Outpost 206

Since my last update, I've been hard at work making fresh molds for my ongoing bootleg action figure projects and I think I finally have all that I’ll need for the foreseeable future (give or take a couple head molds). And while I’m still compiling a comprehensive article detailing my silicone mold making process, here’s a recap of my previous week of crafting. I decided on what I want to do for the very first figure in my Mr. Boneface figure series, namely a semi-translucent green “Toxic Slime Pit” variant. Since I started pressure casting, I’ve been wanting to do more with translucent figures since air bubbles are no longer a major concern and I was thrilled when I was able to crack the code for what I think is a really stunning green pigment for my Flex-It 90 resin. That is, two drops of Special Resin and Chemical (SRC) brand Yellow pigment, six drops of generic transparent green dye (this particular stuff is for epoxy resins and Flex-It 90 is polyurethane resin, but it still

Since my last update , I’ve mostly spent my hobby time making the molds for my action figure’s basic buck body (torso, arms, legs, etc) with the SRC brand Cast-A-Mold 24 silicone rubber. I do still have my previous molds of the same parts, but the silicone I used to make those wasn’t vacuum degas. If I were to try pressure casting with those molds, they would probably come out of my pressure pot full of the little spiky bubbles on the surface which result from the pressurization popping bubbles within the silicone and then the resin filling those newly created voids, which is why you always need to degas the silicone in a vacuum chamber before pouring it. I have one mold left and it should hopefully be fully cured by Wednesday (since it’s a two part mold and the first part won’t be finished curing until at least tomorrow morning, after which I’ll pour the second half). But I’m saving all of that for a series of separate articles that details how I make my custom resin action figures.

I’m finally back. Okay, I’ve actually been back home for about two weeks after dogsitting at my family’s place in Ohio, but I’ve been extremely busy. And I’m changing the name of these updates from “Projects Log” to “Shop Log” because it sounds better and I’m not self-conscious about ripping off the Crafsman . In fact, if you’re a fledgling crafter like me, it would be foolish not to. When I last left you , I’d begun painting my first ever batch of resin casted retro-style bootleg action figures and while I was doing this, I realized something. I realized that the sheer multitude of air bubbles present in the castings were insurmountable no matter how much I sanded and surfaced them, and not even fully hand painting each piece could cover up all the imperfections on the surfaces (of which there were many). Plus, coating every single part in MEK, painting them, and then coating them with 2k clearcoat (which is $20-30 a can and only has a 48-hour window in which to use it all) just was