Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello guys.

I made 3 press mold of a large scenic 60mm base that are about 3-5 mm thick depending on the location. Its my first attempt at press molding something this large and while it has worked on smaller bases I'm finding these larger ones are very flexible.

They are molded entirely of green stuff (Kneadatite) with a 50/50 ratio and have been curing for about 24 hours now and still flex with minimal pressure. I could remake them as just a top layer to mount on an existing plastic 60mm base but I'd have to order more green stuff and 2 60mm bases, apart from wanting to avoid that cost I also need these quite urgently.

I was wondering if anyone knows if it will eventually harden up i.e. will it take longer because of how much green stuff I used, Should I just give it another 24 hours? or if not is there anything I can do to help support it ( I was thinking about running pins through the length of the bases but I don't have a drill long enough to get even half way). I also have some .5mm plasticard, which I was going to glue underneath, but the card is about as flexible as the bases are at the moment so I don't think that will help.

Anyone else ever run into this problem? Is there any quick fix or have I just made a rookies mistake in making an entire green stuff 60mm base.

I think thin sheets of GS will continue to be flexible. For a rigid base you need a more resiny material. HAve you got any CD cases? That plastic tends to be pretty rigid. Or even some old CDs themselves, if you can cut them reliably.

Yes I have had that same problem. To a certain extent, more blue will make the GS harder though.

Changing the mixing ratio will affect the cured result's physical properties, to a degree, but I wouldn't consider GS a good material for an entire base, as much as it might work to "skin" a rigid base.

If you want to use what you have without spending much, I'd suggest trimming off the bottom of your bases, if need be, and mounting them to a rigid disk. Hard plastic would work, as would thin MDF or something along those lines. Don't know what you have available locally, but my FLGS sells generic MDF disks in the standard base sizes on the cheap. If you can't find anything similar, you'd have to go the DIY route.

I doubt you'd ever get GS hard enough to make a base that big that wouldn't flex too much. I've used milliput to make press molded stuff up to about 50mm and that goes hard as stone.

I agree with previous posts: in such short order, the best you can do is mount your GS bases on top of something slightly more sturdy, such as a sheet of plastic or some such.

-CD case, cut roughly to size
-Plastic Card
-thin piece of wood
-heavy card stock
-small sheet of metal -- I'm thinking body washers:
washers are probably your best bet. I know I often find them laying around the garage (shed, tool shed, junk drawer, pickup truck, etc) but are way cheap at the hardware store too. Nice and thin, doesn't get more rigid than this, adds a good bit of weight to the mini, magnetic, the list of bonuses goes on

Yep. Without going more in-depth and making the project way more intense than it ought to be, that's all I can come up with.