Confessions of a Brushlicker: Casting Malifaux Cult of December Ice Gamins in Acrylic PART ONE

Hello everyone!

Dark Brotherhood, your favorite paint chip taste tester here again, this time to show you how to cast ice creatures in clear acrylic to get a special effect like so:

Pretty cool, huh?  Yeah I was pleased.  Before we get started, I should make a big block of ALLCAPS text in red.
THIS ARTICLE, AND THE STUFF MADE IN IT, OR THE STUFF THAT THIS ARTICLE INSPIRES PEOPLE TO MAKE, SHOULD NOT AND IS NOT INTENDED TO INFRINGE ON THE COPYRIGHTS OR IP OF WRYD GAMES OR ANY OTHER MODEL MAKER, ESPECIALLY GAMES WORKSHOP.  THIS ARTICLE INTENDS TO SHOW HOW YOU CAN PROXY YOUR OWN MODELS IN CLEAR ACRYLIC TO MAKE THEM LOOK COOL, BUT YOU SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE YOUR ORIGINAL MODELS ON HAND TO SHOW A TOURNAMENT ORGANIZER. 
With that out of the way, here's what you'll need:

• Dudes to make
• Two part RTV mold maker putty (makes rubber molds)
• Castin' Craft Acrylic Resin and Catalyst (or comparable brand)
• Mixing Cups (blue picnic cups are good)
• Stirring stick (popsicle sticks are good, I used a plastic fork that was destroyed forever and ever)
• Disposable working surface (I chose pizza box)
• Mold release (vaseline or silicon shock oil from a local RC hobby shop or ummm....personal...ummm....lubricant....is good here) 

• Rubber gloves
• GW blue wash, or blue ink, or the new Citadel blue wash or whatever... 

With your stuff assembled, this is a very easy process...sort of.  The trick to casting something this small out of acrylic resin is the catalyst.  You need a metric butt ton (tm) of catalyst to get something this thin to cast rigid, because the material is intended to make big hunks of crazy old lady salt shaker collections or some shit. I tried three separate times to get this right, and the first two times I thought I was going to HULK SMASH (and the resulting product was horrible to behold), but the third time I just kind of dumped my crap together in 5 minutes, and came back two days later and pulled the dudes out clean...no problem. We'll get to how to properly mix this later.

I mentioned above that you need GW blue wash...I used Ye Olden Schoolen Wash, but you could use any color of wash, if you wanted.  I imagine some green wash to make something that looks like jade would be awesome. I haven't tried it with other pigments, but I imagine you could use regular paint instead of ink or wash though it might be less transparent.  YMMV x 3,000,000. 

Let's cast some dudes, step by step!

1. Making the mold.  You do this in halves.  Get your two part RTV putty...you can get this stuff at any art store that deals in sculpture, Alumilite is a common brand.  Here's the stuff I used, which was obtained at Hobby Lobby or Michael's I believe.

  2. Take out a small amount of each putty and mush/knead them together until they are a uniform color. 

3. Press your dude exactly halfway into the putty.  You may want to allow a little set-up time on your RTV putty to insure (a)that your putty is going to set up, and (b) that your dude doesn't sink into the putty.  A good way to do this whole step is to carefully examine the model and look at where the mold line is.  This is the angle and depth you'll want to use to place the dude in the putty, because that is reflective of the original mold. 

4. Wait for your putty to cure (harden).  When it is done, it will be flexible and bendy but solid, like an eraser. Do not take your dude out. At this point you can use your mold release, vaseline, or umm....lube...to brush on to your guy and the half mold shell.  This will make sure your cast comes out pretty clean. You want a very thin layer, not goopy, as it will effect your resin curing.

5. Make another wad of your two part putty, and cram it on top of your other half shell.  Be sure to press firmly, to get all of the space covered. 

You are going for a clean fit, with the whole model covered, and a nice tight clam shell.

6. Let your second clamshell cure.  When its done, you may want to make some kind of mark to remind you how to line up the sides when you do your casts.

7. After your top side has cured, split your shell carefully, and carefully remove your guy. Did I mention carefully?

With your guy removed, and your shell split, you now have a neat little two part mold.  NOTE:  This process probably sucks for casting things that aren't transparent, as it isn't very exact. Mold lines are way harder to see on a clear dude.

In part two, we'll move on to making your actual pourable casting material that will form your guy (s). STAY TUNED!
-Dark Brotherhood