Oyumaru, oyumaru,
magic stick.
Hot water, make a mold,
new piece quick!
Last night I headed over to antipixi's to catch up - we live twenty minutes apart and I've not seen him more than once since BOYL last year. Absurd!
We were going to play a game of Elfball and I was all ready to field the Irn Bru-sers and have them get their hairy little backsides handed to them as it's an age since I played.
But.... there was chat, then food, then beer and somehow we'd left it too late to game. Never fear, however, aside from blether there was actual tangible geeking as well in the form of oyumaru, or Instant Mold.
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| Captain of the Irn Bru-sers, shaking his fist in fury at a missed gaming opportunity. |
But.... there was chat, then food, then beer and somehow we'd left it too late to game. Never fear, however, aside from blether there was actual tangible geeking as well in the form of oyumaru, or Instant Mold.
This stuff is astonishing!
First go gave us an absolutely crisp grey-stuff copy of a shield, down to every last detail of the detail of the piratical face on the front of it. Fear not, copyrighters, the grey-stuff was then squished back into a ball for our second and more ambitious attempt - a head...
Antipixi has boxes of enviable old lead so we picked a volunteer, one of the (complete?) set of Rogue Trader miniatures produced by GW back in 1985 (I think), and smother his head in re-softened oyumaru. Impatient for a repeat of the first excellent result, we cooled it in cold water and then cut it off in one piece, leaving a hinge piece ready for us to fill with putty.
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| The blue lump is the mold filled with grey-stuff |
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| And the result! |
Now, it's hardly professional quality, but I have bought equally distorted casts very occasionally. We learned a few things as well about how to use it better when we're actually trying to produce a mold of something we've made, rather than just fiddling around.
- leave it to fully set before filling it with putty
- if doing a 3d mold (head, weapon, whatever), use a big lump so that you can apply plenty of pressure to force the putty into shape without distorting the mold
- leave the putty to fully set
I have a plan for a couple of chaotic conversions that this might be really useful for and, as antipixi kindly gave me a stick of the blue stuff to play with, that time might me soon!
What's the most complex item you've molded in this way, and do you have any further tips to add?
Rab
I've done full torsos and heads (Last being the skavvy I painted for the 1hour challenge) with it but I find I end up with too much waste (Both miscasts and extra flash) when trying 2 parters.I like the idea of the stuff more then my skills with it allow hehe. A good tip though is to use a putty mix, I find 60% greenstuff to 40% milliput to work best but longer curing times
ReplyDeleteMixing the putties is a useful tip - thanks Chico.
DeleteUsing the same stuff, I played around with molding a plaguebearer stomach from the plastic sprue. Agreed it's very good stuff. I used a touch of talcum powder to help release the putty from the mold.
ReplyDeleteWe found the greystuff came out smoothly, but we hadn't left it for long so I'll bear the talcum powder idea in mind. Thanks.
DeleteIt takes resin fine too. Just saying incase you have some shileds you need to make more of.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, I only ever use resin.
DeleteI've never used resin, but if I get into this casting malarky then I reckon I'll have to get hold of some. Any recommended brand or supplier?
DeleteNot sure which one you can get hold of in the UK, but here in Australia I use "EasyCast". It's a two part resin that sets hard in 15mins. I chose the "quickset" type because I can work pretty quick & I don't have to wait around too long.
DeleteThanks for the recommendation - turns out Amazon UK has it
DeleteAmazon link to EasyCast
It has the same name, but let me try and find the exact one I use and I'll send you the link. Just to be sure :)
DeleteHey Rab,
DeleteHere's the stuff that I use from Australia;
http://www.barnes.com.au/polyurethane/easycast-1306
Thanks - I don't think that's easily available in the UK, but I'll add "polyurethane" to my search term and go from there.
DeleteI found that my Oymaru hardened too quickly after removing from the water to be of much use... what am I doing wrong? :( i wanted to get a halfling face for a project I was planning, but it ended up terrible. Help me Raby-Wan Kenobi you're my only hope!
ReplyDeleteI put mine in a coffee mug & fill it with water straight from the kettle. Put a spoon on it to hold it down under the water. Once it starts to "try" to float, it's generally ready.
DeleteThey recommend a much lower temp, but I prefer boiled water.
We just used water straight from the kettle because it was quick - looks like our impatience led us to the right approach!
DeleteI'm with Chico and Erny on this one, Milliput with green stuff lets you have the best of both worlds and resin has many advantages too though for resin casting, I'd rather use siligum which is not reusable but which is soft enough to alow more delicate and intricate moulds.
ReplyDeleteSo many options!
Delete