# Resin casting cost?



## jay_b1982 (Oct 1, 2010)

I'm considering getting a resin casting kit. My primary intention is to reproduce certain heavy weapons and other bits for the purpose of several vehicle scratchbuilds and conversion. I was wanting to know if someone could offer advice as to how cost effective this would be rather than buying bits.


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## Marneus Calgar (Dec 5, 2007)

jay_b1982 said:


> I'm considering getting a resin casting kit. My primary intention is to reproduce certain heavy weapons and other bits for the purpose of several vehicle scratchbuilds and conversion. I was wanting to know if someone could offer advice as to how cost effective this would be rather than buying bits.


It depends on how many bits per tub of resin you can produce, or how many you want to produce. Look for some jewellery casting resin, good stuff for casting model bits. Usually the resin is about £20 for the resin and hardener do, depending on the bits, I expect you'll make your money back on the stuff.


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

Plus you need silicon to produce the molds, which can be expensive and has limited number of uses, thats why FW stuff costs so much allegedly.


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## rawrgh (May 28, 2010)

This is something I've thought about trying a few times. But it is rather expensive.

If your in the UK check out http://www.tomps.com

As youll see it'll cost you around £50-100 just to get some stuff to start playing with.

How successfull you can be casting at home without some sort of pressure vessel I'm afraid I cant answer, my research indicates results may vary.


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

bitsandkits said:


> thats why FW stuff costs so much allegedly.


also because it is cast by pure virgins...well thats probably actually true, but not as nice a picture as it is in our heads.


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

Stella Cadente said:


> also because it is cast by pure virgins...well thats probably actually true, but not as nice a picture as it is in our heads.


cast by and sold to lol 
i shocked my UPS man when i told him the cost of the goods in the tiny brown box he delivered last week, His exact words were "yah big mad bastard"


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## chromedog (Oct 31, 2007)

The silicon rubber DOES have a limited number of casts per mould (no allegedly about it).
It's used instead of latex mainly for shelf life. You can store the moulds indefinitely between casting batches and not have to worry about them rotting (unlike latex which DOES rot, especially in humid areas, or dessicates in dry areas - only natural as a tree sap product).

You can generally expect around a hundred castings from a silicon rubber mould. This may not seem like much, but you aren't restricted to a single model per mould for small parts (unless you want to restrict yourself). This (lifespan) is due to chemical interactions between the resins, the release agents and the rubber.

The last time I did a large casting job, I made five two-part moulds (different variations) and with a 'starter kit' of resin, got enough to do 15 casts of each. Each piece was around an inch and a half long and around 3/4 inch thick. All up cost was around $90AUD (but you can get similar kits in the US or UK cheaper and they include the mould making rubber AND resin) for around $50 US.


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