Hi all, I was wondering if someone with more experience with resin has the answers to these…
Can a resin part be gently heated and shaped like stryene and metal? I am kit-bashing a figure and have a resin arm from one of the major manufacturers (Jaguar or ADV) that is perfect for what I want except that it is bent. I was wondering if I can heat it and straighten it out as if it were stryene.
Is there anything special I need to know about painting resin parts cast with Castin’Craft resin; is that even the right resin? I made my first venture into making a rubber mold and casting a part but am not sure if I used to correct resin. Castin’Craft is a clear polyester resin that I now think is only used to embed and encapsulate things (coins, dried flowers, insects, seashells, stones, etc.). The cast came out great, but am not sure if I can use it as I wanted. I’m thinking now that maybe I should have used something like Alumilite. I must have had “Castin’Craft” brand stuck in my head b/c I was reading about modeling water. Any thoughts…?
Speaking of Castin’Craft, this stuff STINKS!! (which I hear all resins do) Are the vapours harmful?
why don’t you just primer it first? don’t get alumilite, that’s the stuff i’ve tried and it’s really not that great. the materials aren’t so hot and the bottles themselves are a pain to use. get the stuff from micro-mark.
couldn’t be that great for you. made me dizzy after a while of using it. make sure your place is well ventilated.
I was going to try to primer it today with Mr. Surfacer. See how that works. I just checked out Micromark.com that’s what I should have used… Their resin a white urethane.
Heating resin is a big NO; it’s useless since resin behaves completely different than styrene (if you’re interested I can tell you why on chemical basis).
The only way to change pose on a resin figure is “surgery”; cut the piece on a joint (elbow, knee, ankle etc), drill a hole in both ends, stick a metal rod in the holes, bend the piece into position and fill the gap with putty.
Regarding painting everything has been said.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to wear a mask when sanding and cutting resin. The fumes are harmless but the particles that you get when working on the pieces are not.
I read about people working resin in water; this way the particles remain in the water, don’t get airborne and above all don’t get in to your nose.
Always be careful with resin dust, bad stuff. Cut outdoors with a mask. Always wet sand(better job anyway). I know the type of resin you’re using and it should be fine as long as it’s cured alright. I prime my resin kits with Mr. Surfacer as mentioned. A bit pricey but well worth it. As far as bending with heat, its probably only going to work with thinner parts.
don’t they make resin tank treads that you heat up to bend around the running gear and such? either way, i didn’t think of it but that’s true, bending a resin arm wouldn’t look right wether the resin would bend or not. it’d look wrong. cut it up and make an elbow out of wire and putty.
Hi, I’m heavily into casting right know, I’m also getting into the business and I saw you post. For your first question, heating resin is a as someone has already mentioned, bad news! A hazardous venture as you will be releasing harmfull Vapors, and this can cause headeches, dizziness and respiratory track irritations. Just don’t try it! For your secound question, Castin’Craft is for novelties, making keepsakes and the like. It’s properties are not as dense as say, Alumilite, Por-ACast, and lower tensil strength for our hobby uses and modifications. As you may want to drill, sand, and add detail to it after the fact. I’ve found that it can sometimes have an oily residue, and is sometimes inconsistant. Try Alumilite, it has the best standard tolerences I’ve used for modeling; casting the very tiny 1/72nd scale figures to larger parts like wings and even whole fuselage halves. I get bubble free cast every time, with the use of some special equipment and a proper mold design with *Alumilite Regular. For painting resin, some reccomend cleaning the part by submerging it in Castrol SuperClean and the like. But I simply wipe the casts with Denatured Alcohol. This throughly cleans away any trace of residual oils and preps the parts for emmediate painting with acyrics or enamels. Castin’Craft is indeed a bit oderiferous, but Alumilite is virtually odderless, as well as Por-A-Cast resins’. Give these a try and good luck.