My First cast

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Techniques
1

I think I know how my little sister felt when she got her Easy Bake Oven oh those many years ago. [:D]

In preperation for my converting of the AN-124 kit to make an AN-225, I was resigned that I’ll have to do some resin casting. Well…stuck in training…its a weekend…decided I didn’t want to waste $50 at a local bar so I hit Hobby Lobby and got the cheap Alumilite casting kit. Also bought a cheap little F-4 kit to practice on. The only other stuff I bought was a knife and plastic cement. Hey…I’m “TAD” of sorts. [:D]

SO…I put the two halves together and put on the main wings. Then to make a mold. Well…lets just say I didn’t have enough mold material…BUT…I continued undaunted. [;)] After it cured over night, I made a couple cuts to get out the original. (wow…you wouldn’t believe how well that mould material flows [;)]

So then…well…since I have to fly home, I didn’t want to take any opened bottles with me…so I mixed both bottles of resin. (thats a LOT of resin!!! [:O] ) Oh yeah…when it says the resin sets in 4 minutes, they’re not kidding!!!

Anyway…enjoy the pics…I hope you laugh as much as I did…and I know…it was my first time and just wanted to play. [:)]

I was really impressed how well the tiniest details were reproduced…

no idea what to do with this [:D]

I did learn a good deal. I just wanted to get the first one out of the way so I can get down to real casting. Just wanted to share something I thought was funny. [:D]

2

I remember that “playing with the first resin and molds” thing. I had some grand schemes for making some of the starship variants from parts of the Enterplrise triple kit and popped out over a dozen warp engines and four saucers in one afternoon.

As far as the resin copy of the measuring cup interior, I don’t know about what can be done to “recycle” that. Molds can be chopped up and used as filler for larger molds later when you’re done with the original, but I’d be concerned about bubbles getting caught up in carved resin bits or shavings used for a similar “filler” application.

3

Yeah…I was laughing so hard when I was doing this whole thing. Pouring the mold material over the model and it leaking out the sides of my “mold box”. Then getting the model out of the mold. yes…should have been a two part mold, but i was being lazy…and goofy. [:)] Then sticking the mold in the microwave. it was just weird microwaving it. [:O] The resin mix…there was a lot of it. Like I said before, I would have worked faster if I knew how fast it would set up. and once it started, it was FAST!! [:O]

Maybe I’ll send the result of this adventure to Doog…he’d probably make a killer AMARC diorama out of it. [:D]