Metal casting

Just cast my first white metal miniature! I was expecting it to be really dificult but it was surprisingly easy. There is a slight miscast on the toes but that will just take some fiddling with the mold.

Update:

Hobgoblins and Hobgoblin archers fresh from the mold

I've just got to cast some bases to put them on now. 

Drider Sculpts

I was reading the graphic novel The legend of Drizzt book 1- Homeland when Inspiration struck to make Driders. I looked round on line and through my 4th edition Monster Manual to work out what they should look like. 

I'm still pretty new to sculpting and these are very heavy conversions as I didn't sculpt the spider bodies and used my bits box for weapons.

I used ebob miniatures armatures for the male drider and the head of the female drider. the male right arm and female torso came from GW's plastic wood elf box. I rather stupidly forgot to take Greens photos but here are some with a zenithal undercoat. I plan to sculpt some for casting but I need to work out how to separate the torso from the spider.

Step by step mold making part two

this is the second part of a two part post, start here for more sense

Step 5: the dark side of the mold


Once the wait is over I turned the mold over and took the Lego off the outside. Then I eased off the plasticine so as not to shift the model in the silicone.
This is the B side. I then rebuilt the Lego retaining wall and filled in the back of the base with plasticine to help the resin flow through. It then got a thorough but fine coat of Vaseline. 
Step 6: Another mix


17.5g of catalyst made up to 175g of silicone then mixed to a smooth even colour like this
Step 7: the pour once more


Like in the first part of this post I drizzled the details then poured the rest over slowly. Pouring into the lowest part of the mold so it spreads evenly


I then did my best to rid the silicone of bubbles. Eventually I got most of the bubbles and left it to cure and dry fully somewhere nice and level.

step by step mold making

Last night I started work on a second RTV Silicone mold of a troll. I intend to cast a couple of units to use in a Throgg list and I'll convert them after casting for variation in the unit.

Here is a photo guide of how I built this mold.
Step one: Plasticine and lego

roll out some plasticine to about 1cm thick, Press the master into the plasticine so it is about half way in. Smooth the plasticine flat next to the master. Square up the edges and build a Lego retaining wall. Marbles pressed into the corners help the mold lock together. strips of sprue allow the resin to flow between the base and the troll. I press a Lego brick into the plasticine around the model to help it lock together.
Once this is done I coat the whole lot in a very fine film of vaseline to act as a mold release agent.

Step two: weights and measures

I covered the mold with a sheet of cling film then filled the mold with flour to get the weight of silicone I would need. Further down the line I found this didn't work well enough as there was too much air in the flour so I hadn't mixed enough silicone. I'll use uncooked rice next time as that worked well for the first mold I made. I needed 175g of Silicone to fill the mold so I measured 17.5g of the catalyst as the silicone I'm using mixes at 10% catalyst by weight. I then made up the weight to 175g with the Silicone.

I carefully mixed the silicone so it was an even colour. any unmixed bits do not set leaving a sticky runny mess.

Step three: Pouring
I drizzled the silicone over the model carefully to try and minimise air bubbles. There is no rush to complete this next stage. The silicone stays workable for at least an hour and a half.


once I'd got this far I poured the rest of the silicone from a reasonable height in a thin stream into the lowest spot of the mold. This stretches the silicone to remove air bubbles. Air bubbles are the enemy in mold making as they will wreck the detail on your master and weaken the mold. 
After pouring I vigorously jiggled the mold to rid it of as much air as possible. Professional mold makers use a vacuum chamber to pull out as much air as possible but that equipment is expensive.

Step four: the waiting game

Once you are happy that you have got as much air out as you can. Put the mold somewhere flat and level and go and do something else. It takes at least 12 hours before you can do the next bit.

I'll add the next stage later. I'm just about to go and do it

First steps in resin casting.

I've just made my first mold for casting resin miniatures. I used a battle for skull pass dwarf as a start for the conversion. I changed the shield design to the rune of Hashut and the face to a Cthulhuesqe mask.

I'll post about mold making when I make the next mold. It is surprisingly easy with the proper research. There was some major raiding of the toy box to make the mold; Lego, Marbles and Plasticine all went walkabout.

here are some pictures of the first cast and the first 5 undercoated.

This one suffered a little from air bubbles. I think the temperature was a little warm outside for casting.

Hellcannon finished

this was a fun model to paint. Lots of nice details.

Finished Tenderiser

Here are some pictures of the Tenderiser all painted up.

and here it is in motion

The motion isn't quite as smooth as I would like it to be, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out.