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So i've read a couple of tutorials online and i want to duplicate some bases i made. I looked at the prices for silicone and resin and they're quite expensive. Does anyone know a cheaper alternative or a cheap website to buy them?

Try Barnes.
They have a store on King Street in Newtown, Sydney (between Missenden Rd (RPA) and the uni ) - I used to use them at a pro-level. They have a variety of products suited to your needs and they also service the FX industry.

I'd recommend Ultrasil (it's easy to work with) for your mouldings. Pick up some mould release spray (Stoners Rocket Release) or use common talcum powder, and a small amount of 4PU polyurethane resin (I've used it and it is probably their easiest one to use.

thanks! that helped me heaps as i'm in australia. I've noticed that there are some guides on casting with green stuff. The stuff they casted were small items such as helmets or boltguns. Can i cast an entire base with green stuff?

I use Rubber Latex that you can get from Riot Art & Craft stores for $30 a tub, I'm not sure if it's better than sillicon but it makes a fair mold.

For resin, you really need to use the silicone stuff (and NOT silicon sealant used for bathrooms/kitchens - they are different products with very different uses) as the resin WILL attack latex (and latex rots - falls apart unless treated well - unlike the silicone.).

Latex is fine for plaster moulding though. Where you need the better flexibility. Latex can't capture the same detail resolution as a good Silicone RTV rubber. Ultrasil when mixed properly (it has a coloured catalyst to make it easier) is capable of doing 100 good casts per mould.

An important note:
RESIN CASTING IS NOT CHEAP. Not in the short term.
You need to buy the moulding stuff, the release agents (or, like I said, use talc) and the resin.


If you are doing bases, do up SEVERAL originals. DO NOT have any pva glue exposed (some RTVs bond permanently to pva - it's chemistry). When you make your mould, use ALL of them. It's easier to mix up resin for 10 bases at a time than one.

Join up at Wargamerau forums. There is a very good casting tutorial in the Painting and modelling forums - and several very talented people can offer help and answer questions.

chromedog wrote:For resin, you really need to use the silicone stuff (and NOT silicon sealant used for bathrooms/kitchens - they are different products with very different uses) as the resin WILL attack latex (and latex rots - falls apart unless treated well - unlike the silicone.).

Not true! a 1:1 of mix of paint thinner and 100% silicone caulking, 3 drops of glycerine per ounce of silicone, and a few drops of acrylic pain and will give you a suitable silicone molding material. It's best for single part molds, but it works admirably.

Lonecoon wrote:

chromedog wrote:For resin, you really need to use the silicone stuff (and NOT silicon sealant used for bathrooms/kitchens - they are different products with very different uses) as the resin WILL attack latex (and latex rots - falls apart unless treated well - unlike the silicone.).

Not true! a 1:1 of mix of paint thinner and 100% silicone caulking, 3 drops of glycerine per ounce of silicone, and a few drops of acrylic pain and will give you a suitable silicone molding material. It's best for single part molds, but it works admirably.

Or you could buy Oomoo 1:1 silicone rubber and not do all the recipe work you outlined...

Lonecoon wrote: a few drops of acrylic pain

Where do i get THAT?!

I don't know if it's available in Australia but there is a casting alternative to resin. It is called Alumilite and is a casting plastic which sets in three minutes. Also it has dedicated paint for mixing into it. It does not need to be primed for painting and takes paint easily. Only problem you have is the same as with resin; air bubbles. Note; you'll need silicone moulds as it heats up while curing.

We've got Alumilite here in the states at Hobby Lobby.

For 60 bucks you get everything you need to make molds.

A tip: putting the mold in an old CD spindle that you cut a hole in allows you to make a cheap vaccum chamber to suck all the air out of the mold.

Its what I do, and the results aren't terrible.

Just use a one piece mould and resin with a low viscosity to cast bases.

I did all my Termagants like that. They came out a treat.

The main thing is to make a master without major undercuts.

Doomthumbs wrote:We've got Alumilite here in the states at Hobby Lobby.

For 60 bucks you get everything you need to make molds.

A tip: putting the mold in an old CD spindle that you cut a hole in allows you to make a cheap vaccum chamber to suck all the air out of the mold.

Its what I do, and the results aren't terrible.

Hence why I recommended Barnes.
They are our local (Australian) Casting and Moulding specialist supplier.
They have outlets in the east coast capitals (Adelaide and Perth miss out, suckers!).
The OP has his location listed as "Sydney" - so it's the most appropriate one for him.

They have supplied the FX industries here for many years (before that we were using Dow Corning RTVs and resins from another company that folded).

Alumilite CAN be found, but is generally more expensive. Barnes is our one-stop shop.

Doomthumbs wrote:We've got Alumilite here in the states at Hobby Lobby.

For 60 bucks you get everything you need to make molds.

A tip: putting the mold in an old CD spindle that you cut a hole in allows you to make a cheap vaccum chamber to suck all the air out of the mold.

Its what I do, and the results aren't terrible.

What do you do for the vacuum pump?

aerethan wrote:

Lonecoon wrote:

chromedog wrote:For resin, you really need to use the silicone stuff (and NOT silicon sealant used for bathrooms/kitchens - they are different products with very different uses) as the resin WILL attack latex (and latex rots - falls apart unless treated well - unlike the silicone.).

Not true! a 1:1 of mix of paint thinner and 100% silicone caulking, 3 drops of glycerine per ounce of silicone, and a few drops of acrylic pain and will give you a suitable silicone molding material. It's best for single part molds, but it works admirably.

Or you could buy Oomoo 1:1 silicone rubber and not do all the recipe work you outlined...

Or you could try it out with things you have lying around your house to see if it's something you want to try before spending a ton of money.

What do you do for the vacuum pump?

Probably a vacuum cleaner

I spent more on paint and a few models to base things off of than I did on molding supplies. Until you start looking at vacuum pumps and pressure chambers the cost is pretty insignificant compared to getting involved with Games Workshop in the first place.

Oomoo runs $30 for a 1lb kit which is enough to make a decent number of small molds. Hardly a ton of money, and if you are serious about casting resin, this is the proper way to do it and see decent results.

Vacuum pumps and chambers are the pricey part, but they are not mandatory items.

My first few casting jobbies were done with a small (500ml) tub of RTV and a "starter' kit for resin casting (around 500ml also - but it came with measuring cup and some tools) - there were NO available "complete" starter kits with both moulding materials + casting resins at the time.

It made around 8 moulds (heavy armoured 28mm infantry sized at 2 models per mould bodies+separate arms) - double sided and the resin gave me around 70-80 castings).

All up cost was around $75 AUD (AUD was at 0.65USD at the time) or about $1 per cast. You can usually only get around 100 casts out of an RTV mould with resin normally (as the resin does chemically react with the rubber, with or without release agents). At least silicon moulds don't rot if you put them into storage though.

We've got a casting forum here www.resinaddict.com with tons of info that would be of use. A good portion of our members are Aussie's so they can help with the local places to buy. Smooth On has a bunch of international distributors and I use a lot of their resins for my casting. (www.smoothon.com)

If you are aiming just to cast bases you don't really need any equipment, if you are doing more advanced casting you can get very good results with a pressure chamber and aircompressor (for around $200 total), a vaccum pump is not really needed.

has anyone tried out instant mold? it looks really great and i'm wondering how it performs. sounds quite cheap as well