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Mistress of minis wrote:Oyamaru + Apoxie sculpt=success. Pics later tonight of the shield I replicated and the base I did up.

Terrain Putty might be an even better choice. Its designed for press molding - the grain is very dry and very fine. When cured, Terrain Putty is very much like Apoxie sculpt.
http://www.kraftmark.biz/kraftmark.terrain.html

RanTheCid wrote:

Mistress of minis wrote:Oyamaru + Apoxie sculpt=success. Pics later tonight of the shield I replicated and the base I did up.

Terrain Putty might be an even better choice. Its designed for press molding - the grain is very dry and very fine. When cured, Terrain Putty is very much like Apoxie sculpt.
http://www.kraftmark.biz/kraftmark.terrain.html

Where it fails is that it costs almost twice as much as Apoxie sculpt. And if you look at the pic I posted, the results are acceptable, especially as it was the first set of items I did up.

Mistress of minis wrote:

RanTheCid wrote:

Mistress of minis wrote:Oyamaru + Apoxie sculpt=success. Pics later tonight of the shield I replicated and the base I did up.

Terrain Putty might be an even better choice. Its designed for press molding - the grain is very dry and very fine. When cured, Terrain Putty is very much like Apoxie sculpt.
http://www.kraftmark.biz/kraftmark.terrain.html

Where it fails is that it costs almost twice as much as Apoxie sculpt. And if you look at the pic I posted, the results are acceptable, especially as it was the first set of items I did up.

The products are hard to price compare. Terrain Putty is rather light weight and sold by volume (480ml for $27). Apoxie Sculpt is sold by weight (4lb for $35). With the contains side by side, the Terrain Putty is about 2/3 the size of the Apoxie Sculpt - which about matches the price difference. Unless your buying Apoxie sculpt in the 1 lb size ($15) - then I think the Terrain Putty would be the better purchase.

RanTheCid wrote:

Mistress of minis wrote:

RanTheCid wrote:

Mistress of minis wrote:Oyamaru + Apoxie sculpt=success. Pics later tonight of the shield I replicated and the base I did up.

Terrain Putty might be an even better choice. Its designed for press molding - the grain is very dry and very fine. When cured, Terrain Putty is very much like Apoxie sculpt.
http://www.kraftmark.biz/kraftmark.terrain.html

Where it fails is that it costs almost twice as much as Apoxie sculpt. And if you look at the pic I posted, the results are acceptable, especially as it was the first set of items I did up.

The products are hard to price compare. Terrain Putty is rather light weight and sold by volume (480ml for $27). Apoxie Sculpt is sold by weight (4lb for $35). With the contains side by side, the Terrain Putty is about 2/3 the size of the Apoxie Sculpt - which about matches the price difference. Unless your buying Apoxie sculpt in the 1 lb size ($15) - then I think the Terrain Putty would be the better purchase.

The 1 lb kit of Apoxie sculpt jars are the same size as the terrain putty ones. Ergo- cheaper regardless of weight- 27 vs 15 is simple math. Comparing the 4 lb size makes it even cheaper- like 8.75$ per pound. So- its still cheaper and the best product thats actually been used with the Instamold/Oyamaru(and theres been several others on Dakka that have had succes with it as well). If you want to buy some Terrainputty and some Apoxie Sculpt, and compare them for use in press molding I'd be interested in hearing about it.

Mistress of minis wrote:
The 1 lb kit of Apoxie sculpt jars are the same size as the terrain putty ones. Ergo- cheaper regardless of weight- 27 vs 15 is simple math. Comparing the 4 lb size makes it even cheaper- like 8.75$ per pound. So- its still cheaper and the best product thats actually been used with the Instamold/Oyamaru(and theres been several others on Dakka that have had succes with it as well). If you want to buy some Terrainputty and some Apoxie Sculpt, and compare them for use in press molding I'd be interested in hearing about it.

I already own both. Which is where my observations on the size of the containers comes from.

I've used Terrain Putty in a Hirst Mold with some success. I have not tried Apoxie sculpt, but I can't see it working very well. Have you ever see the kids product 'Moon Dough'? Terrain Putty is a lot like that - it takes compression very well without stretching. At some point I'll buy Instamold/Oyamaru and give it a try.

For the people that did a traditional style 2-part mold (make one side, let dry, make other side) are there any tips to working with instant mold as opposed to a typical liquid mold? Would making a box help? I know when I've made 2-part molds with this stuff I have a problem with the instant mold actually fitting around the item properly, maybe a box would help this as the material has nowhere to go?

That is what I have been doing Sonic.
Not sure exactly if it does help but intuitively it seems having the soft plastic contained is the right thing to do,

So does the Friendly Mold or whatever the little dots are called work about if not just as good as Insta mold or Muymaru?

Here is part one of my review of the stuff, I ran out of battery in my camera so will complete it tomorrow when the greenstuff etc has cured.
I know it kinda sucks for a review and I go offtopic allot but I will fix that tomorrow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGCgaqLWr7A

ok, so my first experiments went disasterously wrong and I've ruined two of my masters....

So is instant mold or oyamaru flexible at all when cold?

The stuff I got was far too ridged!

It's all the same thing. They just repacked something that's been around for a long time and started selling it at a markup.

You can just get this stuff:
InstaMorph - Moldable Plastic - 12 oz

And use this in your molds:
Apoxie Sculpt 4 Lb. White Epoxy Clay

And get the same, or better, results for much cheaper.

Druidic wrote:ok, so my first experiments went disasterously wrong and I've ruined two of my masters....

So is instant mold or oyamaru flexible at all when cold?

The stuff I got was far too ridged!

The thinner you make your Instant mold mold the more flexible it is. If it's the thickness of the bars your VERY rigid indeed as can be seen in my video. When you make your molds however and push it out you can make it as thin as you like and it actually resembles silicone allot.

So it comes down to how thick your mold is, I would suggest a max thickness of about 5mm, more than that and you might as well be working with metal molds.

Albino Squirrel wrote:It's all the same thing. They just repacked something that's been around for a long time and started selling it at a markup.

You can just get this stuff:
InstaMorph - Moldable Plastic - 12 oz

And use this in your molds:
Apoxie Sculpt 4 Lb. White Epoxy Clay

And get the same, or better, results for much cheaper.

I'm not trying to pick a fight here, but how do you know that???

Have you actually tried all of the above including Instamold? If not, similar look and function does not = same thing. There could be subtle differences in rigidity, temperature tolerances, setting times etc that make a big difference to people wanting to be expert with press-molding.

A lot of people have come on here to poo-poo this product saying it's the exact same stuff as this or that. What amuses me is some of them are pointing to opaque materials, which to me should say hey, there is a chance this isn't 100% identical lol. Vallejo, children's finger paint, same thing right? Well no, if you start exploring nuances and applications lol...

Now, let me make clear I am not saying anyone is right or wrong, or that Instamold is better/worse than anything else, however, I would like to know what actual info quotes like the above are based on, because I don't think it is good practice to just blindly mislead people with comments like 'It's all the same' based on no actual facts. Hopefully the above gentleman tried all of the above and won't be taking offense to my comments...

warboss wrote:

Robert Facepalmer wrote:Right now I am trying Apoxie Sculpt which seems to work fine, but I got to thinking that CA glue might have been a better choice for the particular moulds I made.

tell us how that goes. the video IIRC says the stuff doesn't even stick to CA glue and i'd like to double check that claim as it seems the most dubious.

Yeah, that didn't work out. At all. it took for-ev-er to finally dry (don't have any zip kicker, so I don't know if that would make a difference) and the casts still ended up rubbery. Bonus: the CA made the InstantMold cloudy, not unlike the effect you see on clear plastics, as well as there now being little hard nuggets in the InstantMold. You might be able to do a mix of CA and talc or baking soda like the old modelling gap-filler trick, but I would be leery of using CA except to maybe save a cast that broke in the mold or something.

After trying green stuff, brown stuff, P3 putty, ProCreate, and ApoxieSculpt, I would have to say Apoxie is the best of all of them. It mixes fairly soft, so it does the best job at getting fine detail. It also cures in a reasonable amount of time, and it is drillable and sandable, so if you do need to clean your cast or pin it, it won't rip like green stuff does. I am thinking Milliput would be good as well as you can control its firmness easily. Both Apoxie and Milliput are water-soluble as well, so you might be able to thin or soften them if you are really concerned with getting fine detail.

All in all, I am still not 100% sure what I will use InstantMold for. It is certainly handy, but it seems to fill an odd gap in the hobby repertoire. If I just need one-of, I'd rather deal with plastic or metal than having to make a mold, cast it, and then do whatever needs to be done. If I need a massive amount of duplicate parts, I think it would be easier to use resin that sets in fifteen minutes and just crank through the entire run in an afternoon. What I envision it doing is casting one-ofs that are impossible to find (i.e. Centurius or Confrontation Brat heads), or as an intermediate in setting up a resin run (i.e. I would only need to make one master custom tank tread, cast that 5-20 times using InstantMold and Apoxie, then use those casts to make a master sprue to cast from).

I think the most intriguing thing to me is the fact that it is (theoretically, I would be interested to see how long it takes to lose its properties) reusable on a non-industrial scale. If there was a way to liquefy it and use the InstantMold as a casting medium, it would be ideal for that intermediate step in the resin production I described above. I am afraid that pushing it past the transitional state it enters when heated might fundamentally change its properties ('sweet, now it is ultra-sticky, never hardens... and on the floor-carpet is for chumps anyway').

Certainly an interesting product. I am sure as time goes on and people get more experience, the days of freaking out about a purity seal press mold in White Dwarf will seem quaint.

Mostly aimed at Mistress of Minis, but other responses welcome!

Where do you buy the Oyamaru in the US?

I guess my rtv101 experiences actually sold me a dummy!

Will experiment with thinner moulds!

Actually it all went really well... Untill I came to demould and everything went wrong! It stuck ferouciously to the plastic board I was using, to the extent I had to melt the mold to get the remains off.. So next time I'll use a tile as the base...

Must point out, I'm not using instant mold, I'm trying some other plastic as I'm in the uk....

It's all learning however, and I like to experiment with these things! :-)

MajorTom11 wrote:
I'm not trying to pick a fight here, but how do you know that???

I'm gonna go with "There's no way in hell that CMON is making its own, unique, chemical compound. So it's gotta be repackaged existing material."

My research on the matter led me here.

BloodQuest wrote:Mostly aimed at Mistress of Minis, but other responses welcome!

Where do you buy the Oyamaru in the US?

I got mine via google shopping search, but it was the last the seller had. So you'll have to hunt around

If anyone has freinds in Japan they can probly get it rather easily/cheaply and could fit an awful lot of it in a flat rate mail box if it goes through the post office on one of the bases. A year or two ago I had some freinds in the service over there, but theyre all state side now

lord_blackfang wrote:

MajorTom11 wrote:
I'm not trying to pick a fight here, but how do you know that???

I'm gonna go with "There's no way in hell that CMON is making its own, unique, chemical compound. So it's gotta be repackaged existing material."

Right, that would hold up in court lol. You are probably right, but until someone actually tries them or has evidence directly linking product a with product b... Well, you know what they say about assumptions right?

Please don't de-rail what has been a very helpful thread with stupid crap like this. Let's keep it focused on what we are here to talk about.

gannam wrote:Please don't de-rail what has been a very helpful thread with stupid crap like this. Let's keep it focused on what we are here to talk about.

Easy guy I started this thread, don't you think that I would care it stay on topic lol???

That is in fact precisely why I don't think anyone should be stating Instamold is 'exactly the same' as other products without testing or proof. As stated previously, tiny differences in the chemical composition and process could make one product quite superior to the another in terms of being more ideal for mini press molding by having an edge in temperature tolerance, malleability, setting times etc. It could be the difference between dollar store paint and Vallejo when it comes to specific hobbying applications.

Is it not clear why someone reading this thread, who is serious about pressmolding and wants the best, should only be getting tested facts, and not peoples assumptions or suppositions stated as 100% rock solid fact??? It derails the entire thread and the discussions generated thus far, and also minimizes the kind work certain members have done going through a nearly scientific testing process to try and ascertain the products quality vs the other options.

Let's just stick to the facts people, we don't need people popping to say it's a repackaged rip-off every 10 posts while being too lazy to actually verify it. Could be right, could be wrong, it's not the point, let's just stick to what we know ok?

edited by poster.

See it now thanks for the re post.

First one is still comletely absent with not even the red X
Most peculiar.

Not too bad for a first bash old thing! keep up the good work

Might be worth just trimming the sprue attachments before making the mould as it will save work in the long run.

Thanks, glad you can see it now. Yeah, I probably should've cleaned it up before making the mould, but I was more concerned with getting it done than getting it done right

You know what, oddly enough used exactly the same piece to test with!

Try this...

Put the flat side of the piece on a cold tile, press the polymorph onto the piece, let cool, the press green stuff into your mould, and use the tile again as a solid base to press against for pressure.

Worked really well for flat backed pieces.

Will next experiment with 3d piece on the tile with plastalen upto thr mould line....

Practice like anything is the key!

Will post pics tomorrow!

Part 2 of my review of this stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmBrPb3AktM

MadCowCrazy wrote:Part 2 of my review of this stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmBrPb3AktM

Nice video, MCC.

Did you ever try reheating that piece you used the superglue on? I'd love to know if it came back.

kronk wrote:

MadCowCrazy wrote:Part 2 of my review of this stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmBrPb3AktM

Nice video, MCC.

Did you ever try reheating that piece you used the superglue on? I'd love to know if it came back.

It loses it's non stick properties somewhat, it just turns bad. You seriously do NOT want to mix it with your good stuff as it will probably ruin that as well.

So using superglue as a type of resin or whatever is a baaaaad idea, it does work but it will most likely ruin your InstantMold, at least the type of superglue I used.
Since there are endless forumlas of superglue I'm sure some might work well enough but I'd call it a waste of time mainly because what you get is a very brittle cast.
The superglue I have turns into a resin/glass/plastic type material, it's extremely strong but can't take much stress before it breaks.

Cheers, MadCowCrazy for the review videos. looking forword for somemore videos.