Okay, I've spent the last twenty minutes looking at your sprue pic, and the pics of the Warriors on GW's website.
I'm not going to lie: you've got a bit of tough sledding ahead, trying to get good casts of these parts. I'm going to assume you've read everything on that Hirst Arts page I linked earlier. That page does a really good job of covering the why's and whatfor's for the basics, so I'm just going to work on helping you with specifics here.
With that said, I want to say this up top: This is going to take a little bit of trial and error. You're going to make some mistakes. Don't get discouraged! I don't think this is going to be easy, but I believe it's possible. Working with the silicone and resin, materially speaking, is actually the easier part; getting the parts positioned in an ideal way to mold them is going to be 85% of the battle here.
First, here's some light commentary on that pic you posted:
We're up against a number of problems:
1. The pieces are pretty small and/or thin and/or spindly, and several have some likely impossible-to-cast undercuts. (That axe-head on the gun is just straight up...woof).
2. Some of the more desirable parts (the arms especially) have weird bends in them that will make casting difficult.
3. There's surface detail on these parts (especially the torsos) that will collect air bubbles during casting; having a low-viscosity resin will help take care of this, but it might not be 100% perfect with every cast.
Remember, we're just aiming to cast something workable and not 100% accurate. It's important to realize that we don't care about the shape these parts come in by default. We're going into full on kitbashing territory here anyway, so we have 100% liberty to cut things up, reposition them, and do all that with the expectation that we'll need to do some post-casting assembly and cleanup work.
In fact, let's start with the easiest example: here's how I'd position an arm bit in a two-part mold. This is close to the ideal way to position them, and the more complicated of the parts will follow similar positioning.
Making the mold using the RTV Silicone. The black dotted parts are the LEGO walls and substrate, the red the volume of the eventual mold itself, the blue line divides the top and bottom halves of the mold. The important thing to note here is that you want the arm parts (and the attached sprue block) to be as close to centered between the two halves as possible. It doesn't have to be perfect, but the further away from the seam the part goes, the more difficult it will be to access and cut gates for (if necessary).
Pouring Resin into the mold. The sprue block should have created a large blocked-out void in the mold you made, giving you easy access to pour your resin in. Once you've poured your resin, make sure to take a wire and poke it down into the void where the miniature part was; you absolutely want to make sure that there's no air bubbles down in there, or they'll ruin the part you're casting.
That sprue block? Your best bet is something like modeling clay, where you've buried the end of the bit into the clay by around a half millimeter or so, enough to give it purchase and create enough contact area between the sprue block and the part that it forms a decent aperture for the void it will create in the eventual mold. Alternately, you could shave the round nub a bit flat, and superglue it to a block of [anything that rubber won't stick to].
So that's like ten-thousand words trying to describe this. Hopefully it's helpful! Remember: You're not making commercial-quality parts here. You're making something that's "good enough" that you wouldn't otherwise notice it at the table once it's painted up.
Good luck, have fun, and let me know if you have any more questions!
I really appreciate how detailed this is. It is definitely giving me more confidence.
I did want ask, should I do multiple small molds because of the size of the pieces or could I manager a larger mold to get them all?
How many things are you looking to cast? how big? as spinning or changing the orientation of the mold could be bad as resin takes a few to set up
0
StragintDo Not GiftAlways DeclinesRegistered Userregular
Okay, I've spent the last twenty minutes looking at your sprue pic, and the pics of the Warriors on GW's website.
I'm not going to lie: you've got a bit of tough sledding ahead, trying to get good casts of these parts. I'm going to assume you've read everything on that Hirst Arts page I linked earlier. That page does a really good job of covering the why's and whatfor's for the basics, so I'm just going to work on helping you with specifics here.
With that said, I want to say this up top: This is going to take a little bit of trial and error. You're going to make some mistakes. Don't get discouraged! I don't think this is going to be easy, but I believe it's possible. Working with the silicone and resin, materially speaking, is actually the easier part; getting the parts positioned in an ideal way to mold them is going to be 85% of the battle here.
First, here's some light commentary on that pic you posted:
We're up against a number of problems:
1. The pieces are pretty small and/or thin and/or spindly, and several have some likely impossible-to-cast undercuts. (That axe-head on the gun is just straight up...woof).
2. Some of the more desirable parts (the arms especially) have weird bends in them that will make casting difficult.
3. There's surface detail on these parts (especially the torsos) that will collect air bubbles during casting; having a low-viscosity resin will help take care of this, but it might not be 100% perfect with every cast.
Remember, we're just aiming to cast something workable and not 100% accurate. It's important to realize that we don't care about the shape these parts come in by default. We're going into full on kitbashing territory here anyway, so we have 100% liberty to cut things up, reposition them, and do all that with the expectation that we'll need to do some post-casting assembly and cleanup work.
In fact, let's start with the easiest example: here's how I'd position an arm bit in a two-part mold. This is close to the ideal way to position them, and the more complicated of the parts will follow similar positioning.
Making the mold using the RTV Silicone. The black dotted parts are the LEGO walls and substrate, the red the volume of the eventual mold itself, the blue line divides the top and bottom halves of the mold. The important thing to note here is that you want the arm parts (and the attached sprue block) to be as close to centered between the two halves as possible. It doesn't have to be perfect, but the further away from the seam the part goes, the more difficult it will be to access and cut gates for (if necessary).
Pouring Resin into the mold. The sprue block should have created a large blocked-out void in the mold you made, giving you easy access to pour your resin in. Once you've poured your resin, make sure to take a wire and poke it down into the void where the miniature part was; you absolutely want to make sure that there's no air bubbles down in there, or they'll ruin the part you're casting.
That sprue block? Your best bet is something like modeling clay, where you've buried the end of the bit into the clay by around a half millimeter or so, enough to give it purchase and create enough contact area between the sprue block and the part that it forms a decent aperture for the void it will create in the eventual mold. Alternately, you could shave the round nub a bit flat, and superglue it to a block of [anything that rubber won't stick to].
So that's like ten-thousand words trying to describe this. Hopefully it's helpful! Remember: You're not making commercial-quality parts here. You're making something that's "good enough" that you wouldn't otherwise notice it at the table once it's painted up.
Good luck, have fun, and let me know if you have any more questions!
I really appreciate how detailed this is. It is definitely giving me more confidence.
I did want ask, should I do multiple small molds because of the size of the pieces or could I manager a larger mold to get them all?
How many things are you looking to cast? how big? as spinning or changing the orientation of the mold could be bad as resin takes a few to set up
There are about 28 busted Necrons either missing part of a leg, the long easy to break part of the Gauss flayer, the entire gun itself, and arms. A vast majority of them just have the front skinny end of the gauss flayer busted off but I figured it would look very weird to have a bunch of Necron warriors with just that made so I'm gonna do some extra modification. Cut off arms, parts of arms, legs, etc.
So fairly small parts but I want to have a bunch of them available.
PSN: Reaper_Stragint, Steam: DoublePitstoChesty
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
0
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Start small, especially until you've got the hang of it. Make a mold that's just a few arm bits attached to a sprue block, and see how it turns out. If it works well, you can make the next mold bigger.
I wouldn't go crazy, though. Maybe no more than five to seven bits total, depending on how big they are and how they're arranged.
Start small, especially until you've got the hang of it. Make a mold that's just a few arm bits attached to a sprue block, and see how it turns out. If it works well, you can make the next mold bigger.
I wouldn't go crazy, though. Maybe no more than five to seven bits total, depending on how big they are and how they're arranged.
Now since I know the theory of casting resin but I have never done it can do you copies of metal? Like arms with swords? I know it might be hard but generally it doesn't seem that hard since it was metal and you cannot get that fancy with casting them as one piece items
0
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Start small, especially until you've got the hang of it. Make a mold that's just a few arm bits attached to a sprue block, and see how it turns out. If it works well, you can make the next mold bigger.
I wouldn't go crazy, though. Maybe no more than five to seven bits total, depending on how big they are and how they're arranged.
Now since I know the theory of casting resin but I have never done it can do you copies of metal? Like arms with swords? I know it might be hard but generally it doesn't seem that hard since it was metal and you cannot get that fancy with casting them as one piece items
Do you mean making a mold of an existing metal part, and casting copies in resin? That's easy enough. The molds I've pictured up thread were originally from metal parts.
Do you mean making a mold and casting copies in metal? That's a whole different thing. It would be challenging and dangerous for a hobbyist to do this; even low melting point white metals or lead require very high temperatures to work with, and a pour-mold is only going to work for very simple geometries. Most metal miniatures use spin casting to force the liquid metal into the mold, and that kind of machinery is not cheap.
Any suggestions for painting in hard to reach areas without getting the paint in places you don't want it?
Hexmage-PA on
0
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Unfortunately, the best advice there is "paint those parts first."
A good rule of thumb is to paint from the inside out, so you're always painting the next physical layer up. It tends to make it so you don't risk hitting areas you've already finished by accident.
Otherwise, ugh, tried airbrushing some flesh onto this thing I'm doing on commission, and it has just not worked out for me. I needed a proper dark brown for a base, I think, and the one I tried to lay wound up way lighter than it should have. Now I have this mostly homogenous blob and I'm trying to work out my next steps. I think I'll slather on some purple, red and flesh washes and then go about building a proper highlight from there.
Any suggestions for painting in hard to reach areas without getting the paint in places you don't want it?
My man you gotta resize images, that's a giant blurry mess.
Also I cheat, if a model is going to be super complicated to get a brush around I'll paint it in sub assembly. That's not always possible depending on the model (if it's a metal monopose one or something), but for the most part it's the best option I've found.
Any suggestions for painting in hard to reach areas without getting the paint in places you don't want it?
My man you gotta resize images, that's a giant blurry mess.
It looked fine on my phone! Sorry.
0
valhalla13013 Dark Shield Perceives the GodsRegistered Userregular
edited September 2019
Yeah, I've pretty mich stopped posting pics here and on other forums, because people complained about the sizes of my pics. I always use my phone now and I can't find any phone app to let me resize the picture. I can change the resolution and file size, but not the dimensions of the pic.
Start small, especially until you've got the hang of it. Make a mold that's just a few arm bits attached to a sprue block, and see how it turns out. If it works well, you can make the next mold bigger.
I wouldn't go crazy, though. Maybe no more than five to seven bits total, depending on how big they are and how they're arranged.
Now since I know the theory of casting resin but I have never done it can do you copies of metal? Like arms with swords? I know it might be hard but generally it doesn't seem that hard since it was metal and you cannot get that fancy with casting them as one piece items
Do you mean making a mold of an existing metal part, and casting copies in resin? That's easy enough. The molds I've pictured up thread were originally from metal parts.
Do you mean making a mold and casting copies in metal? That's a whole different thing. It would be challenging and dangerous for a hobbyist to do this; even low melting point white metals or lead require very high temperatures to work with, and a pour-mold is only going to work for very simple geometries. Most metal miniatures use spin casting to force the liquid metal into the mold, and that kind of machinery is not cheap.
From metal to make copies of it in resin
As I have a bunch of metal howling banshees missing sword arms. I have the arms on one set I have not used so since it was a current topic I thought why not?
0
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Yeah, I've pretty mich stopped posting pics here and on other forums, because people complained about the sizes of my pics. I always use my phone now and I can't find any phone app to let me resize the picture. I can change the resolution and file size, but not the dimensions of the pic.
Guys, it's cool, just use spoiler tags and it's fine.
Yeah, I've pretty mich stopped posting pics here and on other forums, because people complained about the sizes of my pics. I always use my phone now and I can't find any phone app to let me resize the picture. I can change the resolution and file size, but not the dimensions of the pic.
Guys, it's cool, just use spoiler tags and it's fine.
Well, in that case.... have I got some stuff to post.
+1
valhalla13013 Dark Shield Perceives the GodsRegistered Userregular
edited September 2019
I painted my Space Marine Heroes series 1 models as Silver Skulls:
And here are my first 4 painted IF primaris marines:
[/spouler]
valhalla130 on
+19
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Start small, especially until you've got the hang of it. Make a mold that's just a few arm bits attached to a sprue block, and see how it turns out. If it works well, you can make the next mold bigger.
I wouldn't go crazy, though. Maybe no more than five to seven bits total, depending on how big they are and how they're arranged.
Now since I know the theory of casting resin but I have never done it can do you copies of metal? Like arms with swords? I know it might be hard but generally it doesn't seem that hard since it was metal and you cannot get that fancy with casting them as one piece items
Do you mean making a mold of an existing metal part, and casting copies in resin? That's easy enough. The molds I've pictured up thread were originally from metal parts.
Do you mean making a mold and casting copies in metal? That's a whole different thing. It would be challenging and dangerous for a hobbyist to do this; even low melting point white metals or lead require very high temperatures to work with, and a pour-mold is only going to work for very simple geometries. Most metal miniatures use spin casting to force the liquid metal into the mold, and that kind of machinery is not cheap.
From metal to make copies of it in resin
As I have a bunch of metal howling banshees missing sword arms. I have the arms on one set I have not used so since it was a current topic I thought why not?
In that case, yeah, go for it. One thing to keep in mind: the crossguards and hand guards on the sword hilts might need some extra gating and help to get resin in.
BouwsTWanna come to a super soft birthday party?Registered Userregular
Hey thread, I'm not a regular here but I had a question you all might know the answer to... Has anyone seen any information on submerging mini's in water? I have this idea for a computer build which involves using mini's around it for decoration, but I want one or two in the cooling loop reservoir... Is this
A) A great idea, if the execution is done right An... idea. But the risks may outweigh the benefits
C) A terrible idea. Full stop.
Just wondering if you all have every heard of this being done, and/or had any resources to accomplishing something like this. My google-fu is failing to find any examples.
Between you and me, Peggy, I smoked this Juul and it did UNTHINKABLE things to my mind and body...
Hey thread, I'm not a regular here but I had a question you all might know the answer to... Has anyone seen any information on submerging mini's in water? I have this idea for a computer build which involves using mini's around it for decoration, but I want one or two in the cooling loop reservoir... Is this
A) A great idea, if the execution is done right An... idea. But the risks may outweigh the benefits
C) A terrible idea. Full stop.
Just wondering if you all have every heard of this being done, and/or had any resources to accomplishing something like this. My google-fu is failing to find any examples.
Shouldn't be a problem. You'd probably want a gloss coat on them to protect the paint from the water. Can't imagine it would have much impact on the system (unless you where using a huge mini that reduced the amount of water by an appreciable amount, or overly impeded the flow).
My main concern would be things coming off the mini (paint/varnish mostly, I guess, but I don't know if plastic/metal/whatever would degrade after being in water for a sufficiently long time), affecting the thermal properties of the water, and getting caught in any filters or pumps you might have.
I used to find painting eyes really tedious. Now I've found that it's a really zen-like calming time for me. Come home from a stressful day at work? Time to paint a pair of terminator eyes. Really helps block out all outside things so you can calm and focus on painting a subtle gradient of like 6 colors across something smaller than a grain of rice.
Still not getting them as smooth and glassy looking as I'd like, but they're getting better.
If, if Reagan played disco He'd shoot it to shit You can't disco in Jackboots
So I put some reikland fleshshade wash on my models. I would say it stripped the color off the model, but I remember I primed them black and there is now white in the recesses. I feel like I am taking crazy pills.
Happened on multiple colors/multiple models. Yellow/red/orange.
Anyone know what could be happening? None of the basecoat was wet on the models. Brush wasn't contaminated as far as I can tell.
Today was exceedingly stressful. I finished the eyes on this guy, so I moved on trying to do NMM gold. I can't get a good picture of it with my desk lamp, but it looks stellar in person.
If, if Reagan played disco He'd shoot it to shit You can't disco in Jackboots
With GW washes if you thin them down too much with water then they can leave a white film in areas they pool as the wash separates while drying.
Or a bad batch. I had a pot of black wash that would always dry whiteish, the medium would just always seperate no matter what I did with it.
Still not sure about this BB scheme. I think I have to add some kind of free hand to the suit. Maybe some Orkidas stripes or a row of little red leaves? Also something on the tabbard probably.
Finished up a Grey Knights Apothecary conversion. All my guys are made from Stormcast, this guy got done first because he smashed two tanks, revived a bunch of dudes and won me my last game.
FC: 1435-5383-0883
+14
BouwsTWanna come to a super soft birthday party?Registered Userregular
My main concern would be things coming off the mini (paint/varnish mostly, I guess, but I don't know if plastic/metal/whatever would degrade after being in water for a sufficiently long time), affecting the thermal properties of the water, and getting caught in any filters or pumps you might have.
This is my main concern, because ya, it's just water, but also it's not? It's going to be flowing, and the growth inhibitors are going to have... Something in them? Maybe a base or something to make the water unlivable? Water just wears shit down over time, so if people don't have specific experience with it, it's likely not worth the risk. Which is a bummer, because that would be super fucking cool to do...
Between you and me, Peggy, I smoked this Juul and it did UNTHINKABLE things to my mind and body...
Yeah I can’t paint anywhere but at home surrounded by my 3000 pots of every shade I might possibly need.
Finished up another Stormcast marine. I might add some white stripes to it though, grey knights are supposed to have a bunch of red and white to break up the metal.
I think that on the left leg, the outer edge of the entire knee-and-shinguard might looks nice if it's some non-metallic color. My immediate thought was "red", just because that's already your secondary color, but maybe for that exact reason it would be nice to have a different color. Maybe a blue/light blue to contrast?
(I don't know anything about good color choices, don't listen to me.)
Color theory! Use the rule of three! So use like colors so it blends with the figure and does not stand out so a different shade of red so you don't use a color that's not already on the model.
I am a little further than this on my harlequins
I currently lack screamer pink to do the checks since I am painting them under the masque of the veiled path I will admit the book really helps just I feel getting the bronze and few other colors I need to do them will help me do the other armies but I really should just work on the simple stuff then go headlong into this.
the rocks on the bases are for balance because I thought when I built them it would be cool if the models looked like that razor's edge of balance
A blast from the past I found I did Aekold Helbrass long ago
Just I lost his square slotbase in the time since and he was quite icky with buildup of dust and dust bunnies {I am still curious how it got into a closed box with a lid}
Brainleech on
0
Halos Nach TariffCan you blame me?I'm too famous.Registered Userregular
I'm not actively playing Warcry right now or anything, but I have painted up a warband just in case I get challenged to some sort of impromptu nerd street duel. (Or more accurately cos I really like these models!) Went for a pretty basic scheme to match the studio one, which I think is a good look for these minis for the most part!
Posts
How many things are you looking to cast? how big? as spinning or changing the orientation of the mold could be bad as resin takes a few to set up
There are about 28 busted Necrons either missing part of a leg, the long easy to break part of the Gauss flayer, the entire gun itself, and arms. A vast majority of them just have the front skinny end of the gauss flayer busted off but I figured it would look very weird to have a bunch of Necron warriors with just that made so I'm gonna do some extra modification. Cut off arms, parts of arms, legs, etc.
So fairly small parts but I want to have a bunch of them available.
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
I wouldn't go crazy, though. Maybe no more than five to seven bits total, depending on how big they are and how they're arranged.
Now since I know the theory of casting resin but I have never done it can do you copies of metal? Like arms with swords? I know it might be hard but generally it doesn't seem that hard since it was metal and you cannot get that fancy with casting them as one piece items
Do you mean making a mold of an existing metal part, and casting copies in resin? That's easy enough. The molds I've pictured up thread were originally from metal parts.
Do you mean making a mold and casting copies in metal? That's a whole different thing. It would be challenging and dangerous for a hobbyist to do this; even low melting point white metals or lead require very high temperatures to work with, and a pour-mold is only going to work for very simple geometries. Most metal miniatures use spin casting to force the liquid metal into the mold, and that kind of machinery is not cheap.
A good rule of thumb is to paint from the inside out, so you're always painting the next physical layer up. It tends to make it so you don't risk hitting areas you've already finished by accident.
Otherwise, ugh, tried airbrushing some flesh onto this thing I'm doing on commission, and it has just not worked out for me. I needed a proper dark brown for a base, I think, and the one I tried to lay wound up way lighter than it should have. Now I have this mostly homogenous blob and I'm trying to work out my next steps. I think I'll slather on some purple, red and flesh washes and then go about building a proper highlight from there.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
My man you gotta resize images, that's a giant blurry mess.
Also I cheat, if a model is going to be super complicated to get a brush around I'll paint it in sub assembly. That's not always possible depending on the model (if it's a metal monopose one or something), but for the most part it's the best option I've found.
It looked fine on my phone! Sorry.
can't wait to paint him
From metal to make copies of it in resin
As I have a bunch of metal howling banshees missing sword arms. I have the arms on one set I have not used so since it was a current topic I thought why not?
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
99% of the time, if it's that hard to reach it's also probably hidden from normal site. Blob in a dark colour for shadow and it's all good.
Well, in that case.... have I got some stuff to post.
And here are my first 4 painted IF primaris marines:
In that case, yeah, go for it. One thing to keep in mind: the crossguards and hand guards on the sword hilts might need some extra gating and help to get resin in.
A) A great idea, if the execution is done right
C) A terrible idea. Full stop.
Just wondering if you all have every heard of this being done, and/or had any resources to accomplishing something like this. My google-fu is failing to find any examples.
Shouldn't be a problem. You'd probably want a gloss coat on them to protect the paint from the water. Can't imagine it would have much impact on the system (unless you where using a huge mini that reduced the amount of water by an appreciable amount, or overly impeded the flow).
Still not getting them as smooth and glassy looking as I'd like, but they're getting better.
Happened on multiple colors/multiple models. Yellow/red/orange.
Anyone know what could be happening? None of the basecoat was wet on the models. Brush wasn't contaminated as far as I can tell.
Or a bad batch. I had a pot of black wash that would always dry whiteish, the medium would just always seperate no matter what I did with it.
Still not sure about this BB scheme. I think I have to add some kind of free hand to the suit. Maybe some Orkidas stripes or a row of little red leaves? Also something on the tabbard probably.
This is my main concern, because ya, it's just water, but also it's not? It's going to be flowing, and the growth inhibitors are going to have... Something in them? Maybe a base or something to make the water unlivable? Water just wears shit down over time, so if people don't have specific experience with it, it's likely not worth the risk. Which is a bummer, because that would be super fucking cool to do...
So I did have so little left that it was hard to mix/shake, this is probably exactly what happened. Thanks!
I'm gonna go back over with a little bit of earthshade then do the nuln oil transition on these spider talons and I think it will work itself out.
Added some shade to the Corvus model I'm working on.
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
Finished up another Stormcast marine. I might add some white stripes to it though, grey knights are supposed to have a bunch of red and white to break up the metal.
This post brought to you by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Color theory! Use the rule of three! So use like colors so it blends with the figure and does not stand out so a different shade of red so you don't use a color that's not already on the model.
I currently lack screamer pink to do the checks since I am painting them under the masque of the veiled path I will admit the book really helps just I feel getting the bronze and few other colors I need to do them will help me do the other armies but I really should just work on the simple stuff then go headlong into this.
the rocks on the bases are for balance because I thought when I built them it would be cool if the models looked like that razor's edge of balance
A blast from the past I found I did Aekold Helbrass long ago
Just I lost his square slotbase in the time since and he was quite icky with buildup of dust and dust bunnies {I am still curious how it got into a closed box with a lid}