Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

If you have any troubles getting the Aves to stick to the foam...try a thin coating of 5 min. epoxy....let it cure...then apply the Aves.
Helps the putty stay in place real well.

Slacker! You should have cast it in a sphere of clear resin. [/quote]


But then how would they feed the poor kitty after a mission ???

onezero wrote:OK, the Cat/Buttered Toast is truly inspired.

Why, thank you sir ! High praise, indeed
Took me quite a while before that idea materialized.
The cat is actually supported on a clear pc. of sprue...looks like it's floating ;-)

Stu Pidasso wrote:Must be nice to have the time to build...

It's simple...just do away with sleep

I've been noodling away on a few things for this challenge ( my first ! ) My concept is a light infantry support tank...used in urban warfare. Levitated by the now famous C/BT device and using polarizing panels to manouver within the Earth's magnetic fields....armed with an electromagnetic gun of va...

A very small cat.

He,He,He.... I was hoping you'd say that

One more question....these tanks are in the future, correct ?

Are they manned, or un-manned ?
Seems to me that the trend to remove the occupants from fighting vehicles would apply in tank warfare as well....thoughts?

So, if anti-gravity is a potential levitation device...that would, in effect, allow the tank to utilize the earth's natural magnetic lines for motion...correct ? Given zero weight, one would merely have to overcome inertia...so, light weight tanks would be an advantage in manouverability....plus, le...

Um, I'm in Buffalo....some people think that's Canada ;-)

Hmmm.... leared well, my young paduan has....

I just call the mistakes "design features"

davidlgreen wrote:smooth-on crystal clear 200 or 202. but its tricky. so get some pointers

And a vacume chamber.

my suggestion would be... buy a low cost RC servo. You can modify them for constant rotation by modifying the large gear in the gear train. Pull the servo apart ( just need to access the gear train ) remove and look at the underside of the gears. One should have a small bar molded on. This is a dead...

First question... what are the molds made of ? If you used a tin cure silicone....you're fighting an alcohol that leaches out of most tin cures..( alcohol is a solvent for Epoxy ) ..solution..... use platinum cure rubber ( smooth-on's Sorta-Clear is very good ) Quick fix....( works sometimes)....hea...

Yup... heating the mold drives away surface moisture...thereby reducing/eliminating foaming as well as reducing the viscosity ( improving the "flow-ability ) of the resin a bit.

it also aids in the curing of the urethane.

All good things fer sure.

You can always add more materials to the side walls. Place your mold on a flat panel ( perhaps with a few spots of super glue to keep it down ) and build new walls around the mold. ( Hot melt and foam board work very well here ) Keep a space ( 1/4 to 1/2 inch ) between the mold walls and the new mol...

Ooops...sorry Mac...forgot to address your comment about super glues soaking in. I found through trial and error ( mostly error :oops: ) That the best way to glue is to coat both mating surfaces with some super glue...let the glue set up fully...scuff sand...and then glue as normal. The first layer ...

I'll start digging into my past research on foam materials and suppliers...I think that I have a link or two. One supplier that jumps to mind is "Aircraft Spruce and Specialties" Look em up. The stuff used for Disney style outdoor figures is a type of refridgerator foam. Still, it's a uret...

In SoCal you're more likely to run across good foam in surfboards. If you can find a 'board maker, he'll have scraps left over (they cut the board shapes out of rectangular blocks of foam, so the 'corners' are discarded.) Not any more! The primary maker of the surfboard foam went out of business a ...

A very nice alterate is sign making foam...urethane foam that is.....commonly used by sign makers.
They often have scrap pc's. which are quite usefull.
Poltester resin will not harm it.

Use breathing protection tho....the dust is nasty.

Be aware that it's Polyester resin....wear breathing protection !

The casting resin is Smooth-On's SC305 resin.

Gorilla glue is urethane foam.

Avoid any glues or paints with strong solvents. IIRC...Dow ( blue or pink ) foams are made from foamed styrene. You may have drying issues with white ( PVA ) glues...the air will have a hard time getting at the glue. Super 77 may be your best bet.(spray a light coat on each surface for a strong bond...

Sci-Fi... if you're going to Wonderfest...stop by the SSM table and ask for modelnutz....we'll talk molding and casting.

Urethane is mass dependent.... meaning, thin sections do not cure well. The best solution is to warm the molds before pouring. 1/2 hour in an oven set to 180 degrees does the trick. Second tip....powder your molds with talc powder ( if you use baby powder...be sure that it's talc and not cornstarch....

Expanding foam can indeed be carved when it's cured. The only issue is the open cell structure of the foam does not paint up very well without a ton of surface prep ( putty,sand,repeat) A slightly off beat idea is.... use ice cubes to control the shape as the foam is expanding. Sounds crazy...I know...

How long did you let the resin post cure before you painted the castings?
Most Urethane resins require a minimum of 5 to 7 days to fully cure.

You may need to strip the paint from the castings and boil the castings to fully cure the 321.

Take some of you regular resin and pull a cast of two from the mold...that should pull all the gunk from the mold.