Casting?

[[][][]cordylus[][][]]

So, making resin casts of figures... How does it work?

[therizinosaurus]

Well, you have to buy molding supplies, as well as resin, which is a 2 part mixture. A good company is alumilite, they have some good starter kits.

In case you're wondering, I've done some molding and casting while making custom rubik's cubes.


I hope that helps!

[Tyrannax]

What did you have in mind CT? Not thinking of sticking a battat carno head in thick blue goo are you? ;D ;D

[tetonbabydoll]

Dec 30, 2008 6:16:43 GMT Tyrannax said:

What did you have in mind CT? Not thinking of sticking a battat carno head in thick blue goo are you? ;D ;D

Nah, no worries about that. he about went into a coma at the thought of my painting the Holy Relic.....

[[][][]cordylus[][][]]

Dec 30, 2008 6:16:43 GMT Tyrannax said:

What did you have in mind CT? Not thinking of sticking a battat carno head in thick blue goo are you? ;D ;D

No, I just wanted to make doubles of some of my wild safaris.

[kuni]

Honestly, with Wild Safaris, it's probably far, far cheaper to just buy duplicates.

Battats would be a slightly different story.

[Tyrannax]

Why? Just go buy them like kuni said. Casting material isn't cheap.

[sbell]

He's right about the casting material--between the mould maker and then the resin itself, it will cost a lot of money--it really is worth it to just buy more than one of a figure (if it is a discontinued figure, just watch ebay, it will probably come up eventually).

[[][][]cordylus[][][]]

No, that isn't really the point- I wanted to cast some wild safari's first, and then cast rarer things I have.

[kuni]

Well, best of luck to ya!

I've used www.hirstarts.com (tips and tricks section) for casting info sometimes, but this is mostly for small flat blocks and such, not complex animals, which would almost necessarily require multi-part molds, which I have no knowledge of.

[dinonikes]

I have a lot of molding knowledge and experience- but only in the methods and materials that I am familiar with. One thing that is a universal rule with molding is that most molding materials need a release agent of some sort to allow the mold material to come off of what you are trying to recreate- the pattern-in your case the toys you haveand want to mold. I think that you might end up with some toys that might have discoloration or some other affect to the original surface of the toy from this release agent. You would have to try a test on one toy of the same plastic that the toy you wanted to mold is made of to be sure... Making multi part molds isn't really that hard, it just takes patience to set up the parting line. This is where the various parts of the mold will separate- where you see the seam line on the toy. You have to plan it out, look at the piece and determine where the undercuts are and how the parts of the mold will pull apart. if you are using a flexible mold material like silicone, you can get away with a lot more in the way of undercuts and such. Basically you make one part of the mold at a time, until you have the pattern covered. I use clay to set up the parting line, basically making a separation wall about two inches or more wide.
I can get a two part gallon kit of silicone for roughly 100.00, this is actually a gallon of the silicone with a jug of the activator( when mixed together comes out to more than a gallon). I cast in urethane which is a two part plastic material(50-50 mix ratio)- this runs about thirty dollars a gallon. I am not at all familiar with the 'resin' that is used in the model kit business, I don't think it is the same material that we in the field I work in call resin, which is a polyester resin material, very similar to bondo.

I have thought about doing a thread here that would show step by step how I make molds and cast. I will have to take photos to document this process. I will be making a mold this week on my T-Rex toy sculpt and will take photos to show the process, as I find that trying to write it out is difficult and makes it sound a lot harder than it really is.