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Before I begin, I'd like to get it out there that I will not be recasting the miniatures of other companies. I'm in the middle of sculpting a Steel Legion army, but as that would take too long, I've decided I want to explore the option of casting them. I've heard about the latex glove method and the RTV method, but I think I would prefer the latex glove method because it will be cheaper.

However, I'm not too sure what the quality will be like on the casts with the glove method compared with RTV. Could anyone tell me what the better option is?

RTV is more expensive, but the moulds last a lot longer. Resin sucks all of the moisture out of latex, and so it goes brittle.

Assuming by the 'glove' you're talking about a single-piece mould, generally produced by dipping or brushing the latex onto the master... it greatly limits what you can cast. Unless you're looking at sculpting great coats that go all the way to the ground and having arms either fused to the body or separate pieces, it's really not suited to infantry models.

While it's a slightly more complex process, making two-part RTV moulds is actually easier than single-piece latex moulds, as the mould itself is a little more forgiving if you don't get the break line quite right. By contrast, if you're not sure what you're doing, you'll go through a lot of extra latex when it either tears or just won't come off your master... or you wind up with a mould that it is impossible to get casts out of without breaking them and/or the mould.

Ah thanks for that. Yeah, by latex glove I meant dipping the master. What would single-piece moulds be useful for, if they aren't suited to infantry pieces?

What about using silicone sealant and not RTV for the moulds? I'm tight on money and would like to spend as little as possible whilst still getting decent quality.

 Far Seer wrote:
What would single-piece moulds be useful for, if they aren't suited to infantry pieces?

Mostly for stuff that is fairly basic shapes. I use single-piece silicon moulds for terrain - rocky outcrops, crates and barrels and the like.

You can cast human figures in single-piece moulds, it just requires some very specific sculpting, and is more suited to stuff like garden gnomes (where the detail doesn't have to be fantastic) than to models.

What about using silicone sealant and not RTV for the moulds?

Not realy ideal. Wrong sort of silicon.



You could try something like Instant Mould, which is re-usable... use the one lot of putty for everything. Would probably be a little fiddly to make two-part moulds out of it, though.

Silicone sealant: Bad idea. Wrong kind of silicone. Tried this many years ago. Went to RTV instead.

There is NO cheap and easy solution for Resin casting.
If there was, Every gamer would be doing it. Everyone. Because most of the gamers I know have some form of "lazy" gene (no other reason explains how GW sold so many ROB's down under at that price.)

If you don't know what you are doing, then you will just destroy the mould getting the original out of the "glove" mould.

If you don't know what you are doing with RTV and multi-part moulds, then you will just waste product.

If you are old enough and have a Barnes (Australian company that specialises in casting and mould making materials) in your state, you can do classes with them. Otherwise, you can study lots of websites on casting and DIY (steep learning curve).

Being a Patternmaker by trade and having spent more than 10 years in the mold making industry (I am now in the design side) I would recommend anyone saying:

"I'm tight on money and would like to spend as little as possible whilst still getting decent quality."

To avoid trying to do it. The proper equipment can be either expensive or time consuming to bring together and if you are going in blind there will be a lot of wasted money and hours.

If you have some time and money to throw away, then by all means give things a go, but I speak from a lot of experience when I say it takes time and practice to perfect it.

There are amazing resources available though to teach you how to do it and even friendly people on forums, but that will not help you avoid the costs involved with casting.

Best of luck to you and feel free to ask for more info I am happy to share what I have learned, but I also don't want you to waste time or money up front.

It cost me about £60 for the RTV and resin to make my Tyranid snake-type Termagant bases.



It worked fine as a one piece mould because it's the base and bottom of the creature and the top comes from the normal model and that's where the eye tends to fall. The detail of my casting is pretty sparse, but it doesn't matter when you throw down 66 of them on the table.

I made five moulds in order to be able to use a sensible quantity of resin for every run. You need to measure out a large enough weight of resin to get a fairly accurate mixture so it will cure properly. I measured out 20 grams each of the two compounds, using an electronic kitchen scales accurate to 2g (10%). I had a few that were a bit "weepy" from not being properly cured, but these eventually cured or at least dried up and I was able to use them. It helped that the weeping occurred on the bottom of the base of the casting

I made 66 models, so they cost me about 90p each in terms of the casting materials, and I have moulding compound and some resin left over for another project. Also the moulds are fine in case I want to cast more bases.

The only big mistake I made was on my first casting, when I got a bit of moisture in the mould and it caused the resin to turn into foam. After that I made sure the moulds were completely clean and dry and I never looked back.

From doing that project I learned how to mix the RTV and the resin properly. What I don't know is how to make a good 2-part mould. I know the theory from watching tutorials, but it takes a real project to learn the technique properly.

As an experienced sculptor and caster (monsters for star wars , D&D and working with sfx production guys ) I could not agree more with archer and crhome dog's comments.

Casting complex mins is not cheap. At all.

Yes, you can do some simple minis with the "latex glove" method, but these are simple sculpts with no undercuts.

There is a lot of "art" to casting anything that is even remotely complex (yes, most figure minis are complex). It has to do with knowing how to lay out the mold, where to make the seams, how much extra room in the mold box, when to pull, how to pull, how much elasticity you need in the silicon for this specific model.
(for example, I have two different types of silicon I use, depending on the complexity of what is being cast and its shape).

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy casting stuff...especially stuff I make myself...there is something exciting about your first cast of a master you made...seeing it as a real part - then when you paint it...thats really cool.

If you are doing very simple pieces and are ok with a lack of detail (see Killkrazy's comment on sparse details) its a bit easier.

I suggest watching as many vids on casting as possible on youtube...there are TONS of them.
Then check out some of the casting forums, like resin addict.

Regardless, I hope your project works out - casting is rarely successful to save money though...it is mainly useful to save time - do as much research as possible, and good luck!

Thanks everyone, your comments were very insightful. It seems like the general consensus is that there is no cheap and easy way to cast.

So I see two solutions for myself:
Hire a professional to cast or cut down my hobby related purchases to save up for the casting materials.

I started casting recently myself. I got the Smooth-On starter kit for a fair price as a starting point.
You definitely won't get casting material for cheap but you have to decide for yourself what your limits are. I am a cheap-ass and so i tried to be as cheap as i could get. I have a rather simple setup for my two part molds. Just a syringe based injection style. And for complicated parts i add resin into the hard to cast areas before putting the mold sides together for the final pour. I still have air bubbles here and there in the resin as well as in the molds but the quality is rather good - not professional but good. There is still some fixup needed but i can use the results.

My expenses so far are 50 € in silicone, 25 € in resin and additionally the cost for syringes and plastilin. I had lego bricks for building the frame already so i could use those. I'd say i have roughly spent 100 €. What i cast with that is the equivalent of 20 terminators (my possessed termies) and 20-30 small bases. Looking at that i'd say you have to expect costs for casting similar to the money you'd have spent on buying the equivalent in GW models. The more errors you make the higher the additional costs. But on the opposite if you can make multiple casts from your molds your expenses will look better.
Just expect to invest a lot time into learning. And if you want to really have good quality you have to invest into actuall hardware like a vacuum casting chamber to get the air out.

And here are a few examples as a rough outline what you can expect if you invest as much (or little) as i did. You can see the GS application i needed to fix those models up. So decide for yourself.

For anybody looking to learn more about molding and casting I highly recommend this book: http://amzn.to/179XkzZ
It's the book I used to learn about the subject (aside from just experimentation). It's old, but the techniques are all relevant.

I looked around to see if there were any other newer books, but they all seem to be more specific (like, if you were wanting to cast pots, for example). This still seems to be the best general guide.

Oh yeah... Alumilite also have a youtube channel with some good videos - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjEL94r6U8mL6Oo5Ph6NEtw
Brickingtheyard also has a number of good videos - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI4MY9vL2ecVLF4JZLRoO-Q

Sent you a PM, I agree, cheap and casting don't belong in the same sentence.

What a coincidence bltdoomhammer, it happens I've frequented your possessed terminators blog and know about your casting efforts! And they look quite nice and crisp.

As for pressure casting...I looked into it and these cost like $300-$800. Do they just ensure there are minimal bubbles in the cast or do they actually help with the crispness of the details?

Yes and yes.

Mainly it's to force the air bubbles out so that you have fewer surface deformations, but it also helps with the internal voids (which tend to be where you don't want them, either.

Would a vibrating table (or a makeshift one) achieve similar results?

Not so much. Vibrating causes air to go out and up in thing like open plaster molds. With resin figures, you often have areas which forcing the air up would cause a detail like a shoulder plate to capture that air and ruin the casting.

Pressure though, while not really getting rid of the air, makes it smaller. Higher pressures make the bubbles almost completely disappear.

Being in Austalia, I am not sure on you local prices, but here you can get pressure pots pretty cheap and a good air compressor can be had relatively inexpensively as well. If I had to again, I could probably buy the gear needed for $125 or so.

Vibrating tables CAN help with casting and bubbles issues.
(it's what I use).

You can start pressure casting with a painter's pressure pot (you will need to modify it for casting work, though). These are the pots that take around 10-20 litres of paint, and feed it to the spraygun/roller under pressure.

You can also check out resinaddicts.com

 chromedog wrote:
Vibrating tables CAN help with casting and bubbles issues.
(it's what I use).

You can start pressure casting with a painter's pressure pot (you will need to modify it for casting work, though). These are the pots that take around 10-20 litres of paint, and feed it to the spraygun/roller under pressure.

You can also check out resinaddicts.com

As in one of these?: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10-Lt-PRESSURE-POT-SPRAY-GUN-TANK-HOUSE-PAINT-AIR-TOOLS-/331037915827?pt=AU_Building_Materials&hash=item4d1365bab3&_uhb=1

It seems RTV is definitely the way to go, but I have little issue if the occasional bubble pops up as I intend to cast for my own use. If that is the only drawback of casting without pressure/vacuum chamber, then I think I'll just start off without them and maybe pick them up if I get serious about casting.

Pretty much.

I've never used one - I've seen the ones friends use and from what they tell me, that's pretty much what they look like.

Ask at resinaddict for more details. The members have a crap-ton of experience with casting and moulding. It's pne of the best online sources of info for anyone wanting to know about casting.

My first RTV mould was for a motorcycle model way back in the early 90s (I'd built the original around a couple of HO scale wheels from a WW2 armoured car). No pressure vessel involved, two part mould.

The rubbers now are friendlier, and there is more variety in what is available.

Resin Addicts is a great sight, you will quickly see how the community makes mistakes and learns from them. Its great because everyone is willing to show what went wrong for them and how to overcome the issues.

I cast both plaster molds and do a lot of resin casting using vacuum chamber (for degassing silicone) and a pressure pot (for resin).

Depending on the mold and the resin, you can get good results with the "vibration method" but nothing beats the pressure pot route.

Also, the hardware is not that expensive, just get a painters pressure pot from a hardware store, and a compressor, and some fittings.

The biggest thing is that don't bother if you are trying to save money ....bother if you are trying to save time, or you have some unique parts you made yourself (I do a lot custom bases and custom stuff from 3d printed sources) or really rare stuff you need to duplicate.

The resources listed in this thread are great (the casting vids, and resin addict). I actually live near the brickintheyard guys, and they are very friendly and helpful in their shop.

best of luck!