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i am working on making various custom parts for my nids and genestealer cult guard armies. i've been dabbling in resin casting, but with very dubious results. i've been using allumilite's amazing putty/amazing resin combo, but the bit's ive sculpted by hand from GS and then tried to cast did not pick up nearly enough detail, and were riddled with tiny air bubbles. maybe i'm not doing it right, but i think i may have to get a better materials set and work on some techniques.

i've seen some users around here who have made some really great custom bits for converting large amounts of figs. anyone able to help me with some pointers? on either better mats or better techniques? i'd post pics of my efforts, but the parts are very small, and my camera is only OK, and probably wouldn't be able to convey what was going on in the small bits. like i said though, fuzzy lack of detail and a bunch of air/imperfections.

anyone with advice or anything, i would really appreciate it.

-C6

do you include a second vent in your casting mold for air to escape while you're pouring into the first one? do you tap it for a while to get the bubbles to come to the top? i personally haven't casted yet but from looking at a few other threads regarding similar troubles, those seem to be the answers that come up first. hope that helps a bit.

i have been making single-piece molds and even in them i get air bubbles. i also tried putting the mold while the resin was setting on top of something that was shaking (the washing machine) to try to jiggle the air bubbles up to escape. still getting the bad air bubbles and lack of detail problems...

do you use an air vent even for single piece molds?



i ask because i keep planning on resin casting a few green stuffed things but haven't gotten around to it yet.

http://www.nigellawton009.com/Resin_Casting_for_Beginners---The_Sequel---Version_2.html

thanks for that useful pic and the link! i'm slowly but surely gonna get this right!

Have you tried 'painting' a layer of resin in over the details first, then filling?
This helps.

Do you use a mould release? Even talc works well (a light dusting, that is. Sprinkle enough in to coat the insides and then dump it out.

How are you pouring the molding material into the block? For silicone casting material, what I do is cut a small hole in the bottom of a dixie cup, tape it to the edge of a table, and then mix my casting stuff as normal. Once it's mixed, I position the target moldbox under the dixie cup, and then pour the silicone into the dixie cup with the hole. As it descends from the cup down to the moldbox (34 inches) it stretches into a thin hair before arriving which helps a lot with degassing it.