Resin kit?

[lio99]

Ok so i am probably the only person on this forum that doesn't no the history with the resin kits, can someone tell me, i am sure its not another random brand.

[DinoLord]

They're not one brand. Resin kits are a type of model. Usually, several pieces of the model are cast in resin, and then must be glued together and painted to result in a finished model. Many different artists make them. They've been around for quite a while; since the 90's at the very least.

[tyrantqueen]

They tend to be quite expensive and require some skill in painting and assembling....unless you can get someone to do it for you ;D

[lio99]

Ah i thought so thanks.

[kevtk135]

Resin is the type of material used to make the kit as opposed to vinyl or styrene.
The hobby started when a few guys decided to make a model of a character that wasn't popular enuff for the big mfg. Co's to make a profit on. They either sculpted a statue of the character or had it done. Many of the early ones were just one piece. They would take that sculpt, pour rubber around it to make a mould. When the rubber cured they removed the sculpt and poured liquid resin into the mould. When the resin cured they removed the cast and they had their model. Some guys would make a few more friends and that's where it started.
It has been said that these guys had this little "manufacturing" operation in their garage, hence the term "Garage Kits."
Many of these early kits as I mentioned were just one piece and nothing like the quality we see today. They had a very stiff and static pose, and usually these casts were filled with holes and bubbles from where air was trapped in the mould - or if the resin was stirred too vigorously the air would be trapped in it.

Soon the sculpts became more animated, and complicated. So multiple part moulds were needed. Then it was discovered that if you put the liquid rubber in a vacuum all the air would be pulled out and the casts would be smoother. Then it was all a matter of time that these new sculptors were more talented and better and better casts were made.

With the popularity of the Net more and more modelers would find out about these "new" style of kits and the garage kit industry was in full swing.

On the heels of that there emerged some dirtbags who made their own moulds and casts from these guys hard work and passed it off as there own . These are called recasts. If you see a kit that's normally $100+ and here's some SOB who has 9 or 10 available and selling them for $20 ea., they are recasts. NEVER buy a recast kit! Quite a few talented garage kits guys have called it quits because they couldn't compete with recasters selling their poor copies cheaper than the original producer could sell them for.
Always search out the original, and if the original is out of production look for the original on the secondary market or just wait. More likely than not they will be reissued. or maybe even a better example of a character will come along shortly. Take a look - how many T-Rex kits are out there? The ones today are a lot better than one produced in the early 90's and I'll guess that a T-Rex produced 2 years from now will be better than todays.

The reason these kits are more expensive is that rubber and resin are expensive and if the producer isn't the sculptor he has to commission someone to sculpt the character for him. This all costs money. Plus where a big mfg. might sell tens of thousands of kits these garage kits guys may only sell a few dozen to a few hundred. they almost never make a profit and do it for the love of the subject they are producing and the love of the hobby.

Sorry for having gone on so long.

[lio99]

Thanks kevtk135

[takama]

I read some kit reviews on the blog, and they said that they requier cleanup from acces resin.

I debated about buying a resen kit, but what are the risks when it comes to cleaning them? and how dificult is it?

[tyrantqueen]

I read some kit reviews on the blog, and they said that they requier cleanup from acces resin.I debated about buying a resen kit, but what are the risks when it comes to cleaning them? and how dificult is it?

I think that model kits vary in assembly difficulty. Obviously the detailed ones with little parts are going to be harder to assemble.
I had an old Horizon vinyl model of Brachiosaurus and it was annoying because the model had to be heated to soften the plastic so the excess bits could be trimmed off.
I have an anime figure that had to have holes drilled in the feet so that it could stand.

Luckily, most kits these days seem to be resin. I think most people just clean the excess resin bits with an old toothbrush and warm soapy water. It's best to wash anything, whether it's a toy or model before painting, because your hands leave oils behind on the surface that can intefere with the paint sticking....or so I've heard


I would say you should only invest in a model kit if you're really sure that you have the skills to assemble and paint it. They are very expensive usually. I learnt this lesson the hard way.
If you can't do it yourself, you could get someone else to do it for you.

[copper]

excess resin can be also removed carefully with razor blade knife or exacto knife. resin models may also need putty filling in the seams.
here are two resin kits with different needs:
i have shane foulkes torvosaurus; parts fit nicely together. only small amount of putty is needed to disguise the seams.
and i have the jorge blanco giganotosaurus; with it i had to sand the with sandpaper so that they fit and then a lot of putty work was needed to fill all the gaps. the tail and the body piece were different sizes, the tail piece was much wider. i had to sand the tail to thin it down and then reconstruct the skin with putty. the giga also had visible seams, unlike the shane torvosaurus.