Review - "Instant Mold" Part 2

In my last post I talked a bit about the product "Instant Mold". This post will cover some of the results of that initial investigation. With the pattern (aka mould) already made I grabbed and mixed some green stuff, I'm sure you could use any modelling putty.

Review - "Instant Mold" Part 1

Welcome back oink-fans. Here is the first in a two part review of the "Instant-Mold" product. Instant Mold (correctly spelt as Mould - but I'm willing to forgive on this occassion) is basically a material that allows you to make a "pattern" from which you are able to cast well, pretty much anything - really the only restriction I can see would be the size. This product is very different from traditional moulding which often uses rubber moulds and resin or plaster for casting. However, each casting type has it's place depending on what it is you want, in what material and in what quantity.

Storing Your Models

Anyone who's been around this blog for a while will know that I've got far too many Imperial Guard (mostly unpainted I must add!) So, when Mrs Oink declared that it all needs to get tidied away I had to come up with a plan to store it all away in as few cases as possible and in as logical an order as possible (if I am ever to have a chance of remembering exactly where everything is!)

Review - Halford's Grey Primer

Following building the unit of zombies I looked to a way of painting them, the solution is something for my UK readers (though can be bore in mind by others that priming options may be available in unlikely places). I had formulated a scheme where I could use a grey primer and build up grey tones from there. I read that Halford's do a grey coloured that should be suitable on plastic models.

Here is the review of that!

Review - Mantic Zombies

I've just finished putting together some zombies from Mantic for a commission and I felt that I really needed to post a review. The reason being that I was very impressed with them for a number of reasons! I'll be comparing them to the GW zombies because they are the ones most people will be familiar with...

Review - Army Painter Desert Yellow

Last time I ranted (or is that raved) about Plasti-Kote textured spray. I also read a really great post from Miniature Tim about sprays so I thought it would be good for me to say a few words about my experience with Army Painter Desert Yellow which I've been using to try and get quick and consistent results on my Imperial Guard tanks (what do you mean you haven't seen them!?). The spray itself is actually very good, with great coverage. Although you can in theory use it on bare models, I use it over a black primer and this allows me to control the amount of colour that gets shown through. This is great for creating natural shadows.

Review - Stone Texture Spray

Something a little different today. I've been looking around for a suitable sprayable texture and came across THIS from Plasti-kote, available in the UK (and perhaps elsewhere too). I grabbed a can of the stuff from a local hobby store (Hobby Craft) though I'm pretty sure that DIY stores carry this too (Such as B&Q). I was eager to try it out and show you lot the results! There's not much to say about the product really, its a sprayable texture that comes in a variety of colours which in theory means that you can get a range of different looks onto your terrain very quickly and easily.

Review - Amera Plastics Landing Pad & Craters

Amera Plastic Mouldings is a UK based company that produces plastic vacuum formed terrain kits. Some of these are single piece kits, but they also produce a range of multi-part models. Either way, all of their kits look incredibly reasonably priced so I was eager to get hold of some things to see what we are dealing with.

I decided to order some craters and a landing pad. Arriving well packaged and relatively speedily, both required a small amount of trimming. But nothing that a good pair of scissors couldn't sort out. If only I had a good pair of scissors!

Overall, I was very happy with the plastic moulding. My only criticism would be that some of their kits seem a little bit on the large size in terms of scaling... not by much, but enough for me to notice (though perhaps thats not fair considering my exacting eye).

However, their products are all very cost effective!

Considering the ease with which the craters can be cut and shaped, I have some ideas for how to use them, watch this space. I also have some very quick plans for painting the Landing Pad which involves the review of another product that some of you terrain builders might be interested in (assuming it comes out well!) So keep your eyes peeled.

Simples! If it's all this easy then I'll be sure to order from Amera Mouldings again! You can find them in my list of resources on the left hand side and by following the link at the start of this post.

Review - Dungeon Casting Brain Pump

Over the week I received a well taped package, my brain pump had arrived! Not to be confused with other pumps on the market, this had come from Dungeon Casting and was bought through their ebay store.

I opened the box, to find another box! Holy Crap! look how many pieces there are!? Along with it were 2 A4 sheets of instructions too, though the questionable quality of the printing was matched only by my inability to match the 70 odd parts to their assigned code! I decided that this was futile, and proceeded straight onto the first diagram - which, to be fair was the first in a series of quite easy to follow pictures.

You may lambast me for actually following instructions, but an hour or so later and I had finished the pump, with some minor artistic deviation to suit myself of course.

Dungeon Casting produce all their stuff by casting Herculite into moulds. Basically, this stuff is plaster and the pieces went together surprisingly easily using a tub of GW super glue. Most of the parts were pretty well cast though there were a fair amount of air bubbles. These would be easy enough to fill, but I decided that the bubbles and defects would fit well when this thing was put into a part ruined building.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the result, the kit is quite easy to build, the material is easy to work with and the scaling seems just right.

You can view more of their stuff at www.dungeoncastings.co.uk and be sure to check out their ebay store.