Thread: Tutorial: Casting Resin Scales

Part II: Making New Scales

I've got everything set out for casting of new scales. Items needed are the casting resin, mixing stick, coloring agent, and three cups.



I microwave the mold for one minute to warm it up. Apparently, it helps the resin. While the mold is warming up, I pour equal part of A and B and set them aside.



This is where things get kinda fast. Once the A and B are mixed, I've only got about 45 seconds to get it mixed and poured before it begins to cure...heck, it's solid in under 3 minutes and the demold time is about ten minutes. Here is a pic of the resin poured and already beginning to cure. It's mixed as an amber color but flashes over to a nice light off-white color.



After ten minutes, you can carefully demold the scales and finish them. The come out like pieces of a model airplane and will have to be sanded and finished. This pour had some error in it and left me with a couple color splotches. It's either a bit of moisture or residual color that I missed from earlier when I was casting some black scales. Either way, I'll probably have to pick up some new mixing cups at work tomorrow to insure that the splotching doesn't happen again.