This rather dark night time photo represents the first set of resin casts from a mold I made the night before. It’s a set of 15mm scale window frames designed to be pushed through 5mm foam card.
They are a little over scale for 15mm but if I made them to scale I wouldn’t be able to cast them. They will form the basis of a larger project I’m working, inspired by Johnathan, a fellow Flames of War gamer.
Now I just have to cast 5-6 sets for the next stage!
I just looked at the windows in my office and noticed, that they are taller than me. So if you build some big houses e.b. in Stalingrad it should work fine!
Really good quality and excellent design!
Thanks, cast ample over the weekend so I’m building up the next stage. You’ve guessed correctly btw. These are actually intended to be office rather than house windows.
Stu, I’m thinking about doing a little resin casting myself. Do you have any helpful hints for a beginner? Specifically products you recommend or advise I shy away from? I’d appreciate any help you can offer - you’ve obviously figured the process out judging by the fine casts you’ve produced.
Feel free to e-mail me at dscarpenter@gmail.com if that’s more convenient for you than posting here.
Shawn, ask away. If you don’t mind I’ll just post on here because I like to keep as much of my hobby on the blog as possible, because quite often I find myself going back and searching it myself!
First question would be where are you based? I live in Auckland, New Zealand so any manufacturers/suppliers I mention will be specific to Australia/New Zealand.
For a friendly forum that does a lot of molding and casting in resin and various plasters you might like to check out the Hirst Arts forums.
Hmmm maybe I should do a mastering/molding/casting tutorial since I’m in the midst of mastering and molding a bunch of small pieces (like these frames) to build into a larger project.
Nice work there Stu. Are you going to do a full buildings or just façades which you can add to, to build the whole building or bust up for a ruined building? Have you had a go at casting the window frames in ultracal? I think you will be pleasantly surprised how durable they are.
Cheers
Kim
Hi Kim, plan is for a four storey facade at this point. Hopefully I’ll have something up on the blog by the end of this week but some of the parts are giving me trouble at the moment. Might have to re-master some bits and pieces :(…
I’d definitely like to see a tutorial done by someone who’s doing the same sort of thing I want to do for the same reasons!
As far as questions go: What’s the basic kit that I’ll need to do my first casting - I’m thinking of casting a low, squarish building I’ve sculpted for my first go, or, if that seems too daunting, some low wall sections I’ve made. I’ve seen a couple of “Starter Kits,” but I’m not sure if I need everything in them.
Thanks for any advice!
Duke.
Hi Shawn you need a good mold making RTV rubber (room temperature vulcanizing). These are sold in two part kits that you mix together usually in a 1:10 ratio. The only recommendation I’d make here is make sure it’s a coloured product where one of the parts is NON-white. That way you can mix your first mold by measurement and them mix every other mold ‘by eye’ using colour matching to your first set mold. I’ve been doing this for years with a blue RTV product and it’s a big time saver. I’d ask on the Hirst Arts forum for a US product if that’s where you live.
You’ll need sundry products (MDF, foam card or lego blocks, masking tape, plastacine) to build a ‘pour box’ around your master. I glue all my masters down to MDF or plasticard and build a foam board ‘pour box’ around it, sealing the outside edges with masking tape and plasticine.
I also *always* brush my first coat of mixed RTV onto the master with a 1/4 inch hog’s bristle brush. This ensures the RTV covers the master well and helps reduce bubbles. I then pour the rest in from a corner. Don’t forget clean your brush with mineral turpentine/white spirits!
Once you have a mold then you’ll need either a two part polyurethane resin (expensive) to cast in, or a hard plaster stone (cheaper) of some kind. I use Ultracal 30 and Hydrostone both of which are a US Gypsum product so should be readily available in the States.
You use resin for smaller, thin, high detail parts. For example the guard tower and observation posts I sell are cast in resin because they’re thin flat sheets 2-4mm thick) that would break too easily when cast in plaster.
A good hard plaster is fine for anything say 6mm-10mm thick. I’m currently mastering a 5-7mm thick four storey building facade I intend to cast in Ultracal for some Stalingrad office buildings.
I’d suggest starting small and tackling larger projects once you’re more familiar with the working properties of RTV and resin/plaster. Low wall sections sound like an ideal starting project.
I’ll try and put together a tutorial in the next couple of weeks.
Stu,
While I’m definitely going to try the low wall sections first, some buildings will definitely follow. One conceptual stumper I’ve hit is how to cast a building that has walls with through-and-through windows. I’m thinking of gluing a thin piece of card over the window opening on the inside of the wall which can then be carefully chipped out after casting. Is their a better way?
Thanks for the great info so far!
S.
Hi Shawn, FYI I hope to put a tutorial together maybe over this weekend as I’m mastering a few pieces in the next couple of evenings I need to mold and resin cast.
From your window question I assume you’re hoping to mold and cast building walls with detail on both sides? That can be tricky depending on the height of your walls because you may end up with quite a deep mold. Molds like this can be difficult to pour and lead to bubbles in the casts.
I do most of my working using one sided molds. I’m about to cast my building facades one sided so they have no interior detail, but a wealth of exterior detail. I plan to use them for ruins so it doesn’t matter too much if the interior is flat. A few strips of plasticard or balsa wood will add sufficient interior trim imho.
I’m looking forward to the tutorial!
And I had two ideas behind my question - one dealt with interior detail as you said and the other was the idea of casting the outer shell of a building all in one go.
The more I think about it, though, the advantages of doing a one piece building (primarily the lack of seams at the corners) are outweighed by the easier process of one-sided casts.
Tell you what Shawn let’s take this discussion into this forum post.
Then we can talk at length and trade photos etc. and I’ll try building up my tutorial in there a bit too before posting it.