Casting Parts With a Metal Finish

[MechTech]

The cool part I love about our forum is all the new stuff I learn about or kits that have come up for sale (home grown or commercial). I found some cool stuff I thought I'd share since I've never seen anyone here use it before.

A contractor and his crew I know was about to coomplete their term. He knew about me building models so we discussed doing something different as a parting gift. So he commissioned me to design and cast some insignias for his organization.

When I went to go order the basics to do the casting (I can only do open casts where bubbles don't matter much), I saw Micro Mark has some metal powders for casting. Basically you cast your original in the usual silicone RTV, then you take the mold and put some of either Bronze, Brass, or Iron powder into it. Let it completely run around and cover the mold. Then take the rest of the powder and pour it back into the bottle.

Then you use a clear or nearly clear casting resing to cover the metal dusting. You can use the transparent resin entirely, or just cover it and then use opaque resin to fisnish the casting. I used all clear and added a brown tint to it with the Brass powder. You can also mix the powder into the resin, but that uses more that no one sees.

When the resin fully cures, you take a FINE grade sanding block and LIGHTLY buff it out. IT IS metal that you're looking at and it's "cold cast." As we all know brass tarnishes, so I clear coated mine since powders react fast to the elements.

The photo shows one reject that I buffed half of and left the other half unbuffed to test it out. Note the tons of air bubbles in it! Then I used a off blue wash to simulate oxidation and make the details stand out. The finsihed box has a brass plaque to show color simularites.

The results are below. I hope this helps someone with what they're thinking of doing next. The only trick to using this is to let the resin run smoothly over it (like with a toothpick to deliver it to the mold surface). The resin can actually wash the dust off if you pour it too quick. I only did that once after I got the hang of the process.

This is going into my next Macross project to do some stands! Hopefully this helps somebody. - MT

[Benson13]

Awesome stuff bro. I'll let you know if I know anyone needs challenge coins.

[EXO]

Awesome... I love Micro-Mark... but it's a money trap!

[grapetang]

Pretty neat! Cool custom insignia too!

[vt102]

That is cool! I can see some cool stands for your little GBP's.

BTW.. valkyrie still has not responded.

[MechTech]

Thanks guys! Micro Mark can be expensive, but their tools especially are better quality than others I've worked with.

I thought this would be a good trick for those of us wanting to do something "different" with casting. No painting needed afterward

Challenge coins would be cool, but keep in mind they would sound like plastic.

VT102 - Give Valkyrie time. He really gets into some projects and you don't hear from him for a while. - MT