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AK Resin Texturizer


GazB

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Hi all.

 

Got a curiosity about this product by AK Interactive. https://ak-interactive.com/product/texturizer-acrylic-resin/

 

Could this be used to make small parts when poured into a mould? I sent an email to AK but they never responded.

 

I have green stuff, and could get milliput, but trying to work it into all the details of a mould and get it to come out looking well its very hit and miss.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Gaz

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1 hour ago, Dads203 said:

I think it’s to make textured mud splatter on the side of AFV’s when mixed with pigment ?

I don’t think it would work to cast parts I’m afraid.

 

Dan 

Hmm

 

I wish there was a way to just pour something straight from a bottle with no mixing, no messy prep, nothing else and just straight into a mould. I have some hydrocal but I'd have to mix it all up and try to get the amount correct.

 

Although since is an acrylic resin, surely it would just work neat when poured into something? I can't imagine the pigments activate something that makes it harden.

 

Thanks for the reply, though, Dads :)

 

Gaz

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It may be a resin but a lot depends on how hard the cured product is. Similar products have been available for ages in the fine arts market but none of them IMHO has the right mechanical properties needed for a part to be glued onto a model.

Standard resin may be messy to prepare, but in the end it's hard to beat for this job. The only other option I can see without mixing is to use white metal but in this case there are other things to consider, particularly from a safety point of view. Mind, it can be done easily enough at home, I've done a lot of metal castings in the past with just a big spoon, a few plaster moulds and the kitchen fires. And of of course a lot of care...However I stopped using metal completely since I started using resin, the one I use now is also very easy to mix as the amount required is 50% in volume for each component, meaning that I can simply use two siringes to get the correct amount.

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12 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

It may be a resin but a lot depends on how hard the cured product is. Similar products have been available for ages in the fine arts market but none of them IMHO has the right mechanical properties needed for a part to be glued onto a model.

Standard resin may be messy to prepare, but in the end it's hard to beat for this job. The only other option I can see without mixing is to use white metal but in this case there are other things to consider, particularly from a safety point of view. Mind, it can be done easily enough at home, I've done a lot of metal castings in the past with just a big spoon, a few plaster moulds and the kitchen fires. And of of course a lot of care...However I stopped using metal completely since I started using resin, the one I use now is also very easy to mix as the amount required is 50% in volume for each component, meaning that I can simply use two siringes to get the correct amount.

Hmm

 

I actually contacted AK Interactive and they said their art department couldn't guarantee success because they hadn't designed it for casting. By and large I'd only be copying stuff like packs and things rather than anything structural. I'd use milliput and whatnot, but the failure rate is high for it. I was using blue stuff to make moulds and when I put the putty in, it would often misalign even if I moulding pegs into the blue stuff. Both milliput and green stuff would often fail to reach all the details, and at some point the moulding would slip or be squashed or something. Just never worked properly, unfortunately :(

 

Its why I think a liquid would be better for it.

 

Thanks for your input, though, Giorgio :)

 

Gaz

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Gaz. makes sense that they replied that way. Personally I'd look for something else...

Something that is liquid is sure way better, although even with this there's the risk of bubbles leaving voids in the final object. In any case it's easier to avoid bubbles than trying to get milliput into recesses.

If you can't work well with resin there are some other options, all in my opinion inferior to resin but yoy may want to investigate them further.

One is of course the metal I already mentioned. Metal brings its own set of problems, need more care but it's easy to fill a complex mould with this. Moulds can be made of special silicone rubber or simply with plaster, although plaster moulds don't have a very long life. Of course we're talking of low fusion point metals, like tin and so on, same stuff that has been used for decades to make figures and other parts.

 

Speaking of plaster, this can also be used to make parts ! Of course a plaster made part is quite weak and the surface needs to be treated with something that fills the porosity of the material but if you're just doing packs and things like that it's something you may investigate. I'd pop into a good fine arts shop and see if they can suggest something, there are various types of plaster and some are better than others.

 

Then there's dissolved sprue..... take some bits of leftover sprue and sink into a chemical capable of dissolving this. You'll end up with a dense liquid that can be poured into moulds. With time the solvent will evaporate and you'll be left with a piece of plastic that will have taken all the surface detail of your mould. Mind, with this technique you'll always end up with a void in the middle of the part and for this reason it's not really possible to make parts that have details on all sides, many parts may need to be made of two halves. With this method in the past I've managed to reproduce things like full fuselage halves with decent results. One advantage of this technique is that the part can be glued using standard polistyrene glue. A serious disadvantage is that the technique requires handling chemicals that are not really the best for our health, like MEK or trichloroethylene..

 

 

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4 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

Gaz. makes sense that they replied that way. Personally I'd look for something else...

Something that is liquid is sure way better, although even with this there's the risk of bubbles leaving voids in the final object. In any case it's easier to avoid bubbles than trying to get milliput into recesses.

If you can't work well with resin there are some other options, all in my opinion inferior to resin but yoy may want to investigate them further.

One is of course the metal I already mentioned. Metal brings its own set of problems, need more care but it's easy to fill a complex mould with this. Moulds can be made of special silicone rubber or simply with plaster, although plaster moulds don't have a very long life. Of course we're talking of low fusion point metals, like tin and so on, same stuff that has been used for decades to make figures and other parts.

 

Speaking of plaster, this can also be used to make parts ! Of course a plaster made part is quite weak and the surface needs to be treated with something that fills the porosity of the material but if you're just doing packs and things like that it's something you may investigate. I'd pop into a good fine arts shop and see if they can suggest something, there are various types of plaster and some are better than others.

 

Then there's dissolved sprue..... take some bits of leftover sprue and sink into a chemical capable of dissolving this. You'll end up with a dense liquid that can be poured into moulds. With time the solvent will evaporate and you'll be left with a piece of plastic that will have taken all the surface detail of your mould. Mind, with this technique you'll always end up with a void in the middle of the part and for this reason it's not really possible to make parts that have details on all sides, many parts may need to be made of two halves. With this method in the past I've managed to reproduce things like full fuselage halves with decent results. One advantage of this technique is that the part can be glued using standard polistyrene glue. A serious disadvantage is that the technique requires handling chemicals that are not really the best for our health, like MEK or trichloroethylene..

 

 

Yikes :o

 

Well, I do have some Woodland Scenics Lightweight Hydrocal. I might just gave that a go pouring into one sided moulds :)

 

Does plaster expand while curing? Ideally I wouldn't want to have to sand off a huge bit on the back of something because it overflowed out of the mould, lol.

 

Thanks for the pointers, Giorgio :)

 

Gaz

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Gaz, I can't remember plaster expanding, I remember the opposite, with some loss of material while drying. This can be easily sorted by allowing for some extra material when making the mould. This will still mean that you'll have some extra material but at least with plaster it's easy to simply cut the excess. Different types of plaster may have different behaviour of course.

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On 11/24/2017 at 11:01 AM, Giorgio N said:

Gaz, I can't remember plaster expanding, I remember the opposite, with some loss of material while drying. This can be easily sorted by allowing for some extra material when making the mould. This will still mean that you'll have some extra material but at least with plaster it's easy to simply cut the excess. Different types of plaster may have different behaviour of course.

Cool, thanks :)

 

Gaz

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