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If its lightening claws your after, I did som very nice, simple and quick ones using staples.

No casting, cheap, and suprisingly effective.

I've done plenty of sculpting and casting over the years, there is no easy, quick and cheap method, and unless you want 30 plus of the same item, really not worth the fuss!

AvatarForm wrote:HAHA! In what world is casting your own cheap? Unless you plan on casting from bulk Plaster of Paris...

Decent setup for bubble-free minis is $600AUD minimum. For a vacuum chamber and other necessary tech. Not to mention the materials for moulds and of course, resin.

Of course, that's presuming you're making industrial quality molds. If you're just a hobbyist, you don't need a vacuum chamber. At all. I've been selling earrings I make on Etsy for over 3 years now, and I have around 25 different designs - none of which either have bubbles, or required a vacuum chamber (which I still don't known).

Get some low-viscosity silicone RTV, add a little thinner, and you'll be able to avoid bubbles in most molds for less then $60 USD. If you need resin too, make that around $80 or so. Not cheap, but certainly nowhere near "$600AUD".

Low-cost casting of miniatures? Try plaster of paris. It will take skill, though, so enrolling for an art degree won't count as low-cost.

starsdawn wrote:Low-cost casting of miniatures? Try plaster of paris. It will take skill, though, so enrolling for an art degree won't count as low-cost.

Would that work??

I have a load of that stuff, but it doesn't seem to be a good thing to use.

On a copyright issue, surely you are allowed to cast directly from a product so long as that item is not destined for retail?

On the plaster of Paris, quite simply no it won't work. It won't allow for the level of detail you are after ie very small items and also it will be far more susceptible to damage.

As others have no doubt mentioned, get an all in one starter casting kit. You should have enough RTV silicone to make a few different moulds from what I gather so you be making you money back in no time, figuratively speaking of course.

Also consider this, too... If you cast your own stuff, you may also breach, not only the GW copyright line, but also the tournament model construction rules, too. If you are a tournament player, there may be an instance where someone goes, "hey, that's a really unique model, where'd you find that?" You could fib and say, "it's rare", or you could say, I sculpted it myself. Of course, if you did it all with greenstuff, no one's gonna care, but if it is a custom metal piece you lovingly sculpted, it could land you out of a tournament, at least until you could pony up the authentic piece...

If its for playing at your local FLGS, go crazy! Just remember whose bills you aren't paying. I'm sure the local store owner would love to see hundreds of your custom pieces that you made with your blood, sweat, and tears...

Plaster of Paris would work. I've casted my face and my hand on plaster (not to mention other people's faces and hands) and it retained the details of scars, fingerprints and my really big pores. It is susceptible to damage, but if it's just the mold and not the mini itself you won't have any problems 'cause you won't be chucking the mold everywhere. The technique lies in the consistency of plaster, and making sure it doesn't have bubbles, mixing it properly, and of course the step that everyone forgets: put petroleum jelly on the thing you're casting. Otherwise you just ruined everything.

There's a reason why they use plaster molds to make copies of ancient Greek and Roman statues, and it is because it preserves the level of detail. Albeit with the proper technique.

Lennysmash wrote:On a copyright issue, surely you are allowed to cast directly from a product so long as that item is not destined for retail?

On the plaster of Paris, quite simply no it won't work. It won't allow for the level of detail you are after ie very small items and also it will be far more susceptible to damage.

As others have no doubt mentioned, get an all in one starter casting kit. You should have enough RTV silicone to make a few different moulds from what I gather so you be making you money back in no time, figuratively speaking of course.

technically, all GW would have to prove is a loss in Revenue for a case to be brought.

somehow i don't think the technique used on 10ft statues will work on 1 inch figures.

As I have said, it does preserve the small, minuscule details. You just have to plan how many mold-pieces will there be, and make sure the mixture is done right and consistent, not to mention bubble-free. The mold cuts will be different for each miniature, and planning is a bitch.

My point is, it can be done. It may be hard and too much of a hassle, but it can be done.

Buy a slab of pine, and some knives.

Carve them out of wood... So when you're done with the game or modeling or whatever... You can use them to set fire to something.

Grey Templar wrote:somehow i don't think the technique used on 10ft statues will work on 1 inch figures.

Do not underestimate the level of detail the lost wax process can reproduce.

It doesn't matter if you mould from a company's copyrighted pieces for personal use or for sale. Both are the same violation of copyright.

If it is preferable to copy GW's lightning law design whether for style or for ease of construction, than it is to make your own original design, that proves the point about their copyright in the sculpt.

Kilkrazy wrote:If it is preferable to copy GW's lightning law design whether for style or for ease of construction, than it is to make your own original design, that proves the point about their copyright in the sculpt.

They own the specific instances of the lightning claw design they sculpted, but the tekagi-shuko was invented long before GW even existed. You wouldn't want to mimic the knuckle duster look when seen from the palm side, but that's ugly anyway.

AlexHolker wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:If it is preferable to copy GW's lightning law design whether for style or for ease of construction, than it is to make your own original design, that proves the point about their copyright in the sculpt.

They own the specific instances of the lightning claw design they sculpted, but the tekagi-shuko was invented long before GW even existed. You wouldn't want to mimic the knuckle duster look when seen from the palm side, but that's ugly anyway.

How about we do this: let's not quibble over minor variances of design, avoid lawsuits and just buy the %^@!#$@in minis! Don't complain about their costs and the legal fees included in there, then go out and justify to them why they need to have cease-and-desist order ready in their desk drawers!

AlexHolker wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:If it is preferable to copy GW's lightning law design whether for style or for ease of construction, than it is to make your own original design, that proves the point about their copyright in the sculpt.

They own the specific instances of the lightning claw design they sculpted, but the tekagi-shuko was invented long before GW even existed. ... .

I made that point on page one.

AvatarForm wrote:HAHA! In what world is casting your own cheap? Unless you plan on casting from bulk Plaster of Paris...

Decent setup for bubble-free minis is $600AUD minimum. For a vacuum chamber and other necessary tech. Not to mention the materials for moulds and of course, resin.

Once again. Nope. A decent one will cost less than that. A brilliant one will cost about that much though. A C&N one (like the FW system) costs a lot less, too.

I've been casting (resin, white metal, bronze) for decades. My resin casting setup cost me LESS than $300 AUD.

What you want is moldmax 30 rubber and Smoothcast 300 2 part resin, you can brush on technique the rubber on your item, then when thats tacky, pour more rubber into a holding cell, let it cure for a couple hours , remove your item by using a surgical knife to carefully create a chasm, then replace it back into the holding cell and mix/pour your resin mixture, NOTE no cast will be perfect without a vacuum chamber OR pressure pot! and if your looking for fine detail you have to have the pressure pot to force the resin into the tiny spaces where the resin would trickle to without pressure.


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PS im using pressure pot/vacuum chamber and compressor. all together it knocked up to about £1050, but thats simply due to the size of the tools i wanted rather than cheaper easier methods.

Ive been casting stuff off & on for almost 10 years now. Theres really no way to do it on the cheap.

Your worries of using resin though- are exaggerated. Its very simple to use as long as you get a 1 to 1 mix ratio and stay away from the advanced resins that mix by weight. The warping is mostly something of a ForgeWorld type of deal with larger pieces that have thin sections- often they are de-molded before they have finished curing.

Resin is far easier than pewter/lead, I used to cast bullets- and just pouring lead into a steel mold was tedious. Doing it with an intricate silicone mold is even moreso(and why commercial lead casting uses 'spin casting' centrifuge techniques for minis).

The only 'cheap' way to get into casting- is to watch the big art supply stores for sales and when they have 40 or 50% of single item coupons. Hobby Lobby and DickBlick are my go to sources. The lobby carries Alumilite casting supplies and kits- and buying thier 80$ kit for half off is a great buy. Blick carries Smoothon stuff and has frequent sales/deals that get close to the same prices.

Also- check out Youtube and google for casting tips and how to videos. Theres alot to learn about it all before you really get into it, and seeing the process done first hand can prevent alot of mistakes.