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Well, after seeing some of the stuff that people were casting at Gen Con and selling, I decided to try and cast some resin myself to see exactly how easy/hard it was. I realize there's already a few of these threads around, but I figure my two cents couldn't hurt. Here's how my adventure played out...

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First stop, Hobby Lobby! Here's what I bought:



It was ~$70. I didn't use it all, so I could probably get one more mold out of it if I wanted, but since I've discovered how "easy" it is, I might just purchase some stuff online and save. But this is a great way to try it out to see if resin casting is for you.


So I also purchased some modeling clay. As a side note, I wouldn't do this. Get something hard that DOES in fact dry. This was a quick experiment, but my actual molds will be done with a solid object that has cured and won't give me issues, ha.




After rolling it out and carving in some "stone" looking pattern (and apparently cutting the sides a bit), this is what I've got.



I just some basic sculpting tools for this one. Very easy to do.


Here's six little tiles that I decided to try out. Obviously the clay is NOT perfectly square, but I wasn't too concerned this time around.




Hobby Lobby had these little wood boxes for like, $1.29 that had PERFECT dimensions for what I wanted to do. I just popped the lid off so I could have two molds going at once.




I took the molding stuff to the other room...




Pro tip - don't do this. Mix in a paper cup OR if you're going to make a big mold or multiple molds, mix directly in the container. I need to go buy a new measuring cup now...




Stuff is like glue that NEVER GOES AWAY.




The molds took about 3.5 - 4 hours to cure. As you can see here, the stupid black clay, being that it doesn't harden, got gooped into the mold. Not a big deal for test runs like this, but fffffff




I poured too much resin in these things. Holy cow, it totally dries fast and you can watch it dry. It's pretty sweet. Really really easy to do, too. Just mix equal parts of the two giant bottles together, and viola! The nice thing about this boxed set is that you get a LOT of resin mix. I managed to cast the 6 tiles with just under 2 tbs of each part. The bottles are 28 oz each, so that's 28 mixes of probably about 10 tiles or more? I would say a good 300 1" x 1" tiles.




Hey look! They popped out really easy. But you can see the clay...




A little black paint...




And then Gobber can hang out on some tiles I painted in about 3 minutes.



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For serious, ANYONE can cast resin. ANYONE. Get an open area, make a master, make a mold (let this dry overnight or all day at work), then go crazy with resin casting. It's really really fun. I can't WAIT to make more!



A few tips and things to remember for anyone considering this!!


1) Get a bunch of plastic cups. The kind you used to play beer pong in college would work wonderful, haha.

2) Get some rubber gloves so you aren't scarred to death of what will happen if you accidentally spill the goop on your hands.

3) Well ventilated area + one of those painters masks = not worrying about breathing in the stuff. If you don't grab one of those, just make sure you're upwind so you don't inhale any of the fumes. I inhaled some, but not enough to get a headache. Just that weird feeling in my throat that says, "Remember to do this outside next time..."

4) I haven't figured out how to do this yet, but you want to get a way to scrape off or absorb the extra resin compound before it cures when you put it in the mold. This is really only important if the resin overflows at all.

5) Did I mention disposable cups yet? How about a big bag of Popsicle sticks? 1 measuring cup + 1 glass + 1 spoon =

6) If you've ever ever ever thought of trying to cast resin, do it. It's so easy. This whole project came about while I was at the office today. I grabbed the stuff at ~5 pm and am posting this message by 10:45ish. 5 hours and 45 minutes to make a master, a mold, cast some tiles, janky paint them, AND post it all online here at dakka. For serious, it's not hard.

Have fun and hope you enjoy!

Really cool, it is a little expensive for a kit of that stuff, but i guess if you don't want to get a brain melt going trying to find out what you need.

You have inspired me to attempt some casting of my own! Well as soon as I get the money

This is a moderately expensive way to "try casting" I realize, and if you can obtain the mold + resin online for cheap, I suggest doing it that way. I'm on the hunt to find bulk affordable stuff.

Check this site out...

http://www.alumilite.com/products.cfm

probaly expensive to get that and i dont know what kind of kit we have here in englad so i just order my resin and catilst and rubber mould stuff from triniti arts store

Blast, you beat me to it. Nice write-up though, glad it worked out well. Now I'll just have to try some 2-part molds and show you up

nurgles_warrior wrote:probaly expensive to get that and i dont know what kind of kit we have here in englad so i just order my resin and catilst and rubber mould stuff from triniti arts store

Tiranti just by Warren street underground station is made of win! I love that shop!i

Should mention, a nice little tutorial and its nice to see people showing how easy this stuff is.

I've used this product many times and I like it. Depending on the size of your molds and how many molds you make, you will go through the RTV rubber alot faster than you will the resin. Both the rubber and resin can be bought in larger quantities (seperate from the $70 kit) at Hobby Lobby for less than $30 each. I like this product in that once the molds are made, it only takes a couple of minutes for the resin to harden (if mixed properly) and then you can start your next cast.

Nice work.

A couple of helpful tips though.

1. You mold box is far to large for what your molding. A centimeter between the individual tiles is more that enough for miniature casting. RTV rubber is expensive so minimize the amount you half to use.

2. The best way to make your mold box is to use cheap foamcore boards from Walmart, get a mini glue gun and some clear packing tape and you can make custom boxes of any size and shape.

3. When you use clay original like your doing here, you can seal theme with any gloss varnish. That will keep the clay from transfering to the silicon and ultimately your cast parts.

Incidentally, I started out with that same kit and was able to cast something like 200+ minatures from the resin provided! 28mm scale models don't use mush resin at all, especially is you keep the gates small and inject the molds. My marine molds are tiny, typically 3cm x 12 cm x 6 cm. Such small molds don't use much silicon at all.

The only thing I'd recommend aside from what's been discussed thus far would be to use a different clay. Non-drying clays can contain things - like sulfur - that really screw with silicone molds... Also, you should probably try using a polymer clay like sculpey, you can tweak it to your heart's content, bake it to lock in the details, then sand, carve, whatever, then mold and cast. Plus, when you cast it, you can use a mold release (or a thin coat of vaseline) and you'll have clean molds that won't screw up your first castings.