1/72 Hasegawa pilot recast idea...

[Chindenathus]

I remember on the old board there was some 'buzz' about

recasting the pilot out of the Hasegawa kit mentioned above.

namely for use with the Yamato YF-21 figures.

Did anybody get around to doing this?

If so I am interested in getting a few.

If not, I am willing to lend the one out of my

model kit for recast if somebody wishes to do

it.

I'll also send the Laser/Antenna for

recasting if anyone is interested in that as well

(I replaced the fin on my Yammie a while

back with a hinged custom mod.).

Please just let me know.

[FlyingPika]

Thats a good idea, a pilot for the YF-19's and 21's would match the vf-1's nicely

[Dat Pinche Haro!]

i heard something simular to that... except it was a recast of the pilot figures from the vf-1's weapons set hasegawa made...i think that idea was suppose to be intended for the 1/60 yamato toys, but i'm not totally sure about that.

[Gerwalker]

Hey guys, recasting those little pilots it's a piece of cake. You can do it by yourself. You need just very simple and cheap stuff:

1. Silicone rubber sealer (that paste with a vineager smell- clear one is better).

2. Dish washing liquid.

3. Ten minutes hardening two-parts epoxi glue (grey is better)

4. Toothpicks.

5. Patience.

This is the idea (I use this technique very often while modelling):

Remove the pilot from the sprue and attach his back to a plastic rod or a toothpick (you can use just a tad of super glue, you can remove it later)

Cover the pilot with the dish washing liquid (you can diluted a little bit if need it) You don't need to soak it, just a very thin layer of detergent is enough (this is your mold release agent!! ).

Now, this is the trickiest part: cover your pilot with the silicone ruber sealant, just three or four milimiters thick layer is enough. Try to avoid the formation of bubbles on the surface of the part you are cloning (the clear silicone allows you to see any bubble touching the pilot surface). You have to make a cocoon around the part. If you soak one of your finger in the dish washing liquid you can level the silicone rubber and even modified the shape of the cocoon if needed.

Let it harden for a day or so. When the mold is hard depending on the part shape you can either remove the part from the mold or cut the mold (just make a cut with an X-acto knife or something simmilar enough to remove the part)

Mix enough of the two parts epoxi glue to fill the mold and fill it with it!! (just be carefull to cover the mold surface with it and avoid bubbles: the toothpicks are useful here)

Wait more than the recommended 10 minutes and extract your new pilot from the mold!! These molds are good enough for making several copies of the part. Just try it and have fun!!

[Grayson72]

That's a cool and simple way of recasting small parts, thanks!

So what about mold release agent for the epoxy, should you coat the inside of mold before puting the epoxy in there?

Thanks

[Ranger565]

Humm cool idea, The only thing with me is I am a Traditional Macross fan. Dont get me wrong DRYL was good, but For my VF-1 models I want a Traditional Looking Pilot not the DRYL that Hasegawa provides. Here I am kind of in a Loss on what to do.

[Gerwalker]

That's a cool and simple way of recasting small parts, thanks!

So what about mold release agent for the epoxy, should you coat the inside of mold before puting the epoxy in there?

Thanks

Grayson,

Nope. The epoxi glue doesn't adhere onto the silicon rubber once cured but if you want to play safe put some mold release agent into the mold. In fact it is very difficult to adhere the silicon rubber with glues in general. Super Glue can glue silicon rubber, in fact I used super glue to repair a broken mold.

Here is another tip:

For some parts the cocoon system doesn't work and you need to make a to parts mold. Here is how (again using El Cheapo system):

Make a small slab of plasticine or the like (you know that stuff kids like to play with)

Fix your part on the plasticine in a way that roughly half of it is immersed into the plasticine.

You can make some alignment guides by just poking the plasticine around the part with a small rod or somthing like that.

Cover the part and the plasticine with your mold release agent (dish washing liquid)

Cover the part and the plasticine with the silicon sealer (make a 3 or 4 mm thick layer)

Wait for a day or so and remove the first half of your mold.

Carefully remove your part from the plasticine and put it into the first half of the mold.

Cover the inside of the first part of the mold and the exposed part with the release agent. Here you may want to leave part of the edges of the mold without release agent (I will explain it later)

Cover the inside of the first part of the mold and the exposed part with the silicon sealer, wait another day...

Remove your part from the mold and fill it with the epoxi glue of your choice!!

Leaving part of the edges of the mold without release agent will allow you to make a clamshell-type mold (the first part of the mold adheres with the second part in the spots without release agent making a hinge)

As I said this is very easy to do and for small parts is really good. You may need some practise mainly to avoid bubbles with the epoxi glue but you can figure it out.

Nowadays I'm using dental silicon rubber (expensive!!) that cures in a few seconds but is not very tough -tends to breake easily- but it is great for making just one or two copies.

Ranger565: The original question was about the YF-21 pilot which is very simple to copy with this method. For the TV pilots there is no a good source at all. The old Imai pilots are very small and not detailed for the scale (1/72) I did copy the Hase DYRL pilots and put one of them into a Yamato VF-1, looks very well (even if the scale is not correct)

I'm considering to make the Hase pilots stand up to put them outside the models.

[dilaton]

The weapon set has two DRYL pilots, just get a knife and convert one into the TV version. You don't need to carve it precisely; in this scale and through the clear but thick canopy, what matter is the painting, not the shape of the pilot. Once this is done, simply make recast of the pilots in both versions.

Edited January 14, 2004 by dilaton

[Neova]

Hey guys, recasting those little pilots it's a piece of cake. You can do it by yourself. You need just very simple and cheap stuff

... snipped!

THANK YOU for the McGuyver's method of re-casting! Very cool!

What was the biggest piece you item you had re-casted using this method? Any other methods for cheapo casting? Maybe a new thread is needed!

Thank you again.

[Gerwalker]

Hey guys, recasting those little pilots it's a piece of cake. You can do it by yourself. You need just very simple and cheap stuff

... snipped!

THANK YOU for the McGuyver's method of re-casting! Very cool!

What was the biggest piece you item you had re-casted using this method? Any other methods for cheapo casting? Maybe a new thread is needed!

Thank you again.

Not at all!! As for the biggest part I re-casted: I like small model kits so I've never try a real big thing. The biggest part though was a tip holder from an atomic force microscope (believe me!!) It was just 7x4cm and 1 cm thick at most (not big at all!!). I needed a non conductive replica of the one we used at the labopratory for an experiment I wanted to do. Buying one from our supplier in the states was very expensive and time consuming (and I did not know if it would even work...) So I just copy the original using the method I told before but in that case I poured liquid epoxy resin from Araldite.

Maybe the problem with bigger molds would be that you need more silicon in order to make the mold hold it's shape. But there is a way...I've seen a craftsman making really big molds (he reproduces old wall ornaments, go figure!!) He covered the ancient ornaments with a 3-4 mm thick silicon layer (of course he used a mold release agent) and then he cover it with gauze (you know that fabric for the wounds) to make it toughter and repeated the process until he has a ~1cm thick silicone mold. After the silicone cured he placed the mold with the ornamente in into a box and poured plaster (another chep stuff). When solid the plaster holds the mold!! The guy used concrete as the filler...

Maybe we can start a new topic about this in the how to model section.

[Ranger565]

heheh boy Have I had a time over the past few days trying to do this. I sware I have just about pulled my Hair out LOL!! LOL I have botched every attempt. I even managed to get 1 mold, but the epoxy just did not work well with me for some reason. I managed to get 1 guy body looking well, but His head did not come out LOL oh well, Maybe I will figure it out one day.

[Gerwalker]

heheh boy Have I had a time over the past few days trying to do this. I sware I have just about pulled my Hair out LOL!! LOL I have botched every attempt. I even managed to get 1 mold, but the epoxy just did not work well with me for some reason. I managed to get 1 guy body looking well, but His head did not come out LOL oh well, Maybe I will figure it out one day.

Good thing is that you tried it!! Maybe the problem is air entraped preventing the epoxy to reach the head part. Try open the mold by making a cut so you can paint all the internal surface with epoxy. If you are using a clear silicone it is easier to spot if the epoxy covers everything. Feel free to PM me if you have more questions. I've been using this technique for years now and it needs some practice but it works!!