Monday, February 04, 2008

Cleaning resin castings


splodger castings
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
Determined as I am to get some of the projects that have kicking around out of the way before embarking on new ones, my footie fishing boat is now on the workbench. Checking back, I’m shocked to discover I last worked on it in August.

In the model boat box there is a very complete looking model with paint on the hull and even a name. To finish it I just need to paint all the castings and sort out the wiring. Castings are more fun than wiring so I start on these.

The crew figures suffer from quite a lot of very light flash which takes a bit of time to remove completely. Everything else though is clean. I thought the polyester resin material felt suprisingly slippery and decided that this was probably due to release agent still being present on the surface.

Release agent is a liquid applied to the inside of a mould to help casting out without undue stress. I’ve never needed it but with complicated two part models it’s a wise precaution. I suspect that moulds also last longer if you use it.

A dip in some soapy (washing up liquid) and a good scrub with an old toothbrush made things better. The surface is still smooth but not as slippery. Hopefully the paint will stick as I’d like to avoid priming the items.

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