Ive gotten fed up with spending ages painting a mini then having to spend ages making and painting the base, too. Particularly with armies (as opposed to skirmish games or special individual models) basing can take fething ages, so I decided to take the plunge and try casting some of my own. After all, if all these wee indie internet companies can do it, why cant I?
I have the added advantage of casting purely for myself, so I can rip off GWs stuff as much as I want
So, for those who are interested, here's what I have learnt so far about casting:
1) It's not cheap. It is, in fact, cheaper to buy about a hundred bases from one of the more reasonable online retailers (say, dragonforge) than it is to cast them yourself. On the other hand, you get complete creative freedom, and if you want to make loooooots of bases (ie. an army's worth) then I reckon DIY might be cheaper. Just...
2) Silicon is where it costs you. There is very little resin involved in most minis or bases, so you can buy one bottle (well, 2, since it comes in 2 parts) and itll last for ages. Silicon, otoh, is no cheaper than resin, and you use a lot more to make a mould than you do to cast a piece.
3) Casting is pretty unforgiving. If you screw up, ya gotta write it off and start again.
4) an electric toothbrush will be your new best friend. Set it to vibro mode (no idea what this is supposed to be used for...) and hold it against the side of your mould. Up come the air bubbles, lickety split. I daresay there are other...ah, 'items' you could use for this, but youd have to ask a lady friend
5) have a plan when you make masters. Keep em sensible with no undercuts. Its also very important to not have too much height on em, as a single sticky uppy bit means a doubling or even trebling of the amount of silicon you'll need to fill the mould. Cast sticky up bits separately.
So, heres an example of what Ive managed:
any lack of definition comes mostly from a crappy photo, and partly from the fact that i over-sanded the master when making it. The mould itself and the cast produced from it is razor sharp fine in terms of detail. (i.e. inconvenient fingerprints are also copied...
)I have more than this, but theyre all much of a muchness. I was going for "ruined ancient civilisation", an idea that i blatantly ripped off from dragonforge. Mine have more GW bitz on em though
so, next, I'm going to try casting something that doesnt have a flat bottom, as this requires a totally different mould-making technique, wot looks a bit fiddly.
-d
