9 replies to this topic

[Ironhammer]

Hullo all!

I've seen this stuff online and at Reaper in recent months. Has anybody ever used it? How effective is it? Does it do everything they say it does?

http://www.coolminio...stant-mold.html

[sentinel]

I really like what Jordan Peacock did with it in this thread. http://www.reapermin...__fromsearch__1

[Jordan Peacock]

Instant Mold is not the end-all be-all of mold-making materials by any means, but it's very useful for making quick "bitz" for conversions. It's basically a plastic with a low melting point, to the point where I can take a mug of water, put it in the microwave for a couple of minutes, then drop a block of Instant Mold into it, and it becomes pliable enough to make into a temporary push-mold. Then, when I'm done, I can melt it again. This works best for very shallow details.

I've used it to nice effect for decorating some of the ships for my Pirates RPG games; I had a few "bitz" I acquired as leftovers from 40K Dreadnaughts, such as little skull faces, scrollwork, etc. I'd make a temporary mold of the item, and then I could use some epoxy putty to make enough copies to add as decorative details at each gun port. For anything with much depth, however, there tends to be a lot of distortion.

[MonkeySloth]

As stated above it's a "press mold" meaning it's not very good for doing a full object but instead something that you can just press into the mold (like bases). I have had luck with small things like bottles and such when it comes to copying a full object but not much else.

[Leader of the Rats]

I use it alot. It's not great or easy to do 2 part molds, but it is possible. The only thing I found that sticks to it is blue tac. So don't use that to test if the mold worked. Also, it's called Oyumaru and you can buy it cheaper by that name from websites that sell it.

[Jordan Peacock]

A note on 2-part molds (which I've used for things such as guns with very limited success): One interesting feature of Instant Mold is that while chunks of it will bond to each other while they're both heated up (i.e., sitting in that mug of water that just got nuked in the microwave), a hot application of Instant Mold DOES NOT bond to a piece of Instant Mold that has already cooled. I was a bit surprised by this, and exploited that fact to make 2-part molds of a few small items.

Basically, first you heat up a block of Instant Mold, jam the item halfway into it, then take something like the nub end of a paintbrush and jam that a few times into the facing of the mold to create some impressions that can be used as guide-marks. Then, only after that has had sufficient time to cool to the point of becoming solid again, heat up another block of Instant Mold and jam it on top of the previous one, to cover the rest of the piece. Let that cool, and it should pry off and you can extract your "master" and have a two-part squish-mold. The pieces will line up by those points where you jammed the paint-brush nub into the facing, since the matching side of the mold will have created "pegs" to fit into those depressions -- and therefore you can use those to make sure the two halves mesh together.

Since you can't "pour" epoxy putty into a two-part mold, it's a good idea to have an "escape point" for excess putty; i.e., if it's a gun held in a hand that you need to replicate, then the point where the wrist of the hand was (assuming it was still attached to a model!) should provide such an escape-point. If you put too little putty into the squish-mold, it won't mold all the details properly. Too much, and you'll have an awful lot of flash. The "escape-point" helps to minimize the latter problem. All the same, my experience with Instant Mold "squish-molds" is that the flash is going to be pretty bad regardless; I was able to get by with it to give my IMEF werewolf conversion a big chunky IMEF rifle, but my experiments at trying to give pistols to my skeletal outlaws (trying to convert Bones skellies into extra recruits for my Undead Outlaw gang) didn't work so well at all, since the putty doesn't hold up well for such fine details. (Fortunately, they came out with the Deadlands Weapons & Accessories pack, which made my job a lot easier in that particular case. :) )

I use Apoxie Sculpt or Magic Sculp(t) (I've seen the latter spelled with and without the "t" at the end) -- two-part epoxy putties -- for my push-molds. "Green stuff" is better for finer details (such as small guns), but costs a lot more, to the point of making the chopping-up of a metal miniature for a spare part seem like a more cost-effective option (especially once I figure in the material waste and effort).

[MonkeySloth]

That's actually a really good idea. Don't know why I didn't think of it.

[Ironhammer]

Thanks all! I guess I'll just have to give it a whirl!

[Paheej]

"Green stuff" is better for finer details (such as small guns), but costs a lot more, to the point of making the chopping-up of a metal miniature for a spare part seem like a more cost-effective option (especially once I figure in the material waste and effort).

Why does everyone say that "Green Stuff" is expensive? You can get the big tube of green stuff from thewarstore.com or other retailers for cheap. One $15 pack lasted me a year and over 100 small conversions and a few large ones. That stuff is GREAT.

[Jordan Peacock]

Why does everyone say that "Green Stuff" is expensive?

Ounce per ounce, even those big tubes of green stuff are more expensive than the two-part epoxies such as Apoxie Sculpt or Magic Sculp(t). Beyond that, if you think that green stuff is somehow "cheap," then I suppose all I can say is that, without a specific guideline to go by, "expensive" and "cheap" are relative terms.