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I've been thinking about buying CMONs Instant Mold, but I'm wondering, what material do I use to fill the molds? Green Stuff? I'd prefer not to use resin.

Green stuff. Look for oyumaru. The orginal thing (instant mold is only CMON:s rebrand), but cheaper.

For smooth objects, Milliput will also work well. I copy large skulls from my pinbadges by using that.
It doesn't like little fiddly detail as much, as it dries very brittle.

Why don't you like resin? It's cheap, dries fast, and copies details very well.

There's sometimes issues with air bubbles, but that's what green stuff is for.

In my experience, green stuff or millput in molds probably won't be great for fine details.

Have to disagree with Kap'n Krump...

Two-part liquid resins generally cure in an exothermic reaction and InstantMold/oyumaru softens with heat. The mold material (as it's been adapted to hobby use) really isn't meant for anything beyond epoxy putties and maybe some plasters (which, perhaps surprisingly, can undergo significant temperature changes of their own). Resin curing temperatures are liable to deform the mold before the first cast even sets. "Fast" is also relative - not only do user demands vary, the cure times of various epoxy putties and liquid resins do, as well. Greenstuff can remain pliable for days in a freezer, but there are also epoxy putties (the "plumber's" stuff, generally) that will set in all of five minutes, even if applied under the surface of a cool pool of water.

If you're going to mess with liquid casting resins - which are an amazing medium, mind you, if they're actually the appropriate material for the task - you're going to want RTV silicone molds. Heat-softened, re-moldable materials just aren't meant to handle the associated stresses.

I use a 50:50 mix of greenstuff and miliputt

Hmm, will CMONs Easy Resin work in the molds?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
What is the best material to use? Green Stuff? Milliput? CMON Easy Resin?

I bump, can CMONs easy resin be used in Instant mold?

No need to bump, just look at the product video on CMON.

http://cmon.com/easy-resin/

In short, yes you can.

kb_lock wrote:
I use a 50:50 mix of greenstuff and miliputt

I second this. Easier to handle than convential cold-curing resins, and the mix makes for keeping fine details without the brittleness of miliput and the round edges of pure greenstuff.

Alternatively, there is BeeSputty or greystuff.

For terrain details, I usually just use air dry model clay. It costs a fraction of the cost of above mix, and you get it in arts and craft stores, looks like this.

 oadie wrote:
Have to disagree with Kap'n Krump...

Two-part liquid resins generally cure in an exothermic reaction and InstantMold/oyumaru softens with heat.

I don't think that's likely to be an issue. Even though heat softens the material, it doesn't lose definition unless pressure is applied. And given how submerging instant mold in boiling water usually isn't sufficient to soften thicker parts all the way through, I doubt resin would put out enough energy to penetrate more than a few millimetres, so the mold should hold its shape easy.

In any case, silicon is also soft and floppy, but that doesn't stop it making good molds. I've put plaster of Paris into instant mold (which allegedly can scald skin as it cures) and it hasn't been a problem. Perhaps if it was a large complex mold with load-bearing areas it would be, but you would never make something like that out of instant mold. Usually it's going to be small, flat, one part molds. I really can't see resin being a problem there.

Is Oyamaru any different to Polymorph thermoplastic granules?

Absolutely Kap'n! I love my instant mold. I started out just using it with GS, but now I do resin in it all the time. It's fast, cheap (since you can remold over and over), and really good detail. I haven't had a problem with degredations, mostly because I only do 5-10 casts per mold.

Obviously, YMMV, but I love it.