Sunday, July 30, 2017

WHAT DOES HOMEWORLD DO WITH EXTRA OR FAILED PARTS?

If they are tinted...I throw them out.  Especially red parts.  Red is the HARDEST color to match.  I have 3 little part bins.  ALL DIFFERENT SHADES OF RED or pink.   Red mismatch tints show up more than the rest it seems.  At least to me.  You make a batch...one part...just ONE cast fails...its ALL garbage.  I could try and match it up later...but that could take 3 or 4 or more attempts chasing a color for ONE part.  Im better off throwing them all out and trying a complete pour all over. Im just wasting the mold among other things.

I have a whole tray of mismatched color parts...and the colors cant be matched up to other colors because the tints are specific.  I could make a yellow and blue figure for instance, but the shade of blue doesn't look good with the particular shade of yellow. 

I had thought of having a cast sale.  25 cents a part or something stupid crazy like that...but unless you have a rivet squeezer or all the other specific parts, my extra cast parts are no good to you.

So yeah...I have been throwing out the extra colored parts.  Pure white, pure black and clear parts I do keep for later use because they always match up.



Sunday, July 23, 2017

PRICES-Stock VS Commission

In case some of you are wondering...stock prices are cheaper than commission. 

By 'stock' price I mean what I have currently available.  Its already made.  You don't have to wait for me to make it.

Commission prices are more expensive because I make brand new molds for every commissioned figure.

Stock figures are limited to what I have available where as you can commission most anything you want.

Stock figures are usually available once a year.  Commissions are available at any time.

Saturday, July 15, 2017

REPAIRING AIR BUBBLES

Myself, I would rather have one huge air bubble than a tiny one.  A big air bubble can be easily fixed or altered for a custom project.  Small holes mean a lot of work for little compensation.  In most cases its probably easier to throw the cast away and simply make another.  When dealing with tinted parts, its particularly problematic. 

But "IF" you can manage to match the tint or are dealing with a standard color resin, the best way that I have found to fix a air bubble hole in a cast is to build up a small wall around the hole with clay.  Then fill it up.  You peel away the clay and a little bit of light sanding and Viola.

Of course, if the bubble is in an extremely sensitive or high detail area, it might be best to just make a new one.

If the bubble is in an unobstructed part of a mold channel, then cut out te bad area, reseat in mold and finish filling the mold.  This method works great for making multiple color custom parts.
Im going to peel away the clay and sand everything back down.  The detail is simple so it wont even show when done.
Here is a photo of a failed HEAD cast.  I poured the resin in too fast.  This created an air bubble that prevented the mold from filling all the way.  Thinking it was full, I pressurized it.  I cut out the bad part, re-inserted the cast back into the mold and poured in more resin to complete the fill.  This can  be done with exact color match resins.  You wont even see a blend line unless you are using different colors like I did in the above picture.

Thursday, July 13, 2017

EXTENDING POT LIFE TIP...Resin & Silicone

Pot life (refresher) is the term given for the allowable time to manipulate your resin.  It starts from the second you combine the 2 compounds.  Pot Life varies from resin to resin.  Please refer to your specific products for actual Pot Life times. 

15 seconds is a long time when referring to Pot Life.  And it still goes just as fast.  So you need to be organized and efficient.  No wasted movements. 

One way to gain yourself a bit of extra Pot Life time...

Smooth On products, the way the instructions are read, you might think to add "A" to "B".  But you don't have to.  It doesn't matter if A gets poured into B or the other way around.  And this can be applied to the silicone for making the molds as well.

POUR THE THINNER OF THE 2 COMPOUNDS INTO THE THICKER ONE.  You waste time trying to get every drop from the thicker compound into the mix.

And no...it doesn't matter if you stir clockwise or counter clockwise.  Just mix well.  Always.  That's where most of peoples problems happen.  Insufficient mixing due to panick over pot life and pouring everything before the resin/silicone starts to cure.  ever over extend yourself by trying to get too much done.  One bumped mold can throw your timing right out the window.