Resin mold casting

[emperorshotz]

Resin mold casting has been kind of intimidating. With the release of PF5 Phoenix Cyclops, I'm looking to get off my butt, put in the elbow grease, cast a clear version of the chest emblem Phoenix effect for use in my Dark Phoenix Cyclops mod. I know that a couple people have successfully casted minimate parts.

What's the skinny? What products do you use? What methods work best? How much is it going to cost me? It's completely new to me.

Any help or advice would greatly be appreciated!

[TM2 Dinobot]

It's not that expensive. When I did it, I made a mold of the head, then mixed up the resin and poured it in. But it's been a while. Check Hobby Lobby and they should have a few kits available for cheap-ish,

[Lobsterman]

Doing it isn't that expensive or hard. Doing it right is.

You can pick up all the supplies you need from a hobby store for about $75 total. I'd recommend the Platsil RTV silicone rubber casting medium from Alumilite for making the mold; of all the media I've tried, it casts the most accurate, durable molds. You'll also want to buy a can of polyester par film spray, which will make it easier to get your original piece out without damaging the mold, and it will keep your mold conditioned in case you want to make multiple casts. The resin you use makes the biggest difference in the quality of the piece you end up with. This is where the "doing it right" comes in. To get really clean, sharp casts, you need to invest in a vacuum pump and pressure pot so you can de-gas the resin. Otherwise, you'll inevitably end up with lots of tiny "champagne" bubbles in your cast. Unfortunately, this kind of rig tends to run at least a couple hundreds dollars. If you're not going to dump that kind of money into this, you'll have to settle for little bubbles. There are a few resin mixes that de-gas themselves fairly well, although not completely. I'm currently using a 1-to-1 resin mix called EasyCast. I've also had pretty good luck with Castin' Craft, a one-part liquid into which you mix a few drops of catalyst to harden it.

Anyway, the best way to do it it to just start experimenting.

Edited December 16, 2012 by Lobsterman

[Jeff]

I was wondering how that worked too. Was thinking of pooling together with two buddies of mine to buy a kit and seeing what develops. I always had the idea to disassemble a minimate and then cast the parts to have a blank figure to use for customs (rather than constantly buying con exclusive blank mates). Not sure if that would be more expensive in the long run. Would also love to try sculpting pieces out of apoxie sculpt and then casting those. Interested to see what you come up with if you do proceed. In the meantime, I'll be experimenting with mod podge and posting my results in that thread.