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Post by runningwolf on Apr 26, 2015 13:52:23 GMT
I have been wanting to cast some of the little brains I made for playing Zombie Dice. There are also some other tabletop/RPG stuff I have been thinking might be cool to make ten or fifteen of.
The g/f does stuff at a haunted house so I have been looking at the folks doing the larger scale stuff. A lot of it translates to small scale stuff but some doesn't.
The brains are about the size of my thumb (give or take the approximate size of most of the stuff I want to make molds for).
So I am asking the folks here who cast smaller stuff and have actually done it some ideas.
I will be talking about the brains basically because I can make a bunch fairly fast and cheap and if I mess them up no loss..... Would this idea work? Coat one to make a mold (use silicone or acrylic caulk). Let dry and pop out the brain. Fill the mold with hot glue?
I know I can get the latex and resin, I just want to try to get the feel for it first.... Seconds question after that would be does anyone have a good cheap source of epoxy resin?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2015 16:42:15 GMT
I've heard of casting from hot glue, but never tried it myself. My experience has been cheaper isn't always better when you start out. I would spend extra on the silicone materials, and skimp on the resin. I've had good results with both, but it did take some trial and error. I hear Smooth On make some really good stuff that's easy to use. I personally use this stuff for siliconeand this for resin
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Post by tauster on Apr 26, 2015 16:51:58 GMT
I have made good experiences with making molds of silicone and corn starch (with a little acrylic color mixed in) and then using hotglue as casting material.
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Post by adamantinedragon on Apr 26, 2015 17:11:01 GMT
I've never used hot glue as a casting material, but that's because I've got a bunch of resin that I use instead. You can get a pretty good supply of resin at Hobby Lobby or Michaels. If you use one of their 50% off coupons you can get it even cheaper. I think it's about $25 for the box with two one pint bottles of resin and catalyst in a 1:1 mix. It's pretty easy to use and comes out white. The main benefit of resin over hot glue in my opinion is that the resin is far less viscous, and the curing is delayed so you can get extremely detailed casts. Be sure to use some surfactant to keep bubbles from forming, especially on detailed casts.
As far as molds are concerned, I'd suggest Smooth-On's silicon mold making material. It's not cheap, but the molds are extremely detailed and will last a long time.
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Post by chiefsgtbradley on Apr 27, 2015 14:52:29 GMT
I have made good experiences with making molds of silicone and corn starch (with a little acrylic color mixed in) and then using hotglue as casting material. Me too. And i bought the cheapest transparent silcone i could find (1,89€ per cartridge). It also works well with plaster
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Post by DnDPaladin on Apr 27, 2015 20:12:42 GMT
serious.... hot glue as casting material ?!! now i need to buy that silicon.
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Post by tauster on Apr 27, 2015 20:56:11 GMT
serious.... hot glue as casting material ?!! now i need to buy that silicon. See here for my silicone & starch fun. Works with clay as well as it does with hotglue. Both materials have their pro's and con's. Hotglue casts might have some more bubbles in, hence sometimes you'll get pockmarked surfaces, but that's OK for ruins and old structures. You'll get less bubbles the hotter the glue is. Clay casts on the other hand may hold some more details but breaks more easily. Also, longer drying time and shrinkage. Btw... I don't think anyone ever mentioned it, but a word of caution: You'll have to mix the starch, silicone and acrylic color really well. You can stir it with an old scredriver, then put the lid on the container and give it a good shake. But in the end, you will have to knead it with your hands. I tried some thin, loose-fitting plastic gloves, but the mass is too sticky for that. Either use some real tight rubber gloves that will definitely stay on your hands, or just your bare hands (that's what I do). In the end either the gloves or your hands will be smeared with the stuff, and it takes some serious scraping to get it off your hands. Hot water and soap helps, as does paper towels (a bit). Just be prepared to have someone helping you, as you don't want to touch anything in your house with these hands!
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Post by deadmousefetish on Apr 28, 2015 2:43:07 GMT
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Post by daveyjones on Apr 28, 2015 3:06:42 GMT
has anyone tried silicone + powder method with plaster?
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Post by chiefsgtbradley on Apr 28, 2015 11:19:11 GMT
If you mean corn starch by powder than yes i have and the result is very good. I also followed these instructions
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Post by daveyjones on Jun 4, 2015 11:35:19 GMT
i just ordered some PK-Pro brand casting plaster. it is plastic impregnated and made especially for wargaming terrain. i spent 10 euros for what i think is 1.5kg of the stuff. the web store didn't say how much it was, but the smallest package PK-pro seems to make is 1.5kg. so that would be much cheaper then hot glue, and most likely more effective.
anyhoo once the cash flows into my paypal account i will order some oyumaru and do some experiments.
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Post by tauster on Jun 4, 2015 12:48:01 GMT
i just ordered some PK-Pro brand casting plaster. it is plastic impregnated and made especially for wargaming terrain. i spent 10 euros for what i think is 1.5kg of the stuff. the web store didn't say how much it was, but the smallest package PK-pro seems to make is 1.5kg. so that would be much cheaper then hot glue, and most likely more effective. anyhoo once the cash flows into my paypal account i will order some oyumaru and do some experiments. Please keep us updated on how it goes. I haven't done castings in plaster, and want to see what you do with it!
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Post by daveyjones on Jun 4, 2015 13:14:14 GMT
will do.
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Post by daveyjones on Jun 5, 2015 12:17:09 GMT
i received the plaster, it is indeed 1.5kg for 10 euros. now i just have to wait 4-5 weeks for the oyumaru to arrive from china
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sotf
Advice Guru
Posts: 1,084
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Post by sotf on Jun 6, 2015 2:39:28 GMT
For a rather easy thing to make casting come out with fewer bubbles, take a box fan, put it on its side and if you're using resin/plaster/anything that takes a bit of time to cure place your filled molds on the face of it.
If the grill is to wide, by a sheet of the plastic mesh/granny grating and put it on first to give a stable platform.
The vibrations from the fan works out the bubbles from the small spots and works in some of your medium leaving a better casting quality in the end. Unfortunately, this doesn't work if you're casting in hot glue or things like wax because it cools far to quickly.
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Post by daveyjones on Jul 1, 2015 21:54:13 GMT
ok so i did a few runs of tests with oyumaru and pk-pro gaming plaster and the results are quite encouraging. if i work fast and make my molds and pore the plaster with some finesse i get a minimum of bubbles, and with some more practice i think i should be able to get zero bubbles consistently. the result is also very hard. much harder then clay and not brittle at all. it is harder to file/sand then clay so i expect it to be much stronger. it cures really fast and does not need to be exposed to air to get hard. and it seems to be able to hold quite a good level of detail. in fact more detail that i am able to capture in an oyumaru mould without making the mould such that it is difficult to avoid bubbles. for terrain this stuff is excellent, and with a better mould making strategy might be good for larger miniatures. i highly recommend anyone who is interested in moulds to try plaster some time. here is a link for the brand i used: www.pk-pro.de/TS-PK-Plaster-Casting-Grey_1
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