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Hello!

I just got my hands on some real cool models from Kingdom Death. Check them out if you have the time they are launching a kickstarter at the moment called Kingdom Death monster. My question is if someone can help me, I've noticed this resin/plastic is very similar to forgeworld or maybe a little bit harder/rigid. Mostly when I cut through it more than a cut it feels like I'm breaking the cast at specific locations, There are some delicate parts that I wouldn't like to ruin from the models and I don't know if the hobby knife is such a good Idea anymore. Does anyone here has tried something else? maybe a serrated saw/knife, a heating the hobby knife? how can I cut through hard resin with a more precise cut?

Any Input will be much appreciated
Alan

I have absolutely no experience so take my words with a bucket of salt But my first though on reading your post was maybe try warming the model up a bit in warm water, then do your cutting under an incandecent lamp to retain the heat.

Though I can't imagine it's so brittle that a good sharp hobby knife (maybe get a new blade?) wouldn't cut it precisely. I like to avoid saws unless I'm genuinely dealing with something too hard and/or too thick to cut with a knife, since saws remove material rather than just splitting it.

But anyway, I'm sure someone with actual experience will come along and tell me I'm wrong.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I have absolutely no experience so take my words with a bucket of salt But my first though on reading your post was maybe try warming the model up a bit in warm water, then do your cutting under an incandecent lamp to retain the heat.

Though I can't imagine it's so brittle that a good sharp hobby knife (maybe get a new blade?) wouldn't cut it precisely. I like to avoid saws unless I'm genuinely dealing with something too hard and/or too thick to cut with a knife, since saws remove material rather than just splitting it.

But anyway, I'm sure someone with actual experience will come along and tell me I'm wrong.

Actually your idea sounds really good. I will tough wait a bit to see if there's any more input before trying. The thing is that the model is wearing sandals and are really thin and the cast has the sandals a bit angled and embedded with a chunk of resin in both feet. if I cut with the knife as it is I will probably take the sandals with the cut or even a few fingers.

Thanks for the fast reply
Alan

for cutting i would use a very fine saw like gamesworkshop sells but then from a DIY store because thats way cheaper!

Sawing instead of cutting is preferrable. Resin is kinda brittle and when cutting you can end up with snapping off stuff you'd rather have left on the model.
Smaller stuff like vents and such can be cut, usually. YMMV.

X-acto keyhole saws are pretty handy for minis. http://www.amazon.com/X-Acto-Blades-15-Keyhole-Saw/dp/B007RHAG12

For cutting resin you`d best get some good quality jeweler`s saws or special resin saws. Considereing how much some of these resin kits cost there`s no real excuse in spending dough on good gear to make sure you do not screw them up.
The finest grade of CMK`s line of resin saws is good for getting through resin. There should be different brands out there so check online scale modeling or woodworking shops for tools

There's no need for something as "specialized" as a resin saw (I honestly can't imagine what would differentiate a saw specifically for resin, aside from the TPI - I have a sneaking suspicion that it's just branding to try and capture a niche market, but I may be wrong), as long as the tool is quality. A plain old razor saw (you'll be hard pressed to find a saw of the proper size with teeth too coarse for this sort of work) will suffice, as would a jeweler's saw. Since the point is to remove material, minor differences in the width of the kerf are irrelevant, since you can simply shift the position of your cut away from the part you want to save, slightly.

You need a razor saw. Zona brand razor saws are far superior to the crappy Xacto razor saws.

Tim

 oadie wrote:
There's no need for something as "specialized" as a resin saw (I honestly can't imagine what would differentiate a saw specifically for resin, aside from the TPI - I have a sneaking suspicion that it's just branding to try and capture a niche market, but I may be wrong), as long as the tool is quality. A plain old razor saw (you'll be hard pressed to find a saw of the proper size with teeth too coarse for this sort of work) will suffice, as would a jeweler's saw. Since the point is to remove material, minor differences in the width of the kerf are irrelevant, since you can simply shift the position of your cut away from the part you want to save, slightly.

As far as I know - the only company who actually sells resin saw blades is CMK - and they don't actually sell them specifically as resin saw blades, but the name of the company is CMK Resin Kits - so it does say resin kits on the blade. They are basically a serrated double sided razor blade. The nice thing about those compared to regular razor saws is that the kerf is very fine. The only thing which is finer that I have found is an 8/0 jewelers saw blade. My Zona ultra thin kerf saw is 0.008" thick, the CMK kerf is 0.0065" while the 8/0 jewelers saw is 0.0063".

Normally, if you are just removing plugs and what not off from a part - the size of the kerf isn't too important. Sometimes though, you are looking to match up two different models - or otherwise want to keep as much intact as possible. The finer the kerf, the easier it is to match things up when you go to put them back together again. Granted, the difference between 0.008 and 0.0065 isn't that great - it may not really be worth the trouble of tracking them down. Some of the cheaper razor saws have a kerf that is as large as 0.02" which is significant when compared to the thinner blades or when doing something like cutting a figure in half to swap legs or something like that.

 Sean_OBrien wrote:
Normally, if you are just removing plugs and what not off from a part - the size of the kerf isn't too important. Sometimes though, you are looking to match up two different models - or otherwise want to keep as much intact as possible.

Fair enough. I was ignoring blade/kerf width, since it didn't matter for the intended task, but if the OP is buying tools, it's worth considering as a potential benefit for future projects. I've even seen photoetched micro-saw blades that could cut out a door on a 1/72 airplane without destroying the panel line. The tools exist and definitely have a purpose, but I do think it's worth having a somewhat beefier razor saw for general use. I know that mine, at least, sees significantly more use than my jeweler's saw (at least for modeling), since the majority of cuts I need to make are straight, with clear access, and losing <.5mm of material rarely matters (or can at least be accounted for, beforehand, as when cutting stock to tight tolerances). YMMV, of course.