm sure I'm not the first to realise the benefits of using LEGO as a duplication mould former as some of you may already use it, but I though I would share it with you nonetheless.

Peter Gough