Max-U52

I'm hoping some of our more resin-experienced guys will comment and give their opinion of this product. Maybe I'm expecting too much? Almost all my resin experience has been with Verlinden and they are the Tamiya of resin, aren't they?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eIZDEGyv1k

ausf

Verlinden is generally good. I wouldn't consider them the Tamiya of resin, there are a lot of figure producers doing some high-end stuff.

That said, what you have on that video is appalling.

I'm not kidding, I'd send that back in a heartbeat and I'm certainly glad I never pulled the trigger on one of their Hetzers. There is no excuse for that, even on your worst day.

I can't imagine how they are even casting period with results like that, obviously not under vacuum or pressure. Resin is a hard thing to pull off and under the best circumstances, you have frequent failures, but that is just the most poorly designed mold I've ever seen. No consideration whatsoever as to the end user and clean up.


As an example, I grabbed a Pitt head from my reject box, just to show you what I consider unsellable, even though it's easily patched. Keep in mind this is an extreme closeup and the chin bubble is tiny, hard to see with the naked eye and would be invisible filled with just paint.

YHR

This is one of the reason resin kits are expensive. For a flawless piece, you may have to throw away a lot of rejects. When you are casting stuff for yourself you make the best of stuff like this. Not sure what you paid for these but hopefully it was relative to the quality.

Max-U52

Including shipping from Nebraska to Detroit they were $19.50. Do you think that's reasonable, Dan? Ausf doesn't think so, and I tend to agree with him that they're somewhat lacking in quality. I must say, though, after seeing what Ausf considers a reject it gives me more confidence in doing business with him in the future. He definitely has a high standard for quality and I really, really respect that. And that's one of the main reasons I do these videos, so my Squad Buddies can see what they should be able to expect from vendors and dealers. I really hate to see my fellow tankers get ripped off so I really hope these videos are helping to prevent that.

So there's one thing I've learned from this video - I don't know how good Ausf's prices are (yet), but his quality standards appear to be top notch.

Pah co chu puk

I have ausf's Brad Pitt head and dented jerry cans, they are very nice. Better quality than the Verlinden kits I have done. I have not painted them yet, but looking them over I can see that they need almost no finish work to be ready. No bubbles at all, and the small parts have exquisite detail.

Those 200 L drums are very poor quality in comparison. The end caps are cool though.

ausf

The problem with a fuel drum in 1/16 is the size. The best way to get a clean pull would be to cast it solid. That size solid would be around $6-7 in raw material, so that's a no-go. The problem with casting in parts like Blue Star's example is bubbles need to be removed prior to pouring and have an escape route after. That means venting and pour sprues and best case scenario, multi piece molds. All of it is pretty difficult on a large round object without spoiling the surface. Not saying it can't be done and also not saying their effort was even close to good, just saying.

That chin bubble in the Pitt head was showing up in about 25% of the castings and that was after the entire sculpt is done with moldmaking in mind. The solution was to tilt the mold 1/8" in the pressure pot and never had another bubble. That kinda shows how close the boundaries are with casting, 1/8 of inch tilt saves 25% rejection rate.

I won't cast 1/16 fuel drums, I have too much on my plate to have to deal with that headache, especially considering how small of a market it is, but if someone out there wants to 3D print the drum end caps (I will not copy any pre-existing piece), I'll be glad to buy it and cast them or trade the master for copies, etc. I can easily sculpt a human face down to 1/48, but I can't sculpt letters.

ausf

Exactly. Most rejects are salvageable, I keep them for personal use (or to eventually offer as painted after eveything is corrected) or recycle into larger pieces. I'm running molds for 1/3 Zombie heads today and I can assure you, quite a bit a rejected jerry cans will find their way into those noggins.

YHR

The best resin work I have ever worked with was form Pro-line. He has since sold out. His resin tank conversion were the best

As far as the "Is it worth it" question goes, it is kind of a individual thing. What is solid gold to one guy can be chopped liver to the next. $19.50 to your door. I am, guessing postage was 30% of this cost. So we are looking at $12. Was this for just one drum? Some baking soda and CA with some spot putty will have the majority of that fixed, so I guess it is not a loss.

All I know is for me to cast the same thing, and including my time to build the master the cost would be way in excess of that. Not a good quality casting, but considering the other options to get the same thing , what are you gonna do? I think with some work you can fix those up to look OK.( I never paid attention to how much the bubbles impacted the raised face lettering.) Any flaws there are almost impossible to fix.

Still it is useful information and it helps people make the "is it worth it" decision on their own.

YHR

SO you grind up the rejects and use that as filler???? I never thought of that.

ausf

I just roughly chop and only for large pieces where they'll stay in the center. I guess you could grind too, but that sounds like a lot of extra effort. Microballoons can be used as filler, so why not resin?

Max-U52

Thanks, Dan, they're actually $16, so that's $8 for each drum. To me it's not a total loss as I'll use the end caps in turned steel drums and they should look very good when I'm finished.

All you guys have been very helpful and I really appreciate the input. I was worried that I was being too critical but now I see I'm not. I'll keep these just for the end caps, but if I had seen this review before I bought them I would not have placed the order.

On another note, I also ordered a fuel drum trailer to pull behind my PIV that comes with two drums and that should be here within ten days or so and I'll do a box opening video on those, too. I see these box opening videos get quite a few views so I'll keep doing them because I really do think a lot of guys will find them useful. I know I pay close attention when other guys do these things, and it really has saved me a lot of headaches in the past, as well as leading me to some really great products that I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise.

See ya next time.

YHR

I will have to consider this. I cast Sherman Turrets , and there is a lot of material in those.

On a side note a small bubble like you demonstrated on the Pitt head would get no comment from me. Just part of what I consider normal when working with resin offerings.

ausf

I just cast a bunch of these 1/3 busts. They take each over 300ml of resin. I filled them with about 150ml of chopped sprue and jerry cans and they came out fine, no distortion or issue and not a bubble anywhere in sight.


I'm not sure you could pull that off with thin walled turrets, but the micro balloons would do fine. Urefil can be used up to 1/3 of the mix, that saves a bit on costs. I'm going to try some myself in the next few days. These heads are the first I've had to cast that are this big, so I'm playing with solutions.