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Making the gates with the syringe is a great idea that I will totally steal. I do need to work on my venting though and need to do some test casts with talc to see if it improves my bubble situation. My 6th ed. Empire soldiers will never get done.


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I would also add, for those in the US wanting to get into casting at a reasonably low price:
http://www.theengineerguy.com/cgi/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=POURABLE-SILICONE-ST

These are the products I use in a nice tidy affordable kit.

Aerethan wrote:Making the gates with the syringe is a great idea that I will totally steal. I do need to work on my venting though and need to do some test casts with talc to see if it improves my bubble situation. My 6th ed. Empire soldiers will never get done.


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I would also add, for those in the US wanting to get into casting at a reasonably low price:
http://www.theengineerguy.com/cgi/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=POURABLE-SILICONE-ST

These are the products I use in a nice tidy affordable kit.

That kit looks good.

i have been meaning to make some molds of various armour plates/extra armour for my ork vehicle and terrain builds and cranking a bunch out...

single piece molds would save tons of time for ork armor plates. Great idea. Also ideal if you sculpt your own army specific insignia.

i been doing some molds and casts using instant mold and resin,(yes it works great) but i get the odd air pocket, and good ways top get rid of the air or just add more air vents??

never enough vents

Ok, first order of business, thanks to all of you for the great feedback.

I have my casting equipment all set up for degassing and pressure casting, now I was interested in which silicone and resin you all find the best for its ease of use and price?

Thanks again all!

I use Smooth On products, Oomoo and Smooth Cast 300 or 305.

Thanks mate!

Oomoo and Smooth cast, I wish I had known about these years ago. These are the best I have used in around 8-10 years of casting.

My Oomoo 25 tutorial http://warfrog.blogspot.com/2011/11/two-part-mold-making-tutorial-resin.html

My Smooth On 305 tutorial http://warfrog.blogspot.com/2011/11/resin-casting-tutorial.html

FYI Forgeworld resin is Smooth on 65d, FW does vacuum the silicon when making molds however it has been said that they do not pour the molds under pressure.

Thanks unicorn, your tutorials are amazing and very appreciated!

Theunicorns methods are the exact same that I use for my casting. Been a while since I've made a mold and done some casts, but with Empire being redone this year I imagine I'll have to crank out some new molds and get to casting. For what it's worth I have been tracking down the models I recast so as to lessen the amount of work I have to do, but if all else fails...


Also, Liquid Green Stuff is a Godsend for dealing with micro bubbles in casts like this. My sleeves are now 100% slashed and puffy!

Any chance you could post up some pics of your degassing and pressure casting rig Corsair?

I am still pretty far from that kind of setup myself but would love to see it as I am sure a lot of the other people who read this will.

I'd be most interested in the pressure casting setup. My molds tend to come out fine but micro bubbles are a royal pain in the ass when you are casting 100 models each with 10-15 bubbles in them. Then again I should be using talc powder too...

Shame on me for not sticking to my own advice!

Ha ha, my camera broke over Christmas so be patient as I have to borrow one But yea I will definitely get some pics up for you guys, I tested all my valves yesterday and I have the gear all working well. Now it's time to practice instead of theory and see what I can do I sculpt my own minis with my brothers. We have a small site http://www.bloodmoonminis.com/ It will be a while yet before I get some stuff up in resin though.

The pressure casting rig was actually the easy to aquire. The vacuum chamber is the pain. My desiccator chamber from Belart took 2 months to get here!

I'm also intrested in your setup Red Corsair. I would love to get my hands at least on the pressure pot at a cheap price

I find OOMOO 25 or 30 pretty good so buying the vacuum chamber will be on the back burner for me.

Having trouble uploading images on this site, I have them in my gallery but I have no clue why my photos keep appearing broken :/


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Had to get them up as attachments but oh well. Can anyone explain to me how I am supposed to use the image button cause it never works for this nub lol.

Here is the setup on my kitchen floor lol. The pressure pot is the easiest piece actually Styrofoam04. I ordered it from Harbor freight and all I had to do was by the compressor attachments from lowes. They are the pointed nozzles that the hose is in Then I bought a run of the mill ball valve for the out port so I can depressurize it easily. Other wise you can use the 'T' screw on the main gauge but mine is faster and that hole needed plugging anyways hehe. BTW make sure you use valve seel tape on everything lol. Other wise you will hear A LOT of leaks.

The vacuum setup was the more expensive part, but from what I hear from talking with Sersi it makes your molds bubble free so I decided to spring for it. If you have ANY air in your rubber then pressurizing it can make the mold buckle and alter your casts. This step is more for reassurance if you will. If you were to skip on any piece my advice would be this piece in the short term. Hardest to acquire for a decent price. The reason I got it was also because the 10:1 rubber has a higher tear strength and as I am planning on doing many models for my store I want to get the most out of my molds.

I bought my vac off ebay and the desiccator from Belart who took forever. But belart cost me $130 with shipping as opposed to $500+ from others. The main reason is because the desiccator is from a science lab supplier but it works great and is clear fopr better visibility.

If you need any answers regarding setting this up shout to me. It was frustrating gathering all the knowledge and parts more then anything.

My vacuum chamber and pump



I got these on eBay. I had to seal the handle rivets with JB weld on the chamber to maintain -29.9 Hg but I am pleased with the vacuum chamber. Its basically a 4-5 gal soup pot with vinyl graphics and a thick clear lexan lid with gauges.

I got both the pump and the chamber for $100 ea plus shipping.

Vacuum chambers are harder to find a good deal on than pumps, this seller european-auto-dismantling is where i got my chamber from on eBay. he has feedback as recent as the end of December for chambers. I recommend them for chambers, You might have to check the rivets but the price is worth the hassle.

Thanks to both of you guys for the pics and suggestions, I am sure you will be getting more than a few queries about machine casting in the future!

Hi. First off i'd like to say thanks for the great tutorial! I have been following it since I joined dakkadakka, though never posted. Well after much research and learning what's what I have gotten into casting some of my custom made stuff so I don't have to spend countless hrs and resources hacking stuff apart. As I speak the molds for my TL-Bolter Halberds are curing . I started out with a few GW pieces of various sizes to experiment on just in case I messed up. Didn't want to risk breaking something I cared about. I realized that for my small amount of use a vacuum/pressure chamber would be too costly, so I took the easy option and built a vibration tray. Best part is, is that it cost me $13 and it works! Here's a pic.





In case you're wondering, it's an oval display plaque with foam rubber pads glued underneath and the "powerplant" from a marital aid epoxyed to it. The aid had everything I needed in one go and cheap. Small, battery operated, simple, and variable output. Downside:asking the store clerk for a cheap yet powerful toy. Upside: the look of shock and bewilderment as my older brother pulled the rest of it out of his stocking for xmas >.
Here are some pics of the first items I will be molding once they cure.




Again, thank you all for the great tutorial!

Mortikye wrote: Upside: the look of shock and bewilderment as my older brother pulled the rest of it out of his stocking for xmas >.

So funny, then I had to explain to my wife why I burst out laughing

I have been told this tip before as well and heard it is an effective and cheap alternative to a full casting rig. Nice to see such a simple example!

Oh and you can also try a back massager as an alternative to a marital aid... though it is obviously not as much fun

Mortikye wrote:
In case you're wondering, it's an oval display plaque with foam rubber pads glued underneath and the "powerplant" from a marital aid epoxyed to it. The aid had everything I needed in one go and cheap. Small, battery operated, simple, and variable output. Downside:asking the store clerk for a cheap yet powerful toy. Upside: the look of shock and bewilderment as my older brother pulled the rest of it out of his stocking for xmas >.

Again, thank you all for the great tutorial!

Mortikye wins the interwebz today, for posting pics using a "adult toy" and little army men at the same time. Bonus multiplier for quite possibly "violating" a big companies IP in an inventive new way.

Hey that IP liked it, even if we were both shamful afterwords lol. I guess I should have added that I destroyed everything directly cast from an existing GW product. One for legal reasons abound, and secondly it would totally defeat the purpose of me learning to cast. I could have bought the pieces cheaper from ebay or FW, I want to learn how to cast stuff I have made(somewhat). I'm still working on my sculpting skills. Just scored a set of jewelers letter punches in trade from a local watchmaker(i'm teaching him how to set up his car for autocross), so my next items should have some extra GKish detail. Still trying to perfect my homemade resin injection system though first. Anyone know what roto-casting is or how it works?

I will say that using existing items to LEARN how to make molds properly is a useful "evil". But as you said, most times it is cheaper to just buy the bits of ebay or a site that sells them.

Roto-casting is way expensive, its gonna be for folks that are running a full time business.

I am glad to hear that the IP liked the violation, even if you could not look each other in the eye afterwards.

Check out this site for details
http://www.contenti.com/products/spin-casting.html

i need a suggestion on a chemical 'brand' suitable for terrain project (both a brand of resin and a brand of mould silicone)

I live in Thailand and i've contact a supplier (livin' in a city next to the location where i'm living) and he says that Alumilite resin is available (well hopefully for now after the great deluge) but i'm not sure if it's really suitable and has any strengh/convertibility of GW plastics?

please

=^.^=

check on the availability of Smooth on silicon and SmoothCast resin. Here in the States it is cheaper than Alumilte and much better quality. I have a tutorial of it on my Blog, in my sig

I use Alumilite myself- it's a decent quality resin from what I can tell- I use it for my custom bases.

It's decently tough, and very light- stronger and tougher than Finecast (doesn't snap quite as easily) while being about the same weight.

Sorry Lone Cat, I am afraid I don't have too much more to add.... hopefully some of the other subscribers to this thread can help?

Anvildude wrote:I use Alumilite myself- it's a decent quality resin from what I can tell- I use it for my custom bases.

It's decently tough, and very light- stronger and tougher than Finecast (doesn't snap quite as easily) while being about the same weight.

good to hear (Thai grognards here still distaste finecast, some even bend on chinese 'unlicensed GW copy' instead ) ... but to be specific please tell me the exact ALUMILITE resin (which there are SO MANY different Resins there) do you use for your project.

Alumilite Super Plastic- it's even parts A and B, one clear and one a sort of brownish color. When mixed, they come out a pale yellow-white color.