Hey there,
So I've been collecting for years and have a decent small(ish) collection. I don't dig the mordern style, and want to create new figures for my various armies. And maybe to not spend $40.00 a pop to add a new one. I get how to mold heads, feet and single piece stuff like backpacks. What I'm after is to make waists, arms and torsos. The little points in there make me nervous as to wether or not I can pull it off. Any advice on what to use to be able to get the little buggers cast. Also, I read the whole article on the wiki about bicep seperation, but I cant seem to find a source for the little rivits to be able to compleatly seperate it all and get a true custom made hombre for my units. Any and all help would be apprciated.
Thanks
Mike

I'll try to take some photos tonight as I de-mold some of the stuff I have cast.

The 1st question I have is are you using a pressure Pot in your casting? A pressure Pot makes casting small parts like arms much easier.

For arm Rivets, I think you have 2 options. 1, Scavenge...find arms with broken thumbs and such. Wreck the arms to recover the rivets. 2, Cast your own. If you seriously want to start casting your own figure parts it's just as easy to cast the rivet. Simply drill out the back of a rivet and push it through the arm. mount it on a styrene rod of the same, or almost the same diameter and then cast that. You'll have a plastic rivet that you can then just glue into place to hold the arm together.

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viewtopic.php?f=14&t=32384 a link with some of Nova's castings in it...

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Casting without a Pressure Pot is difficult, adding the pressure pot and switching to product with a working time long enough to be compatible with Pressure casting has increased my quality production 100 fold.


I'm using Smooth-on Mold Max 15T to make the molds, parts are cast in Smooth-on Task 4 uretane and colored with Smooth-on dyes.


I had both crotch molds in the pot last night, so you're lucky...you get to see both ways I know to cast an ARAH crotch

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/ ... G_8883.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/ ... G_8884.jpg

The 1st method I call a squish mold....it's a 2 part mold that can be used with or without pressure. it's a simple bowl and a plug...you put resin in the bowl, and squish the plug down in to make your crotch. To make this one I started by filling the crotch with clay...the part represented by the plug is clay and you pour the "bowl" part of the mold 1st. once the rubber cures, flip the mold over, remove the clay plug, add mold release, and then pour the plug half of the rubber...let it cure.


Here I've pulled the plug out...you can see a rim of flash around the top of the waist and around the mold.


Flexing the crotch out of the mold most of the flash breaks away...quick clean up with an exacto and a bit of sand paper is about all you'll need to do.


2nd method is a version of a Split Glove mold...I wouldn't recommend this unless you're filling your molds with a syringe and pressure casting.


Here's the final untrimmed part, mounted on 2 sprues, they act as a fill and vent hole for your part.


I don't know if you can see the "U" shaped cut that goes from edge to edge connecting both sprue holes.

The 1st time you make this mold, after you've cut that "U" shape you'll need to flex the mold quite a bit and cut the bit of rubber between the "Grundle" and the bottom of the mold.


Clean up on the part is pretty easy...the flash peels away with your finger nail or an exacto, the sprues are easy enough to cut and can be dremel'd down so they're not seen.

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nova, why one method over another? is it the complexity of the part, or the time involved?

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I prefer the 2nd method because there's Less mess, thus less waste, and I find I'm able to consistently get better results.

the 1st method was necessary when I was using Alumilite resin. With its short pot life, I needed to be able to fill molds quick, it also help eliminate bubbles as they would rise and then be in the top portion of the resin that was Squished out.

I would use the 1st method if the Crotch I was casting was unique and I wanted to avoid damage (Say a Prototype or something) mounting the crotch dosn't need any glue, just clay. and flexing the mold to Cut the Grundle can put stress on the crotch...and I wouldn't want to do that on 1 of a kind resin parts.

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Whoa, okay. I do not have a pressure pot, honestly I don't have any supplies just yet. A shopping list may be useful, like what are the end all tools aside from a dremel, you need. The second thing is many of the figures I want to cast are not one-offs, but many I need to purchase to use the parts I need.

OOHHH, seaking of parts. Can anyone confirm if the green shirt ARAH that used the HISS driver torso has been modified to acept a ball joint head......

And thank you so much for your advice, please keep it coming, I just strted this and am having a blast scetching out paint schemes and putting together parts lists for the figures. And with my job, I need the most imersive hobby I can find. Thanks all.

I want to cast the Z-viper heads, hands and feet...I have no clue where to start.

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Do you have a Pressure Pot/ Air compressor/ other casting equipment and supplies?

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viewtopic.php?f=15&t=13635&hilit=legos&start=15
Was a thread that was started a while back and people mentioned using Lego's for making the box to put the part to be casted in........also was mentioned http://www.hirstarts.com/casting/advanced.html that site for teaching basis.

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Actually Nova I do not. I want to know what to get and what would be good.

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I tryed using Legos with a vacuum and it sucked my mold rubber through the cracks in the Legos and it was a horrible mess to clean up…

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if you're using a vacuum to degas your rubber/resin you need to do that before you pour your mold. Once all the air mixing traps in the rubber/resin boils off in the vacuum you can pour bubble free molds/parts.

to be extra thorough, you would then pressure cast the items by putting them under pressure...so any tiny air bubbles that do exist or that happen from pouring are then crushed down to microscopic sizes.

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I knew I must have been doing somthing wrong because there were still bubbles in my mold. I'm going to have to give the legos another shot. Thanks for the tip!

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