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good decision...

and i like the idea to have sperate bones and such stuff for bases or as you stated on banners...really we need those i think...like making a decent crypt dungeon....with lots of scattered bones and skulls and bones burried in the walls...

I've been busily harvesting chicken bones (from rotisserie chickens) and I was actually thinking of casting and selling those- "Bag o' Bones". Would you be interested?

Vic - that is creepy! Would be sweet for Berzerkers!

Anvildude, wouldn't those bones be a bit big? Scale wise like a Dinosaur bone? Be cool to see though! Can you get some pics for scale before you cast them?

on a serious note... i think there could be a market for these monsterous sized bones... but personallly i am not able to buy planned things atm... sometimes i get some odd bitz of ebay but nothing with some sense in it... but i think that idea (if serious) could look good on the table... like a big elphant cemetry... just with giant bones...

Yay for casting fun! I love me some Smooth On stuff (though goddamn, shipping is a killer. Good thing I have a house an hour away )

Pro Tips: (wow... this actually is said without tongue in cheek)

1: If you do not have a vacuum or pressure chamber, you won't be able to get skulls or any fine detail to work. Your basic base for your second commissar though, that works fine, though even then I used pressure for the mold. The trouble is that your silicone, even the new Mold Star stuff, has trouble getting into all the crevasses. You can avoid that by brushing it on to really get it in there, then pouring the rest on, but it will still be tricky. You will still get bubbles sometimes, though a less viscous silicone like the blue stuff won't tend to form them just on any random surface like Mold Max 10 sometimes does.

2: Shake the gak out of your resin, but then let the bottles sit for about 10 minutes to let the bubbles come out. I don't know how long it takes for the individual parts A and B to separate (and need shaking) but it isn't 10 minutes, and that will let most of the bubbles out. I usually shake mine when I get up in the morning, and then only gently swirl them through out the day.

3: Humidity causes bubbles. Fast set resin (Smooth Cast 300 for example) doesn't have as much of an issue with that since it doesn't have much time to react with the water, but if your mold is wet (or contains plaster) it will bubble like a sumbitch. That's probably what happened to your base. I have the same issue if I try to use a slow set resin (322 is my fav) without a pressure tank; it looks like a still shot of a shaken up soda bottle.

So in general, if you are not using a vacuum chamber or pressure pot, avoid complicated and small things that won't let the bubbles out, and use a fast set resin. Don't make your models to cast with ANYTHING with water in it, or at least let the mold dry for a day or two if you do. Water doesn't mix with any part of this process.

4: I have never used mold release. I never really felt I needed to, but maybe I should? Theoretically you don't need it at all. Try it out without it.

In general, I found that anything at our scale other than very flat (no under cuts) bases really needed pressure to get good casts of. Before I got my pot I just made bases for the most part, and the occasional larger part, accepting a few bubbles. In terrain bases I didn't care much and larger things I just accepted some failures. Now though, I save a lot of resin and expect a 90% success rate. If you want to do it more often, with more complicated or tiny bits, you really want to go that way. I can tell you what kind of equipment you can get cheaply to get started. Probably will be 2-300$, plus or minus a bit since I can't keep track of odds and ends well

Oh, also, get some nitrile gloves for when you mix, and some shot glasses for measuring, with disposable plastic cups for mixing. Save your skin, and get easier measurements.

Yeah, most of them are too big. But some of the wing bones are just about the right size and shape for 28mm scale leg and arm bones.

really? i never have thought that chicken bones might be in scale for wargaming....

The chicken bones sound good for Legion of the Dammed

I do like the idea of the chicken bones, but I can't quite see the scale in my mind, And I don't have any bones at home to test right now.

@ Wehrkind - Thaks for the tips! I have actually ordered some of the stuff you mentioned already, and have some other stuff. I do want to get a pressure pot. I'm hoping I can get one at Harbor Frieght before too long, but we'll see.

I like the tip about brushing the silicone on the tiny bits before pouring the rest on!

I live in a very dry area, so humidity is not much of an issue, except when it is actually raining. And come to think of it, I did try to wash out some of the stuff from the mold before I poured the resin, I don't think I gave it enough time to dry. I'll watch that next time!

Plastic 1oz. measuring cups are on the way, along with wooden stir sticks. I have the nitrile gloves. Shake and let set. Good to know, I was wondering what to do with all the bubbles in the resin parts A and B.

I think these bases will be fine for my Plague Marines, they look decayed and broken, and when I add some ooze, blood and slime, they will be perfect! But for my Berzerkers, I want the skulls to look a bit more crisp and clean, so I will re-do the bases then...after I get the pressure pot.

Speaking of the bases...I airbrushed some paint on them last night, then drybrushed white to highlight the skulls.
The one with most of the eyeballs removed:


And the one with the eyeballs still in the skulls: (some of the eyeballs are broken, and I plan to make some sort of ooze coming out of them! Gross!)


And I made my own skull too! It's my first one, so I hope the next ones I do will look better.



And I got a primer coat of paint and the start of Zenithal highlights on the Female Military Leader:


I'm not a great painter, so we'll see how it turnes out.

The 2nd base with the eyes looks so creepy, awesomely so

And if I have been able to pull of reasonable zenith highlighting with a paintbrush, yours should be stunning with an AB and your skill

Just a warning, 1 oz is a LOT of resin, unless you have a lot of stuff to do. The fast dry stuff cures faster the more of it you mix because it is exothermic. Rather unpleasantly so if you mix a lot... but yea, I always have trouble guessing how much I need because it seems like such a tiny amount in the cup. Always good to have a few spare molds around for the rest!

As to cleaning out the molds, use resin to do that. Water needs to be no where near your molds. You could use rubbing alcohol, but resin will grab everything in the mold anyway, so I think you are better off just doing that. Get a base and a clean mold in one go!

Cheers for the heads up on where to get them skulls RSJake, they're about the best ones I've seen - and like you say - cheap too! They've got some really nice stuff in their store, I'll definitely be getting some of the skulls (and maybe one of those pin-up girl models too!) The base with the skulls with the eyeballs is definitely the best one, and the FML is looking really good.

Well, for a happy accident (inexperience) I like the eyeball base the best too! Now to just figure out how to do that on purpose! I might actually sculpt in some eyeballs when I make the final base mold, after I get the pressure pot.

Thanks guys for your input!

@ Wherkind -Thank you for your tips on mold and resin cast making! I was going to ask you most of the questions you already answered. I could have emailed them, but your answers might help others who want to get into mold making. I know they are already going to help me! Most tutorials skip over what can happen when you screw up!

By the way, the 1 oz. cups I'm getting are graduated, so they have marks for all sorts of different amounts. Right now I am using a medical syringe to draw the parts A & B, and squirt them into a cup for mixing. It seems to work quite well, I am just very careful to not let them touch!

I find that I like Drams as the unit of measurement myself. About 4 Drams is enough for 6 basic 28mm bases, or 3 28mm bases with a lot of extra mass. Still figuring out amounts for larger bases and such.

Alrighty then!

Right around 4 ML works great for these bases. There is a tiny bit left over, really only enough to make some cogs and sprockets and such. I need to make a mold for those!

I almost forgot!

I have received shipment of 6 more Female Military Leaders! The stock has been updated on the webstore, and they are ready shipment!

With more on the way soon! The new mold for the little bits works out much better, so I should be able to get all those spare torsos laying around their accouterments and to your mail box soon!

i like both bases to bitz!!! the eyeballed one looks very cool...creepy too...and with the prosepct of added goo...you need to get these out in your shop for the coming easter season market^^

your on skull i think is still a wip but it looks already convincingly as a skull...just not now as a human skull...but one could argue if it is some form of xeno...

Huzzah! Thanks!

you´re welcome^^

LOL! I missed you last post Vic! I was actually thanking Wehrkind, but thank you too!

If I had that pressure pot to make the bases batter, I might focus a bit more on them, but I have way too many projects that need my attention right now. I'll do a few of these, but not for mass production yet.

The skull. Yeah, it's a bit on the "not-quite-human" side, but I have already started to sand and file it a bit, and it looks better. I bit more "evil" than a real skull, but it's getting there.

Hell, I might just use the skulls I have and say to hell with it.

RSJake wrote:Well, for a happy accident (inexperience) I like the eyeball base the best too! Now to just figure out how to do that on purpose! I might actually sculpt in some eyeballs when I make the final base mold, after I get the pressure pot.

Thanks guys for your input!

For eyeballs, break open the filter from a water filter (I'd say use a Brita filter but I don't know if you have that brand over there) and you'll thousands of tiny eyeball sized round bits - you'll be able to make thousands of bases then - each one unique as you painstakingly fix eyeballs in using superglue and a pair of tweezers! (These also make great rivets)

Anvildude wrote:I find that I like Drams as the unit of measurement myself. About 4 Drams is enough for 6 basic 28mm bases, or 3 28mm bases with a lot of extra mass. Still figuring out amounts for larger bases and such.

Yeah Drams are good....we are talking about whiskey right? Oh. No we're not.

oh i did that with the brita waterfilters... one hell of a work to get at these^^

at jake... go for your own design! this is the first one ... next one will be much better...!


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i had to look it up...dram??? many where did you get to know about that stuff???

They're one of the units of measurement on the sides of some of those little plastic measuring cups. I just started using them 'cause they seemed to work better.


Now, on the Skull. I actually did a little bit of a study on human skulls once for an art project, and I found some intersting things.

First off, the eye sockets are generally shaped like rounded rectangles with a more heavily angled inner side, to fit the nose. The nose hole itself tends not to be an open triangle, but has a bone spur sticing up from the bottom, and the top of the bone triangle (the top point of the nose hole) projects a tiny bit from the brow.

The upper jaw with the teeth is only about 1/3 the size of the entire skull (maybe a little bit bigger), and the 'lip plate' angles out a tiny bit- what's left of when we had snouts.

The Cranium is actually relatively massive on human skulls- easily 3/4 of the entire thing. The forehead is at least as tall as the entire face portion, and the entire skull has a near-round profile from the side- it goes back about a face-and-a-half, with an occipital bunt (little lump) at the back above the neck.

There's two holes on the sides where the jaw muscles go- this part is generally ignored when making miniature skulls, aside from a little shelf just above where the base of the cranium is- which should line up about even with the bottom of the nose, leaving the upper pallatte and teeth sticking out from the bottom.

Hope that helps!

It does help! Thanks Anvildude!

I think I'm going to print out a picture of a skull to take home, and mark those points you listed on the picture!

good idea...

and avil...aha...well different countries i think... we dopn´t get them on our measuring cups...and i should know...cause i am the cook at home^^

Man I am loving those stempunk weapons. Also you sculpting skills. I have not really done much sculpting but I am abou to start some small projects.

Steampunk gun reference

Thanks Ferret! I'll be watching your blog, are you going to post them there?

Mordain - those are some interesting guns! I like the brsss pipe guns!

In other news:
I just talked to an IP lawyer. Finally someone who could tell me something about IP issues! He said without seeing the model in question, and comparing it to anything from GW, I should keep mine as "generic" as possible. And I think so too. So she is now officially called the Female Military Leader! Or, "FML" for short. You know I just googled FML, and it is ALL OVER the place! I got like over 2 million hits! You can't beat those results!

if you tuned the letters around you get even more hits...


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at mordain...yep, some of those guns were pretty brilliant!

You realize 'FML' stands for 'Frak my Life', in common internet parlance, right?

And glad I could be of help. For one reason or another, I find skulls to be something I'm actually pretty good at.