Ta answer your questions....yes some molds are wood.. but quckly gets turned over to a better less...dingable product like rondo or a molding thingy ,,i cant think of the name right now.......i started with plaster , becouse you can really work with that and then once i got the shapes where i wanted i put in the final details. then i did deep pulls in hips and with the pulls from that i poured in the harder stuff...it is process that is very long and tiring but fun.....for good looking armor you want to find abd that is smooth on both sides...it is a bit more money.. the hips is fine but is brittle and doesn't offer a lot of movement....i went with .060 white flexible abs on my first sets and it was nice.......anything else??