Time for something a little different today. Having completed the Land Raider and deciding to make a start on ten Honour Guard I took some time thinking about the whole army and what sort of theme I wanted. Given that I had already decided to ramp up the pomp and pageantry with the Land Raider detail I thought it would be fun to do the same across the whole army. In the current Space Marine codex there is a rule for Marneus Calgar which allows you to take not just one, but three squads of Honour Guard. Tactically this may be awful, and I'm sure any gamers reading this will be cringing right now, but for me the joy of doing this hobby is to build and paint something unique that brings the fluff to life. Besides, I lose all my games anyway so why not do it in style! So I settled on a theme that excited me; a small formation of Scouts, sent forward to locate the ideal location on the battlefield for the irresistable force of Marneus Clagar and his elite spearhead of veteran Honour Guard to arrive and smash open the enemy line. Sounds good!
Anyway, my vision of an Honour Guard has always included shields. They come equipped with Artificer armour as standard and since I was planning on building the models with regular power armour it made sense to me that the added protection could come from adding a shield (just like Fantasy!). I had a small collection of shields that I had been saving for years. I can't even remember what they are from now, I think maybe an old Dogs of War unit? The problem is, I had only six shields and I needed at least thirty...it was time to learn to cast resin!
I spent quite a bit of time researching. The initial outlay isn't exactly cheap and I wanted to be sure I was getting the right stuff. There seems to be a whole host of different moulding substances and even more types of resin out there. Fortunately for any of you who wish to give casting a try I can make it very simple for you. Watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUQq-yZ3atU and this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTdv5P61llw and then order this http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/Products/silicone-mould-resin-casting-starter-kit.aspx.
So let's now go through how I made the shields. The first step is to make the masters. To do this I simply filed off the original design detail from the shield and then added two simple, but striking Ultramarine symbols from the Forge World brass etching sheet. I then glued these to a solid surface, in this case an Oasis table coaster (sorry Gallagher fans, myself included!). I then built and lightly glued an edge around it using Lego.
The mould was now ready for the silicone rubber mixture. Follow the instructions exactly as the video says. The rubber doesn't dry too quickly so take your time mixing the hardening solution in slowly to avoid mixing in air. Then slowly pour it into a corner and watch it gloop over the shields, quite a satisfying moment for some reason. However hard you try there will be some tiny air bubbles in there and I found it helps if you do a kind of gentle drum roll with your fingers on the sides of the mould or on the desk. The rubber is very thick so it wont spill when you do this. Once you are happy then leave it until tomorrow.
The next day you can pull apart the Lego and very gently peel off the mould from the base. Go easy as the mould could tear on any sharp edges which will, of course, affect later castings. Once you take it off it looks wicked!
Now we need to add the resin. In the kit you get loads of the stuff but don't get carried away with how much you mix up. It's a lot like Greenstuff, you think you need more but you always have twice as much as you used left over. It's also important to prep everything before you mix it as this stuff drys very fast..I mean within minutes and once it starts to thicken it won't flow into the recesses. So to prep the mould you need a releasing agent, for which I used talcum powder. Dust a little bit into the recesses of the mould and this will draw the resin into the extremities and also help you peel it out of the mould easily later. Also make sure you have your resin mixing pots, a mixer (I just used a matchstick) and something smooth and heavy to lay on top of the mould (something like a clean tile) as this will give the bottom of the shields a flat and smooth finish. Once you are sure you have everything ready then mix up the resin and pour it into the mould. Again, work fast as once you finish pouring you will need to do your drum roll on the mould to get rid of any air bubbles. After that, sit your heavy lid on top and wiggle it around so as not to trap in any air and leave it for at least an hour.
After an hour you can open it all up and peel your shields out. You will need to clean up the flash and possibly fill in any bubbles with Greenstuff but apart from that you are ready to mix up more resin and cast again. Over time, no matter how careful you are, the rubber mould will erode and lose some detail from wear and tear but that's not a problem as all you need to do is keep the master and just build the Lego and make a new mould again.
All in all this type of casting was relatively simple and you could use this technique to cast your own shields, bases and any other kind of flat detail quite easily.
If you try it let me know how you got on!
Jericho
No comments:
Post a Comment