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aerethan wrote:
To remove the mold, disassemble your legos until the mold is sitting on the glass alone. Then, flip the glass over and carefully pull one corner of the mold off until you can see it start to let go thru the glass. Do this in small sections and slowly so that you don't tear the mold.

Would this part of the process be made easier by a quick shot of mold release on the glass and masters, or would that affect the mold compound differently than it does resin?

aerethan wrote:

There's allot of wasted silicon in that mold. A centimeter spacing between the parts and the sides of the mold box is plenty for minatures. When I make open face molds like that I try to cram in as much as possilbe to elimiate wasted space. Both found objects and chopped up styrene model kits are great for this.

BLACKHAND wrote:

This is the amount I usually leave around the masters, probably not enough but the silicone I use is pretty flexible plus I am cheap as they come and don't want to use more silicone then I have to


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edit : Oh and hungryp, I personally don't use mould release as most of these silicons have so much flex that they peel of things like glass and plastic pretty easily

hungryp wrote:

Would this part of the process be made easier by a quick shot of mold release on the glass and masters, or would that affect the mold compound differently than it does resin?

I use mold release on the glass and masters but not the legos as they pry right off.


Yes I wasted alot of silicone, it's been about a year since I've made a mold, and I was using backup silicone anyway so I wasn't worried about it and didn't measure out my volume first. Todays mold was a last minute decision.

Keep in mind that resin WILL stick to glass quite strongly, so use a release if resin will contact it while curing.

Tomorrow I'll post pics of how I do single side casts with perfectly flat bottoms.

Awesome looking forward to it .

I've ordered some linka molds of ebay for link 99p so hopefully I'll win them and then I'll have some interesting stuff to add to bases and the like. I also took a look at Hirst again, unfortunately its just an expense I can't afford atm so it'll have to be shelved for now, along with my dreams of a battlefoam case. Whoever said students had it easy obviously wasn't a gamer .


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Ok so the good news is that I won one of the Linka molds , the bad news is that I also bought a LR, a thunderfire cannon, a ten man assault squad and a bits box including two tanks in it . Something tells me I'm going to be a bit busy for the next few weeks .

aerethan wrote:

hungryp wrote:

Would this part of the process be made easier by a quick shot of mold release on the glass and masters, or would that affect the mold compound differently than it does resin?

I use mold release on the glass and masters but not the legos as they pry right off.

BLACKHAND wrote:
I personally don't use mould release as most of these silicons have so much flex that they peel of things like glass and plastic pretty easily

So, needing it will depend on the mold compound, but it can't hurt I guess?

Also: Loving the advice in this thread. Good job guys!

I use mold release on masters out of habit and it also helps prevent the silicone from bonding with the master.

On low detail items like bases it shouldn't be a problem, but on something like a model you will NEED to use release when making the mold and when casting resin.

SilverMK2 wrote:Since you are in the UK, try talking to the guys at Tomps (online store). From what I have heard, they are pretty good at helping people out if they are not quite sure what they want/need. Their prices also seem pretty reasonable.

Thank you so much for this tip Silver, I just got of the phone with these guys they're absolutely brilliant. The chap I talked to really took the time to help me understand which products might be good for me and which ones certainly weren't, in addition he wasn't pushy about me buying the most expensive products. All in all a 10/10 customer experience for me.

No problem

I've ordered casting stuff from them before on the advice of endtransmission, who said they were very helpful, so I'm glad that you found them so too

Nice to see you changed the name of the thread blackhand.

Hehe, I am still considering changing it to "Dakka's general casting tutorial" I am only one voice in a large discussion now.

You get credit for it as I've always just been too lazy to start a thread and post WiP pics lol

Might be a good idea to make the 1st post have a list of Silicone, Resin and Mold release in each country (or area) that has been used successfully.

I agree with WM... good idea....

Yep. It'd be good if we could have like a sidebar in the threads to show important stuff and what page it's on. Thanks BLACKHAND for starting this and keeping it and my hobby going. Kudos up to wazoo.

For American buyers you can get Oomoo 25 1:1 resin from www.theengineerguy.com. You can also get Smooth Cast 300 resin there as well.

Australian buyers (Perth specifically), try Kirkside in Osborne Park. The links are on the first page of this thread.

UK buyers start with Tomps.com, very helpful and knowledgeable, will really help you get what you need.

There you go guys I have added a list to the first post with your suggestions, thanks for reposting them so they were easy to find, I still trawled through the blog to find any other ones PM me if I have missed anything

I'd also like to plug myself for a mold maker.

If you don't have the resources or skill to make molds or casts, PM me and we can work something out. I can either sell you a mold or sell you casts.

I figure this will save cost for people who just want copies of that one shoulder they designed or head or whatever without the cost of buying entire batches of resin and silicone. I always stock both so I can make a mold any time.

Very cool Aerethan I will add that to the OP

Perhaps after I sell enough I can buy a nice little vacuum setup. Long pit life+ vacuum chamber= no more bubbles ever!

Nice tutorial, does anyone know where to get moulding quality silicone in the UK?

check the first post giant peanut all the details are there

Great Tutorial!!


quick question whats a good releasing agent that wont break the bank???

like pinkysil and easycast do i need a releasing agent for the oomoo 25 and smooth cast resin 300?

I use both of those products and I don't use release for it.

The oomoo will degrade over time as that is the nature of resin, but the resin won't stick to silicone so you don't need releaser.

is there a shop that sells pinkysil and easycast here in the US??

easycast is utter crap if it's the one I'm thinking of. 24 hour demold time and I have yet to get rigid pulls. A waste of money.

Either go with Smooth On's smooth cast 300 series or get the Micro Mark resin. Only bummer about Micro Mark is that they don't take paypal(unless that changed recently, been a while since I've ordered from them).

Might be something different you are thinking of Aerethan, the easycast I use demolds in about 10 mins or less if you use a heat lamp, 25 mins if you don't

I used Easy Cast clear casting resin

http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=386

Can't get this stuff to work worthwhile for anything besides bases.


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And smooth cast has a nice short 5 minute demold anyway.