Press Molding small bitz

So I won a large lot of Necromunda Orlocks on eBay awhile back.  Three of the four heavy weapons models had no weapons or backpacks.  This makes me a sad panda.  So here is a quick tutorial on how to re-create the missing way oop parts. 

You will need one original to create the copy from!

You will need a flat clean work area, I am using a piece of plastic card here

I recommend Legos to build the mold box

Next place Instant Mold in hot (not quite boiling) water until it is soft and pliable. Place the instamold in the bottom of the box and press your bitz around halfway into the IM.  Allow the IM to harden at room temperature or place in the fridge. 

First half of mold is filled.

Next heat up another portion of IM and cover the other side of the Bitz, then cool as before.

Second half of mold is filled.

Once cooled to room temp remove the mold from the box and slowly separate the IM halves.  Mix up your green stuff or ProCreate putty and pack both halves of your mold.  Re-align your mold halves and press them together slowly squishing the excess greenstuff or Procreate out, you will probably need to trim some of the excess off before it sets. I use very strong clamps and small boards of MDF when pressing the mold halves together.


I use Procreate at a 60-40 mix per the instructions for a hard curing sand able finish.

Mold half with ProCreat bitz in it

Original compared to the copy

Above is a photo of the original and re-cast bitz,  Mold making time is around 30 minutes. The ProCreate sets up in around 4 hours, I let these set up while I was at work and I cleaned the mold lines after I got back home.  ProCreate continues to harden over the next 48 hours or so, meaning mold lines are easier to clean sooner than later.

Best part of this is I can reuse the Instant Mold for the next project or lost bit.

More examples:

All of these came from eBay, missing weapons.  The weapons are press mold copies made of ProCreate and the front 3 have copied backpacks.

These vents are press molded from Green Stuff.

Buyer Reviews / Cool Mini or Not

As a retail business owner and an avid hobbyist I often find myself looking for other buyer reviews before buying from webstores. I thought I would start a series of reviews on the webstores I have purchased from and the products I have bought. I hope this is helpful to you all.

This time Cool Mini or Not http://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/, I stumbled across a couple of products that CMoN carries while surfing over at Dakka Dakka.



I have been casting models in my home for years now using either Alumilte with rtv silicon molds or Molten pewter and oven baked silicon molds.  Both are great but mold supplies run $30 and up for a small figure or 2 if lucky,and if you mess up when making the mold you gotta start over.  So at home casting is very cost prohibited unless you need a very large run of models.

That is all a thing of the past with these products.  Instamold makes molds by placing the material in nearly boiling water until it becomes pliable.  Then you make you mold.  Either one sided open pour or squash molds, or 2 part molds can be made.  Once a mold is made run it under cold water or plop it in the freezer and it sets quickly.  Best of all the product is reusable, just reheat and reuse.

ProCreate is a modeling resin like the well known greenstuff.  but it can set up much harder and seems to hold a better edge for fine detail.

Check out the legs in this post as an example of bits cast with these products. http://warfrog.blogspot.com/2011/05/tyranid-tervigons-wip.html .  One set is a conversion from the carnifex kit the other 4 are custom cast by me from that conversion.

Combined you can re-create your own custom bitz very quickly as the molds can be made easily in 15 mins and the ProCreate says it sets in around 2 hours.


My Experience in ordering from Cool Mini or Not was normal. They shipped quickly and nothing went wrong

The 2 products are outstanding for a gaming modeler or converter, For me it has totaly change how I go about converting models and building armies. 

I will absolutely do business with Cool Mini or Not again and recommend them to others.

Buy these now if you ever make your own terrain, custom weapons, bits, whatever.  These two earn a huge 5 out of 5 from me

Buyers review / Zuzzy Miniatures

As a retail business owner and an avid hobbyist I often find myself looking for other buyer reviews before buying from webstores. I thought I would start a series of reviews on the webstores I have purchased from and the products I have bought. I hope this is helpful to you all.

This time Zuzzy Miniatures http://www.zuzzy.com   I have had Zuzzy bookmarked for quite some time.  I dont remember where I stumbled on them from.  Zuzzy makes terrain and battle mats to play on.



I had recently sold off alot of Genestealer Cult items and reinvested my hobby $ back into some tools and toys.  I broke down and ordered a 3 different mat types from Zuzzy. The broken blacktop mat seen above. The scourged forest mat seen below.


And a 2'x4' Verdant Fields mat that I intend on cutting into shapes to indicate forest terrain on my tables.


The mats are fantastic. They are latex rubber and they roll up for storage.  They come unpainted and smell rather bad.  I will be posting WiP progress shots as I break out the airbrush and prep these suckers up.


My Experience in ordering from Zuzzy Miniatures was normal, item goes in cart, pay for items, get a confirmation email. Nothing out of the norm here.

Thats when everything went to total gak with this transaction.  My confirmation said 2-5 weeks for delivery, even though the items were listed as in stock on the webstore.  At the 5 week mark I sent an email asking about my order that went unanswered. At the 42 day mark I started a dispute with paypal (they give you 45 days) that too went unanswered.  I posted on the Zuzzy forum along with other concerned customers, those posts went unanswered.

At the 7 week point I got an automated email saying that my items had shipped,  7weeks and 2 days after I made my order my mats arrived.  All of my communications went ignored

I would easily rate the first two mats a 5 out of 5, and the Verdant fields a 3.5 out of 5

I would love to be able to buy this product from a different vendor as this company went out of its way to inore me and other customers that I was in contact with during this trying time.  I would actually pay more for the mats through a different vendor to avoid dealing with  Zuzzy as a retail business.  I hope that they are able to repair their business model and get back to taking care of the customers that put money in their pockets.   D-

Buyer reviews / Dark Art Miniatures

As a retail business owner and an avid hobbyist I often find myself looking for other buyer reviews before buying from webstores. I thought I would start a series of reviews on the webstores I have purchased from and the products I have bought. I hope this is helpful to you all.

This time Dark Art Miniatures http://www.darkartstore.darkartminiatures.com/  I stumbled across this store on Dakka Dakka while looking for Tyranid stuff.

I had recently purchased a bastion and defense line and thought that these would go great with them, making for great tyranid terrain.  check out the website for better pics.

Dark Art's first contact terrain line looks great for bug players so I pulled the trigger and got Hive Nest pieces.

My Experience in ordering from Dark Art Miniatures was normal, item goes in cart, pay. Nothing out of the norm here. A+  My order arrived rather quickly, again considering that it was internationaly shipped.

The pieces I received were good.  The original models seem a little rushed I wish the sculpter would have spent a little more time cleaning up the masters.  Casting quality is nice, on par with armorcast, better than most Forgeworld, not nearly as good as my recent Chapterhouse models.

I would do business with Dark Arts again and recommend them to others

I like the alien hive models but not in love with them 3 out of 5

Buyer Reviews / Chapterhouse Studios Spore Pod

As a retail business owner and an avid hobbyist I often find myself looking for other buyer reviews before buying from webstores. I thought I would start a series of reviews on the webstores I have purchased from and the products I have bought. I hope this is helpful to you all.

This time Chapterhouse Studios http://www.chapterhousestudios.com/webshop/, I had been looking for a good model to use as a Tyranid Mycetic Spore pod.

I found probably 6 or more different companies that made "counts as" spore pods.  Chapterhouse was my second choice behind armorcast, however after I got my armorcast pods in i felt they were way to small to be used as spore pods even thought they were good for terrain

My Experience in ordering from Chapterhouse was outstanding.  The monday after I placed my Chapterhouse changed the casting company they use,  they kept me informed of the delay and everything went smoothly.

The Pods I received were top-notch.  the casting quality is the best I have seen from any resin company (Forgeworld, Armorcast, Dark Arts), and the pods are on the same size scale as the space marine drop pod.

I will absolutely do business with Chapterhouse Studios again and recommend them to others

I also love these spore pods and give them a 5 out of 5.

Buyer Reviews / S6 Engineering

Update, this company has closed down.  :(

As a retail business owner and an avid hobbyist I often find myself looking for other buyer reviews before buying from webstores.  I thought I would start a series of reviews on the webstores I have purchased from and the products I have bought.  I hope this is helpful to you all.

Lets start with S6 Engineering  http://www.s6engineering.co.uk/ , I found this site on Dakka Dakka and liked the looks of these magnetic flight stands for my Eldar skimmer fleet. 



I messaged Scott before ordering asking about shipping to the states on the stands and got a reply within 24hrs. S6 uses google checkout and the payment process was smooth and secure.  So I placed an order for some Improved Flying Stands.  My order arrived rather quickly considering that it was internation post.

The stands are laser cut acrylic and come with the magnets needed to complete them.  These are great on my eldar skimmers and have completly eliminated wobbly model syndrome.

(I wanted to add a photo of the stand on my models, however its difficult to photograph from underneath a big eldar skimmer)

My Experience in ordering from S6 was outstanding, as a company I would definately use them again and recommend them to others

I would rate the flying stands a 4.5 out of 5 and will be ordering more as needed

Tyranid Tervigons WiP

Photos of my tervigon brood:

5 Tervigons

These are based on a modified trygon kit with a carnifex enhanced senses head and carnifex legs that have been widened with greenstuff.

Widened Legs

 Profile Shots

Tervigon with crushing claws

These legs are copies of the legs shown above made out of ProCreate using Instant Mold to make a press mold.

Showing off the press molded legs

Tervigon with scything talons

Magnets ready to go

Don't look Tervigons have mommy parts.

The hands are termigant spinefists that have been cut up and modified.

Firsties

Everybody is doing it, so why not me.  I am starting up a new blog from work so photos will have to follow later.  This is going to be primarily a 40K gaming and modeling blog, if all goes well maybe even a painting blog.