"Questions about resin casting from a new guy" Topic

I work with 30mm and 28mm miniatures, I began doing heavy customization and sculpting and am now beginning to do completely unique models, I'm looking for ways to reproduce these both for my personal use and possibly to sell some of my own creations, and so I have began looking into resin casting.

I am coming at this completely fresh, not knowing anyone or having any source to get answers from, and have lots of questions:

1. when completely set, what is the best description you can give to the final material? is it a softer plastic like a childs green army figure, or much harder plastic like most miniatures bought?

2. again at the final product, will the material behave like expected of most plastics? not so hard as to be brittle (ie small parts / bayonets, etc.. shouldnt be expected to break if dropped on a table) able to be filed or cut for further customization?

3. is silicon a good mold for getting extremely fine details such as flowing hair or tufts of fur or chains?

4. for the resin to be used, is there much difference in the amount of detail different resins can acheive? and if so what can be expected in differences in their behaivoir during the casting process? for example, I somewhat expect that resins that take longer to set might provide better results as they give you more time to turn and work the mold to make sure its getting into all the corners, am I wrong in this thinking?

Thanks for taking the time to help me understand what I'm getting into a little better

resin will be very brittle and prone to damage in small section, like rifles, bayonets ect, bodies and heads should be ok, hence why most figs are either injection plastic or metal.
you will need a vacuum chamber for the casting process unless you want air holes in the castings in showing places.
resin will bring out all the detail including mistakes and scuff marks so you master will need to be as good as you can get it.
are you in the uk?

No i'm in the US

I've heard vacuum chambers mentioned elsewhere, but how much of an investment is that?

most every video and tutorial I've seen has been on resin, is injection plastic a realistic option for creating your own miniatures?

I've seen pewter model creation before, and wouldnt be against it, but since many of my more customized pieces are based on plastic models or converted pieces would the plastic be able to handle the vulcanizing process to make the molds for pewter? I thought that at the very least the plastic would loose some detail being put through that heat and pressure, if not fall apart completely… and how would epoxy hold up to the process since that's what I've sculpted the most in?

also if plastic is a realistic option how well does it do details like i described before?

Thanks for the info, btw

I've worked with this chap on masters for and resin casting of same and highly recommend his work:
link

more samples of his work at:
link

also some images of his resin-caster/mold maker…..

Hope this helps?
Sgt DWW-btod

the low temp silicone moulding rubbers for vulcanising can be used with plastic master fine, I use them all the time, no loss of detail and no damage to the parts, unless they are hollow!
home injection moulding is beyond most people and the cost is higher, a vac chamber and pump is not too dear now, I just got a small one for prototype work for about £150.00 GBP, but as you are in the usa it may be cheaper still, most things seem to be.
any pics of your mastwrs?
good luck

Thanks for all the info

your answers are kind of changing my questions, but leaning towards pewter instead of resin… i know the general process but not much on the details

you said "low temp silicone moulding rubbers" I've only seen it done of few times and it was done with organic rubber moulds, the typical black semi-putty like stuff, is that different?

any links to articles, videos, etc… explaining the pewter process and materials would be awesome, I'll get a chance to do some googling later

i found this elsewhere on the forums link
is that a typical / good vacuum chamber and pump?

also I've found a few silicon moulds both for resin and for pewter that advertise they dont need vacuum, and that they are for fine detail…

such as this link

any experience with these?

I'm looking for a way for me to get started without having to invest a few hundred into vacuums, etc… even if it's a short term solution, I may get those later if I get better and the results are worth it

but the results still have to be good, its not worth buying the materials if I'd never be able to use or want to sell the miniatures because the detail is horrible

the low temp silicone moulds are just like the black organic ones except they can be vulcanised form as little as 90 deg and do not need so much pressure about 3-4 tons.
the vac chamber is a different design to mine, but the principal is the same.
as for not vacuuming resin, there is a good chance the resin will not run into all the details, you can have air holes in something like a large 20mm truck so faces and hands on a 28mm fig would be prone to loss of details without a vacuum.
what you need is someone conversant with low temp silicone and has a spare space in a mould to try it.

I have seen somewhere that they made a vacuum chamber from a sewer pipe with screw on end caps. seemed a real cheap way to get started.

I have not yet done any resin stuff. I do metal mini's. Your going to find more of your customers will want metal instead of resin unless they are huge models or terrain.

Check youtube for videos on vacuum casting resin- if you already have a compressor a common setup up is to use a pressure vessel from a paint sprayer and a venturi pump to create a vacuum chamber.

Rich

Smooth-on has good products and lots of choices and a lot of instructional information on their website.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

I've done resin casting using a paint sprayer pot with a compressor and set to 40psi. I've gotten fine detail with no issues. You need to modify the pot to close off the sprayer outlet, but if I can do it with parts from Lowe's, anyone can. I use Smooth On rubber for molds (Oomoo 30) and their Smooth Cast 325 resin dyed gray. I've cast both small terrain pieces, and detail parts I've made. Never needed a vacuum.

It had a learning curve to get the skill down, but the biggest factor is setting up your mold with air and pour channels and then lots of patience and car when pouring your mold. Casting is the easy part IMO.

Plus it's kind of fun.

Oh, I also use Legos to make my mold boxes. Saves a ton of work.