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I am getting into 40k slowly, i made lots of aircraft models in my younger years and now i am really intrigued by some of the modifications i see here to make things WYSIWYG. I have a conundrum though... I have IG vets in carapace armor in my army list. I also recently bought a Valkyrie model to do an easy-peasy conversion to a Vandetta (got a heavy weapons squad and a couple lascannons, magnetize and good to go). I noticed that the door gunner torso they give me looks d4mn sexy for carapace armor. Combine this with the different head options on the same sprue and i was sold on using these buttes as my carapace vets. Unfortunently, GW only makes two per valk, and i need a couple squads. I don't think that doing a rubber mold and green stuffing it will work. I did this for some aquilla eagles for my chimeras and russes. So i did some searching and i found out that you can make your own plastic models like planes, trains and automobiles out of plastic using resin molding. Does anyone here have any help/tips/advice about what i should look at if i decide to try this?

It might be easier to greenstuff the armor onto normal bodies. The door gunners are single pose standing anyway, it would take a high amount of effort to give them a weapon, let alone repose them.

I think i can get enough poses out of changing the arms and head for my taste. besides it's the guard, you have no identity!

Check out this thread in the dakka tutorials section:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/307451.page

Should be a good start, and folks usually answer questions posed. Good luck and post results.

google two part silicone molds, or go to the tutorial on hirstarts.com

Be prepared to spend money. Casting is not a cheap alternative.
Use a resin with a demold time of 30minutes or more, this produce good results without things like a vacuum chamber or spin casting. More time for bubbles to come out means better casts.
Build a vibrating table, also on hirst arts and elsewhere. vibrate for about half the gel time.
Make more than one rubber mold to speed up the process.
set up an assembly line with an eggtimer and something better to do. Like painting. 30-60min demold may seem like a lot, but its still faster than you can paint them.

How many people actually use the door gunners on their Valks? You could probably beg/borrow a squad or two off of various people who just have them lying in their bits box. I know I have a few in there somewhere.

This is starting to sound REALLY involved. I made some plasma guns with a silicon "boil water then push it in" mold but they came out kinda flimsy even after a couple days. Is there a way to make them stand up more like plastic, if so can i apply that process to making the torsos?

The only problem with borrowing/begging is that there isn't a huge IG mech following in my area, kinda a reason i started.

If you are going to do it. Commit to it.
One trial size OOMO rubber from smooth on 30 USD
One vibrating massager 20 USD (maybe, search goodwill)
2'x2 ply wood 4 USD
Sponge 1 USD
1 gallon resin 100 USD
155 USD buys you all the IG door gunners you'll probably ever want. And any other pieces you make in resin.

Seems alot of effort for not alot of gain in game terms (infact its a really bad option)

This has some signifcant LEGAL ISSUES, be careful what you do. You cannot put a GW product (a Valk door gunner) and simple mould and cast it, its copyright infringement. You could copy one with GS and then cast, or you could modify pieces and then cast, but you cannot just cast an original. Plus for the price of the Resin, the moulds, the time and the effort it is probably cheaper to buy a load of VALK Gunners from Ebay or BitsBarn or something.

holymauler wrote:This is starting to sound REALLY involved.

That's an accurate way to describe silicone casting, yes. In all ways that matter - time, effort, money - you're better off hitting ebay or the swap shop for the kind of limited scale recast you wish to do.

Casting only pays off situationally.

Sounds like i need to make some new friends that play IG mech... Thanks for all the great information! I will make a new topic when i start doing the actual conversion on these guys, i think i am going to go with the door gunners then alter the torsos for different poses.

Holy:
I just started molding, its actually not as hard as people make it out to be as long as your expectations are good.

stuff like lascannons, meltaguns, plain legs and such turn out great with some practice, you'll get a bubble here and there and all of them will require cleanup, but it isnt too bad.
shoulderpads with details, are so-so, plain shoulderpads are no problem
same with hands, fingers sometimes dont come out, otherwise you are good to go.

@holymauler I just started casting recently too and it may seem daunting but it really isn't all that hard once you get into the swing of things. The first mold you make probably won't turn out that great, but you get better the more you do it. You can save a bit of money (about 10$~) by using urethane instead of silicone, but the trade-off is you probably won't get as many casts out of a two-part urethane mold as you would a silicone one.

@Ouze even if you mess up, chances are that at least some part of the cast is usable be it torso, melta, sprue, or whatever. I encourage OP's efforts, but I concede it would probably make more sense to start casting if he had an OOP or swarmy army. Seems like it would be much easier and cheaper to just buy the individual bits.

Look, I have no problem with casting your own miniatures and conversions. But be careful about casting items that don't belong to you where you don't have the right to the IP. Some people say "So long as you don't sell it you are Ok", well it's dodgy ground. The best policy is cast your own figures not copies of another companies.

mwnciboo wrote:Look, I have no problem with casting your own miniatures and conversions. But be careful about casting items that don't belong to you where you don't have the right to the IP. Some people say "So long as you don't sell it you are Ok", well it's dodgy ground. The best policy is cast your own figures not copies of another companies.

Added to this, I would point out that Dakka does not and can not support copyright infringement. Casting your own work is fair game, and a valid topic for discussion. Casting of GW's, or any other company's, miniatures is not.