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G'day all,

Given Aeronautica Imperialis is now mostly out of stock and I still don't have a single Eldar model that I wanted, I've been considering sculpting some myself and then recasting them.

I don't really want to get in to hardcore recasting, I just want to make a reasonably detailed Nightwing and then cast, I dunno, 8 or so of them, then sculpt a Phoenix and recast 6 or so of them, then a Vampire and cast 3 or 4 of them.

Maybe do the same for a dozen or so Hell Talons.

Any advice on what would be the best way to go about this that isn't going to cost me a fortune and isn't going to consume the rest of my life to get done?

Well on casting, here's a tutorial right here.

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

Got a lot of legos?

There's lots of tutorials, so I'll just throw in my two cents. Make sure there's enough working time on the resin you use. I got some stuff and I literally count to ten after mixing it and then start pouring, it's not even mixed properly and all of a sudden it's hot and starting to solidify. I forget the brand, starts with an "A" and is sold to model RR'ers. It works ok for 1-part molds, but I simply can't get it poured fast enough for 2 part molds.

My first cast was a Zoat, and although only the torso was successful, it was pretty cool. Tonight I'm going to give the Zoat another try and I have made a mold of one of Bob Olley's Scrunts (they're awesome, by the way. If you like Squats, check them out) which should be fully cured and ready for a cast. Both of them are pretty much experiments. I know what Zoats sell for on eBay, so I thought I'd cast one or two and sell the original.

Also do yourself a flavor and get stuff with an easy mix ratio. In general, that'd be the more expensive stuff, but the silicone is really messy and you have to put in 10% cure agent etc. it's hard to get the mix right sometimes and it's just to expensive for me anyway, to screw up.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Alumite, that's what it's called. Sets way too fast for me.

Maxim C. Gatling wrote:
Got a lot of legos?

There's lots of tutorials, so I'll just throw in my two cents. Make sure there's enough working time on the resin you use. I got some stuff and I literally count to ten after mixing it and then start pouring, it's not even mixed properly and all of a sudden it's hot and starting to solidify. I forget the brand, starts with an "A" and is sold to model RR'ers. It works ok for 1-part molds, but I simply can't get it poured fast enough for 2 part molds.

My first cast was a Zoat, and although only the torso was successful, it was pretty cool. Tonight I'm going to give the Zoat another try and I have made a mold of one of Bob Olley's Scrunts (they're awesome, by the way. If you like Squats, check them out) which should be fully cured and ready for a cast. Both of them are pretty much experiments. I know what Zoats sell for on eBay, so I thought I'd cast one or two and sell the original.

Also do yourself a flavor and get stuff with an easy mix ratio. In general, that'd be the more expensive stuff, but the silicone is really messy and you have to put in 10% cure agent etc. it's hard to get the mix right sometimes and it's just to expensive for me anyway, to screw up.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Alumite, that's what it's called. Sets way too fast for me.

Alumilite has another resin that is slower.. Has a pot life of about 5 mins and sets for demold in 30.. Also if you don't mind clear parts to paint you can use their clear resin that has a pot life of 45 min and sets in 24 hours.. just food for thought..

Ok, had a look through those, anyone have a suggestion of what silicone moulding rubber and resin to try out first that would work well for small detailed aircraft? Particularly what I can get in the US?

When going for a 2 sided mould, is the best way just to do the mould in one hit and then cut it in half to remove the part inside?

Looking at the tutorials, it looks like it's going to be very hard to cast the wings which are rather thin using the flexible silicone rubber.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Ok, had a look through those, anyone have a suggestion of what silicone moulding rubber and resin to try out first that would work well for small detailed aircraft? Particularly what I can get in the US?

When going for a 2 sided mould, is the best way just to do the mould in one hit and then cut it in half to remove the part inside?

Looking at the tutorials, it looks like it's going to be very hard to cast the wings which are rather thin using the flexible silicone rubber.

How thin are they??

I was planning on making them from 0.020" plasticard, I could go up a bit I suppose.

My plan was basically to make a template from a plasticard sheet and then build the body up around that template with some sort of sculpting material, so the wings will be as thick as the plasticard + some details sculpted on top and engraved in to the surface.

They'll be Aeronautica Imperialis scale aircraft, so reasonably small. Maybe resin casting isn't the way to go, or maybe I can use paperclip armatures to strengthen them, not sure.

Resin casting in that scale will make it hard, its why models are either plastic or metal in that size.. Also that small you might need a vacuum chamber to make sure you get perfect casts..

Oomoo 30 for silicone. 1:1 ratio but the silicone mixing/pouring/etc... Is all pretty messy, invest in a big ass pack of paper towels, it's better to wipe that crap off with a paper towel than to try to wash it off. You can get oomoo 30 for a bit under msrp from dickblick.com.

For resin I use smoothcast 300. It's the same company that makes the oomoo silicone. It's 1:1 also, but the 300 has a pot life of about 3 minutes like that alumite stuff. There's a smoothcast 305 that has a 7 minute pot life, but I haven't found a place to get it that doesn't charge an arm and a leg to ship it. So, I've never used it.

Pro tip: both the silicone and the resin do degrade in functionality once you break the vapor seals on the jars, so it's not a bad idea to try to use it up as soon as you can. So, before you start making your molds, make up a good slug of things you want to cast more of. Then make as many molds as you can with your batch of silicone. Same goes for the resin. They both CAN be used after sitting around for a while, but you'll notice the silicone components aren't as fluid as they were when you first pop the seal, which leads to the mix not being able to get into fine details as well. The resin components will start to get cloudy and there will be some precipitation of oxidized resin compound settling in your jars. At that point they just don't mix for crap and the air that has bee working on them will degas rather impressively right out of your molds in big, huge, crusty bubbles. Now, if you're casting up Nurglings or something, that might be kind of cool, so by all means let it oxidize.

Anyway, there's more resin and silicone I haven't tried that others can give more info on.