Thread: Making new scales for Hans Otto Deutsch... polyester resin? Thoughts?

Ok, so I have a Hans Otto that I'm making new scales for, because of the dreaded celluloid rot in the originals. I searched high and low for maybe some acrylics in the right color, but found nothing. Besides, acrylic transparents always look kinda cheap in my opinion. So I decided I might buy the materials to mix some polyester resin, since I can add my own coloring to it and get it a near perfect match to the celluloid original scales.
Has anyone ever used polyester resin before? I think it will work nicely, but I don't know if I can reapply the inlays with acetone like you can with acrylic or celluloid. I'd imagine you can, but don't know for sure. Secondly, if I go this route, any ideas as to how I could make the resin more translucent than transparent? That's the main thing about the celluloid I like.
Lastly, the plan to make the shape is to remove the original scales and place them flat side down in a pan and pour wax over the tops of them to create a mold, then take them out and fill the cavities with resin. However, I'm just shooting from the hip here... I don't know if there'd be an easier way to do the whole thing.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Acetone will not affect polyester the same as acrylic. I would suggest avoiding this unless you have quite a bit of experience with the resin and by your questions I don't know that you do.
In my experience polyester is more susceptible to bubbling than acrylic, not by much but I have noticed a trend.
If you have a vacuum pump with filter and have quite a bit of experience I would have suggested molding the scales with the original inlays in place then fix the inlays in the mold and and cast the scales around the inlays fixing them in place, then vacuum the bubbles out. this can be a pain with no previous knowledge of this method.
There was a thread on here giving details about moving inlays over, I think it was Glen, but I cannot find it in my subscriptions right now. You may want to search for it.
As for the polyester, I would cast the blanks larger and cut the scales from a larger blank.