For those of you in the EU, where the silicons and resins mentioned might not be available, I'll share what I found after quite a bit of research and trial-and-error.
The best components I found are: Bluesil RTV-3450 as the modeling silicone, and Sika Biresin F50 as the polyurethane resin. Their parameters are spectacular, and they have worked very well for me in my projects. Their only disadvantage is that they are difficult to pigment, being rather dark to start with. Unfortunately, for some bizarre reason hobby stores tend to sell outdated inferior stuff, I guess hobbyists tend to stick to proven solutions rather than look for new things. So these components are hard to buy in small quantities.
Runners up, which are more easily available: Xiameter RTV 4234-T4 as the silicone and RenCast 5146 for the resin. These are easy to buy, but are not as good, specifically the viscosity of both is much larger, which makes them harder to use.
I wish more people pursued that hobby in my area (Warsaw, Poland), so that we could do a group buy of the good stuff. I'm having trouble using up everything I buy within the best-before period.
Also, thank you for publishing that guide years ago. It was helpful and inspiring!
For years now me and my daughter had lots of fun casting resin using molds we ordered online, adding dyes, metal dust, glitter etc - cool thing to do with your kid. Have to level up and try making our own molds.
For those of you in the EU, where the silicons and resins mentioned might not be available, I'll share what I found after quite a bit of research and trial-and-error.
The best components I found are: Bluesil RTV-3450 as the modeling silicone, and Sika Biresin F50 as the polyurethane resin. Their parameters are spectacular, and they have worked very well for me in my projects. Their only disadvantage is that they are difficult to pigment, being rather dark to start with. Unfortunately, for some bizarre reason hobby stores tend to sell outdated inferior stuff, I guess hobbyists tend to stick to proven solutions rather than look for new things. So these components are hard to buy in small quantities.
Runners up, which are more easily available: Xiameter RTV 4234-T4 as the silicone and RenCast 5146 for the resin. These are easy to buy, but are not as good, specifically the viscosity of both is much larger, which makes them harder to use.
I wish more people pursued that hobby in my area (Warsaw, Poland), so that we could do a group buy of the good stuff. I'm having trouble using up everything I buy within the best-before period.
Also, thank you for publishing that guide years ago. It was helpful and inspiring!
For years now me and my daughter had lots of fun casting resin using molds we ordered online, adding dyes, metal dust, glitter etc - cool thing to do with your kid. Have to level up and try making our own molds.