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Hi all,
So I've had a go at press molding some 32mm bases.

Used Oyumaru to make the molds, and a mix of kneadatite and milliput to make the casts. Theres 5 variations, 2 copies of each.

Its a basic texture; greenstuff with a bit of a texture by pushing things into it, some random objects from the bits box, slate rocks and sand.
I'l have to get some pics of them painted up. I also stamped the bottom with a dark angels logo bit as theyre going to go on a DA tactical squad this time (this is a bit of a practise run for the blood angels force I'm gonna build) Need some good texture ideas for the masters on those.

Still a bit rough, theyre only just popped out of the molds and need the bottoms sanding nice and flat.





Any good ideas for base textures that cast well? I might even get some rubber and resin for bases. - Does anyone who does that kind of thing know if I'l cry for not having a de-gasser and a pressure chamber if only doing bases? (hardly so critical as model parts)

A: Looks great so far!

B: Why??



But seriously, commercial pre-textured 30mm bases are cheaper than anything you can hope to create. (for example: 10 bases for 9 USD / 5.8 GBP @ Secret Weapon Miniatures) Just think about how much putty you used and what it cost you.
Also: GW has long seized to set standards in this hobby (apart from ridiculous prices). Just because they do it, does not mean you have to.
And judging from what you produced so far, you are not taking the super-creative-never-seen-before-texture road either. (no offense meant!)

So, again: WHY????




But to answer your questions: Yes, you can get decent resin casts without vacuum. Especially since you only go for bases which do not usually have undercuts or extrem 3dimensional features. And the odd bubble on a base texture can be a bonus, actually.
Dakka Dakka has some great tutorials on resin casting.

I doubt it will be any cheaper and it will certainly not be easier to handle than Oyumaru, however!

Sorry if that sounds very negative. Merry Xmas!

I have made cast quite a few bases with silicone molds and poured resin with no vacuum. The detail is excellent.

If the base to be cast has lots of small bits with fine details and stuff that will get hung up in the mold like sand etc, I suggest sealing it really well before casting and just casting the basic shape and adding bits to later. If you through on a few more random bits to your newly cast bases, you can get more variety.

I don't use a vacuum degasser for resin & I've found that by sprinkling a little talcum powder down over the sealer & then tapping the excess out I don't have too much of a problem with air bubbles. I do occasionally have to burp the molds if it's a narrow pour channel without an air vent.

Thanks for the input guys.

Yeh these particular bases are abit... uninspired shall we say. The bits and bobs arent anything too exotic, a grenade here and there, a clip, a broken bike faring, some axle, a pipe... Nothing we all couldnt whip up with sand and some glue tbh.
This was an excercise in does it work well enough. It did... but is slow to run off copies.
The mold is re shapable though, which is a plus.

The putty, I feel was cheap.. like really cheap. I spent approx £15 and got a yard of greenstuff tape and 2 packs of milliput.Making these would be considerably cheaper than buying resin premade bases, but as pointed out I should probably get a more inspired texture. I barely dented the stocks making these 10 bases. I imagine this has cost onpar or less than buying plain bases from gdub.
Also had it anyway.. as its just handy to have some expoxy putty when modeling. (neither the putty nor the oyumaru were bought for this project, both have been sat around much of the year)

What I do want is to create some more special textures to use with the bloodangels force I'l be starting very soon. (these 10 DA have been sat on my painting shelves needing basing for ages, so theyre the subjects of my prototype run I guess.)
I suppose I could even look to purchase a set of all sizes from somewhere and pushmold duplicates as needed? (is that too naughty to talk about here? - the plan has been to create my own thus far)

I've got a lot of orks that need some basing too, so perhaps scrap yard would be good to try and make too.
The 32mm.. well... seems like the size they want to use in future so why not. From a modeling perspective, I like them.
From a, I already have 25mm's .. none of us like them. I certainly wont be buying 32's for all my mini's but might cast my own 32's for them all, thats much more reasonable.

When these are fully cured, I'l sand them up and throw a lick of paint on them and display the efforts. But really am seeking ideas to steal for bloodangels basing that is cool enough to warrant the effort involved. (these; took me 36 hours to create the originals, mold them and cast all 5 twice) I can do 2 casts a day, maybe 3 if i really pushed it on the demold time as semi cured is enough to pop them out. (note 36 hours was not enough for the master to have fully cured either, but its seems to have took an impression just fine)
Theres some secret weapon temple ruins bases I did fancy for the Dark Angels,but I've got no particularly inspired ideas for Blood Angels outside of generic battle mush.

 treslibras wrote:
A: Looks great so far!

B: Why??



But seriously, commercial pre-textured 30mm bases are cheaper than anything you can hope to create. (for example: 10 bases for 9 USD / 5.8 GBP @ Secret Weapon Miniatures) Just think about how much putty you used and what it cost you.
Also: GW has long seized to set standards in this hobby (apart from ridiculous prices). Just because they do it, does not mean you have to.
And judging from what you produced so far, you are not taking the super-creative-never-seen-before-texture road either. (no offense meant!)

So, again: WHY????




But to answer your questions: Yes, you can get decent resin casts without vacuum. Especially since you only go for bases which do not usually have undercuts or extrem 3dimensional features. And the odd bubble on a base texture can be a bonus, actually.
Dakka Dakka has some great tutorials on resin casting.

I doubt it will be any cheaper and it will certainly not be easier to handle than Oyumaru, however!

Sorry if that sounds very negative. Merry Xmas!

Well, first of all, 30 mm != 32 mm I mean, if you're going to go to the effort of using a new base size, you might as well use the new *correct* base size. SWM is coming out with 32mm soon, so if you want to go that route, just wait a little Plus, at some point 32mm resin bases will be plentiful (and the same price as 30mm ones). The last thing I'd want to do is build 40 models on 30mm, and then my next 500 on 32mm. I mean, my OCD-ness would force me to rip them off the 30mm lol. I can live with 500 models on 25mm, and 500 models on 32mm, but not a handful in between

I think those bases are still fun, hairy sticks Seems like the kind of thing I'd do, even if there is no economy in it, just to try it out a few times.

I'm actually looking forward to basic 32mm plastic bases for a while. I haven't done many infantry bases from scratch in quite a while, so I look forward to sand, pebbles, static grass, tufts, and all that fun stuff

So they're roughly primed and drybrushed enough for the detail to show up better; Just used black brush on gesso and Storm Vermin Fur to drybrush with.



Underside ;

I like 'em! The Dark Angels approve, too

Thanks Talys.

I'm pretty happy with them, It takes too long to fill the molds nicely, I could never run off too many of these.

I think that a resin pour would be so much quicker to do a run, once the initial mold prep is taken care of.
With a much faster cure and the potential to run off an armys worth over a weekend, or even a day easily enough.

I would probably have to sacrifice the hollowness of the base unless making a 2 part mold, and also the icon stamp (that was just an afterthought though - pretty novel but meh)

Just to decide on how to sculpt and texture a base to suit the 'red's' that is a little more worth my work. I have a feeling that a golden sandy desert would be a nice blood angels base. Or icy snowy something. Cant bring myself to cast desert tho!!

Hi hairysticks. love the molds. you could try casting them in two part thermo plastc!! don't worry about the cost though...I bought the casting silicone and a
1 kilo plastic resin set for less than £30 and cast over 250 bases and still going with this one pack of plastic!!!! thats over £145 going on treslibras
prices for the amount of bases now made.....I have even sold loads and made my money back :-)

That sounds great Bopkins. Do you cast them fully solid? or do you go to the hassle of a 2 part mold to get the hollow underside to them? .. is there an easy way to do that I dont know about?

Still stuck for inspiration on what exactly to make for my blood angels bases. I plan to make a set of all the sizes I might use on a Blood Angel of any type. and then run off a box full

I do make some two part molds for the bases but most of the time its just the solid type. I'm making some for my blood angels now. just some cracked earth type as baal is dry and deserty.


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this is my latest finished one. using a single piece mold.

bopins wrote:
I do make some two part molds for the bases but most of the time its just the solid type. I'm making some for my blood angels now. just some cracked earth type as baal is dry and deserty.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
this is my latest finished one. using a single piece mold.

That looks amazing bopins, I'm making some silcone molds of my bases too... what type of pastic-resin did you use for the cast?

Hi gunzhard. I use Fastcast Polyurethane resin. sets very quick, about 1/2hour or so, longer for thinner pieces.

its now sold in two kilo packs for £18 here in the UK.

Im having a bit of a google around for a casting supply store now.

If i got this;
http://sylmasta.com/acatalog/Sylmasta-Casting-Kit-01---FREE-25ml-Clear-Epoxy-906.html#SID=6

Would I be missing anything that I'd really need? (and would you rate the kit over buying stuff separately?)

The resin's specs are listed as;

G26 cures to a light beige colour.
Pot Life: 3 to 4 minutes
De-mould time: 30 minutes up to 10mm thick.
Viscosity: 130 mPas.
Mixing ratio: 50:50.

And the rubber as ;

Key Benefits:
• Good dimensional stability
• High Tear Strength
• Easy degassing
• Chemically resistant
• Pot Life: 45-120 minutes.
• De-mould: 8 hours
• Mixed viscosity: 16,500 mPa.s

Cured Properties:
• Shore A hardness: 18°
• Elongation at break: 539%
• Tensile strength: 3.11 MPa
• Tear strength: 23.49 kN/m

thats quite expensive for such a small kit.
this is the stuff i use and from this company.

http://www.cfsnet.co.uk/acatalog/Fastcast_Resin_Standard.html

http://www.cfsnet.co.uk/acatalog/RTV240_Silicone.html

both for £54 inc vat plus postage, but it goes a long way and you can also add talc which is really cheap to make it go further. that kit for £34 won't go very far.

I've been using Dental Plaster for my bases. It hardens stronger than resin, and is much cheaper. I like the added weight as well.

Dental plaster might be interesting...

are the casts not brittle? or prone to chips atall?
Is this the stuff that a false tooth would be made from? As I'd imagine that to be fairly hard wearing.

I think they are really cool, the Dark Angel symbol stamped on the bottom is a very nice touch.

By the way, this is a clip.

 Kelly502 wrote:
I think they are really cool, the Dark Angel symbol stamped on the bottom is a very nice touch.

By the way, this is a clip.

ahem... magazine** my bad.

Thanks though , I'm just seeing what I can come up with for the rest, once i've got a solid idea I'l make some 32's, bike bases, 40's, 60's, big oval, and I'm not sure if scouts ought to be on 25's or 32's? What do you all think?
Cast up a solid set with plenty of spares.

I'm toying with the idea of making a 2part mold for it and having the logo imprint still as Its a nice touch that was purely an afterthought ; done simply by stamping a vehicle icon bit into the bottom. Its the difficulty of making and running the 2part mold vs a simple 1 part pouring job.... but crafts manship points maybes? is it worth it?

Dude I would buy them from you I like them that much! However, there'd have to be a Blood Angel symbol on the bottom.

Green Stuff is pretty cheap, if you buy it in the larger bulk version. The other guys have great ideas, trying to save you some money, I'm not such a hobbiest as those guys they get pretty high speed with their builds, I'm more into the press mold if I was to do that.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

bopins wrote:
I do make some two part molds for the bases but most of the time its just the solid type. I'm making some for my blood angels now. just some cracked earth type as baal is dry and deserty.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
this is my latest finished one. using a single piece mold.

bopins that's a nice bit of work!

I could easily change the symbol. Just a matter of finding, or sculpting a stamp with the desired logo at the right size.

If still press molding when doing the Blood Angels I would likely carry that on, its not much additional effort beyond making the stamp ; which was an icon glued onto a cork.

HairySticks wrote:
Dental plaster might be interesting...

are the casts not brittle? or prone to chips atall?
Is this the stuff that a false tooth would be made from? As I'd imagine that to be fairly hard wearing.

Really hard, something like 10,000 to 15,000 PSI, once it hardens, strength depending on what you buy.

I've dropped them and not had any issues, and I'm still able to drill them or shave off bits with a razor.

It's not going to replace resin for casting anything thin, like weapons on minatures, but I've cast a ton of scarabs and bases with it and I've hardly put a dent in the 20+lb box I bought off ebay for $30 shipped.