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I've seen some pretty horrific sights in toilets when I was working in pubs. I won't give you details.

Dave and Theo: You need to give this stuff a try.
It's reusable, so you can test it on anything and if it doesn't work just chuck it back in the hot water and try again.

On the hot water thing; Once your water is below the ideal temperature you will need more fresh hot water. If it's not hot enough you'll only make the mould rubbery and not soft enough to do the job.

I've pulled out a thermos flask so I can boil a load of water and then take that to my desk and pour out enough for each mould stick, and then dispose of the cooled water and pour out more hot water for the next mould. Saves running down to the kettle (or even boiling a kettle) for each mould. A mug of hot water won't stay hot enough for more that a couple of moulds even if you work quickly.

And further to the registration key thing I mentioned last time: I gave it a go with a couple of beads but found a much better way in the process.
The problem with the key making is that for it to work you need to get the second mould to go right into the holes that you made in the first. But this is difficult as the Oyumaru is not being poured into the mould like you would with RTV silicone and so you don't end up with reliable, perfect keys.
However, I found that when I made the first half of the mould I ended up with it in quite a unique shape (see below) and just pressing the second half around the first led to a much better registration key that locks the two halfs together perfectly.

As you can see, I've been casting the masters for box number 1.
I kind of pushed the Oyumaru too far around the box original really and I've ended up using more putty than necessary and leaving me with a fair amount of clean-up work to do (not to mention being a little tricky to extract the casts from the moulds, but the flexibility helps).

There is a few little bits of "damage" to the casts, but nothing a little tidying won't solve and anything that isn't solved just adds to the uniqueness of the parts.

I shall return after much sanding...

Can't you just use a pot of water, low boiling on the stove instead of using a kettle?

Yeah, you could also do that. But the kitchen is soooooo faaaaaaar awaaaaaaay....

You just need a steady supply of hot water, the thermostat controlled hot water baths we had in the lab would be perfect.

A thermos also saves a little money on electric or gas (or other heat producing fuels you may be using).

Very nice for small unique bits you want to cast. What material are you using to do your casts .. Milliput ?

The amount of details it picks up us amazing! Soon you won't be even think about saving money anymore...instead how you can spend it...

Solar_lion wrote:Very nice for small unique bits you want to cast. What material are you using to do your casts .. Milliput ?

Yeah and apparently you can join many of the sticks together to make larger moulds.
Ja. I used milliput for these as I want to be able to clean up, carve and sand them before casting them properly... that's the plan anyway, good idea or not...

Viktor von Domm wrote:The amount of details it picks up us amazing!

Yeah, as I said even fingerprints are picked up.
and it keeps the detail for at least a second casting (I've only used them twice so far) and should be usable for many more in theory.
and if not, just re-heat and mould again.

If you can't tell, I'm really quite impressed by this stuff.

Soon you won't be even think about saving money anymore...instead how you can spend it...

Oh, I wish.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh yeah, I keep forgetting to say...
PAGE 50!
I have plans for a mini celebration-like thing to mark this occasion, but will take a little time to compose it.

Darn, now the fear of pageturner spreads... Happy 50! Congratz...coming this far doesn't happen by chance...er... of course with that thread, choas implies everything...

Anyone know what the US equivalent product to Milliput is?

Been out for a while, but back in the game now.
The Hut turned out better than any possible idea I had, fantastic.
Following the casting process with load of interest.

Keep It up Mate and congrats for the 50th Page

Awesome......
Congrats on the big 50.

Viktor von Domm wrote:Darn, now the fear of pageturner spreads... Happy 50! Congratz...coming this far doesn't happen by chance...er... of course with that thread, choas implies everything...

No need to worry, I got my act together.
Thanks, I'm surprised that I made it this far and this quickly really and I'm very pleased that people have shown interest in my madness.

dsteingass wrote:Anyone know what the US equivalent product to Milliput is?

I don't I'm afraid and I didn't realise you didn't get it over there. You will probably get a quicker answer if you ask on your blog though...

SelvaggioSaky wrote:Been out for a while, but back in the game now.
The Hut turned out better than any possible idea I had, fantastic.
Following the casting process with load of interest.

Keep It up Mate and congrats for the 50th Page

Welcome back Sel. Good to see you are still kicking.
I await progress on your blog. Good luck with the job hunt.
Thanks.

==============================================================================

So, 50 pages ago, I set out to show what I can do in the modelling world of warhammer 40k after becoming bored of buying an endless stream of expensive plastic kit models of mostly planes and helicopters. I wanted to challenge myself and to learn more and new techniques that would improve my modelling and maybe give a little back to the community.

I was concerned that my approach to painting the models in my collection would not be received all that well by (what appeared to be) the masses of warhammerers with their uniformly painted armies, but I had an idea. To show the true nature of chaos and just how chaotic it can be... This idea led to the creation of what is known as The Army of the Second Law. Referring, of course, to the second law of thermodynamics where the concept of entropy is found.

Following from chaos theory, which states (in many more words) that from small initial differences, drastically different results can occur and these will continue to diverge from one another, my initial army concept has brought me further and further from the "normality" of 40k armies.
Below, I present the extent of how far this idea has come and (if you look closely) how far my painting and modelling has come.

Ladies and Gents, The Army of the Second Law as compiled by The (Mad) Scientist as it stands at the present moment:
First up is the ranged combat specialists


The close combat specialists


The support group...


and the transport solution


I hope to continue to diverge from what is considered normal...

...there are so many more ideas yet to be realised and I hope you stick around to see them.

Ok just properly read what your doing...... on the hot water front. A chaffing dish....with a small burner under it will maintain hot water for a long time. Or if you only need a minimal amount of water I have seen usb powered mug warmers that keep your coffee warm while at computer?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
That is a beautiful army dude. love everything about it, concept and result.

 Camkierhi wrote:
Ok just properly read what your doing...... on the hot water front. A chaffing dish....with a small burner under it will maintain hot water for a long time. Or if you only need a minimal amount of water I have seen usb powered mug warmers that keep your coffee warm while at computer?

Thanks Cam. They need to maintain about 80degC, but are worth a thought.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Camkierhi wrote:
That is a beautiful army dude. love everything about it, concept and result.

Thanks again.

 dsteingass wrote:
Anyone know what the US equivalent product to Milliput is?

I think apoxisculpt is close.

Can send you some Milliput if you like guys.

Ah it is all coming together! Love the gaming table rippers!

So, what is it, a two-part mix like GS that you just jam into the mold and let harden?

Yeah, that sounds close to me Galorn.

Thanks shas.

 dsteingass wrote:
So, what is it, a two-part mix like GS that you just jam into the mold and let harden?

Yeah, a two part epoxy putty. From what I can tell (I still haven't used GS or and equivalent) milliput is not as elastic as GS or as sticky. But it dries harder, so can be drilled, sawn and sanded once dry.

Yep, just mix some up and press it into the mould. Helpfully the Oyumaru is largely transparent so you can see if you have filled all the corners. Then I had to wait about 4 hours before I could pull them out and the milliput was still a little flexible then (although I don't think one of them was properly mixed as it really clogged my sandpaper just now). The second lot I left overnight as it was late when I filled them.

I had that problem when playing with the clear resin you can get from Michael's, the parts stayed a bit flexible. THankfully, it was just floor tiles, so they would be glued flat anyways.

It's far more solid now (after about 24 hours) so it was just a bit slower than usual.

Milliput is used a lot in modelling, but also in other area's including for instance, I know a diver who uses it deep sea to seal up pipes because it sets underwater. It has a cure time of about 24 hours which is not great for us, but once set it is very solid. I often mix it and GS together and this gives me a nice somewhere in the middle. The one big disadvantage is it is difficult to get it as smooth as GS, but using water after a period of curing helps.

Sorry....bubbling on again.

All information is good information Cam. Bubble all you want.

It's usually workable after a few hours though.

I have read somewhere than Meths is good for smoothing milliput (as it dissolves it), but I haven't tried it as water followed by a little sanding works fine for me.

so long since we actually saw what this whole blog is all about...a brilliant and crazy army (crazy as a bag full of cats on crack...)
the more I see of your army, the more it is growing on me...but I do detect a serious lack of green skin...hmmm?

and the average man is also missing from the roll call of lunacy...

 Dr H wrote:
All information is good information Cam. Bubble all you want.

It's usually workable after a few hours though.

I have read somewhere than Meths is good for smoothing milliput (as it dissolves it), but I haven't tried it as water followed by a little sanding works fine for me.

Methamphetamine is good for what??? Sorry, I better go back and read some more than just the last post. I might be misreading, I did just move out of the methamphetamine Capitol of he world last year (Jefferson county, MO).

I bet as a chemical he means methyl...so probably alc in any way?

Well he is an out of work chemist. Round here they tend o supplement their income .

may the doc H live long and happiliy for a thousand years to come!...so that he doesn´t have to cook bad things...

Viktor von Domm wrote:so long since we actually saw what this whole blog is all about...a brilliant and crazy army (crazy as a bag full of cats on crack...)
the more I see of your army, the more it is growing on me...but I do detect a serious lack of green skin...hmmm?

and the average man is also missing from the roll call of lunacy...

Thanks Vik. Glad you like it.
Yes yes, there are many flavours of being missing at the moment. All in good time, good sir.
I've only been working on this for just over a year and at the ever decreasing speed I am cranking out models some will inevitably have to wait.
Blue and Green skins are available and so will be seen (relatively) soon.
More terrestrial coloured skins will arrive eventually.

Theophony wrote:Methamphetamine is good for what??? Sorry, I better go back and read some more than just the last post. I might be misreading, I did just move out of the methamphetamine Capitol of he world last year (Jefferson county, MO).

Meths darling, I said meths not meth.
Methylated spirits to be exact.

And with that, an update on the box.

You can see here the angled edges I've been sanding so it all fits together nicely.
The letters will help with construction as you have 2 of each side and to make a square box you just have to put the matching letters opposite each other.

And as blu-tack wasn't holding it very firmly for me to test the fit of the pieces...

Minimal gaps all round, if you get all the pieces the right way round... it's kind of a jig-saw at the moment...

And the side that I said was not mixed properly... it wasn't.
Once I moved on to cleaning up the fine detail I found patches on it that were really soft and crumbly (much like the individual sticks are) and some of the details were becoming rounded...

So I've mixed some more milliput and stuck it in the mould again. The rest of the pieces are fine though and this was a top/bottom so that's the best case problem.

Too much exposure w/o the right safety equipment like Methyl Ethyl Keytone and Toluene liquid for me to mess with such.

 shasolenzabi wrote:
Too much exposure w/o the right safety equipment like Methyl Ethyl Keytone and Toluene liquid for me to mess with such.

Ah yes. I'll let you off.
With all the chemical and solvent exposure chemists get just while at uni I'm surprised I've not heard of more that are sensitised to things. Only one I can think of was my old boss that was sensitised to Thiol containing compounds.
Probably says something about the effectiveness of fume-cupboards.

But as I say, water works fine with milliput.