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I want an icey disk of tzeentch for my Chaos Sorceress to ride on...
Ok I sculpted an iceberg shape out of cork and used PVA glue to drip off it and make icicle shapes. This was then latex moulded and all went well.
The problem is now.... I assumed clear nail varnish would set solid.... but it isn't, its been 2 days now and its still squidgy (but not tacky)
Has anyone else ever tried anything like this?
will it set hard eventually or do i need to find something else instead of varnish?
If so what? I'm all out of ideas and I'm getting impatient.

Clear nail varnish typically dries quickly in its normal application because so little is applied. Surface area allows the chemical reaction to take place more quickly, rather than asking a puddle to dry. Gotcha?

K. Head out to the local arts and crafts place (I'm thinking Michaels or Joanns, but this is the US. Find 1 for the UK and go there) and find yourself a clear urethane casting resin. NOW you're rockin'. Follow directions for application (thickness, mold release, etc.)

Bam! Glacial flying disk.

Cheers dude, big help. Gona have to make another mould i think as I don't think i'll be getting the nail varnish out too easily!

Yeah, your mold is trash, toss it.

Clear resin dries pretty fast. The one I use takes 24 hours to totally cure (I'm not a fan of it so I won't recommend it here). One thing you might want to try is casting 2 of the disks, and then sanding one of them all over with very fine grade sandpaper to give it a frosted appearance, see how that looks.

Cool thanks dude, I was going to use snow effects but that is a better idea.

Also another idea:

At my craft store, their are additives in the casting aisle for the resins and such to make them different colors. If you wanted white (or off white. Maybe a hint of blue? Research glacial ice), look for that, or check and see if you can mix some paint into it.

This will take some research to do properly, otherwise your results will be less than the preferred quality.

But if it does work, you can go a couple directions from there. Water effects, icicles, snow flock...

Good luck.

I did think about adding colours, I think I'll have a mess around with it as the only resin i could get was quite a big bottle lol so there will be plenty over to make a few.

BAN wrote:... I think I'll have a mess around with it as the only resin i could get was quite a big bottle lol so there will be plenty over to make a few.

ALWAYS good to have extra. In case of those freak accidents and/or mistakes

Wish you the best of luck, casting can be a real pain (but worth it).
Get some pictures up when you've got some results, if ya can.

The pictures are mainly going in the blog. Made this coz i wanted a quick repy


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got some clear cast polyurethane resin... it didn't work, it bubbled up like crazy like it was reacting with the mould.

More likely you just had bubbles in your resin mix.

When resin sets up - it generates heat (sometimes a lot of heat, sometimes a little heat). Either way - heat.

When gas is heated, it expands (that whole PV=T formula in the gas law).

When you stir a liquid, you generally fold in air.

So - the air which is folded in during the mixing process is heated by the curing of the resin and it expands in volume based on the change in temperature.

In order to avoid this - you can be very, very, very careful while mixing and make sure that you don't have any air trapped in the mold creases when you add the resin (a brush is helpful to push the resin into the corners and creases. You can use a vacuum degassing system to remove the air from the resin after it is mixed and before it sets up. You can use a pressure system to make the air bubbles tiny - so that you don't notice them as much.

Trying to get a clear and bubble free resin cast without using something a little extra though is a good sized PITA. I like pressure casting myself, though I have a rig for degassing as well when I really want to get the bubbles out.

Lol i'll take a picture of the mess that it produced so you can see what you think i should do.