Resin?

[BethyVic]

I have seen some amazing resin custom ponies.  Can someone tell me what a resin pony is and how it is made?

[rebeccasx]

I assume this applies to ponies too but you make a master mold from a pony in silicone * (smooth on is great ) and then you can use resin kits which you can purchase online or at Michaels and pour it into the mold. Lots of vids on youtube. Resin is great but it is not as easy to paint and is stiff not flexible so you have to be careful not to chip or crack it.

[Sarahlacewing]

On general mold making-

Basically you take a mold of an object.  Usually with a 2 part putty solution that is either poured around the item and hardens or the base item is pressed into it and that hardens.  It's important to make the mold in such a way that it has an opening to pour the resin in.  Then mold maker must set.  Once it does it will be hard and rubbery.  Next you pour the resin into the mold (also a 2 part chemical reaction).  The resin is liquid and hardens into a solid.  Resin is usually white or clear but you can add things to the liquid to make it colored or sparkly.  Once the resin is hardened, you remove the resin from the mold and do what you wish with it. Hopefully this makes sense.

I've made petite pony resin copies with just the mold maker and resin from my local craft store. They did pretty well.

[Diamond]

Depends upon what you are doing, usually you take an original sculpture and make the mold.  Depending upon the pose can depend upon how complicated the mold is gonna be.  There are some wonderful tutorials out there on the how too.   But you need to figure out the part lines and such when you get complicated which is why many artist have professional places do em.

So far from the model horse hobby one of the better materials I have heard of to use is Smooth-on to make the mold.  The resin depends on if you are hollow casting, want white or clear.  http://www.smooth-on.com/

There are also companies many artist use to make the casting for them, as they are dealing with large numbers - such as this one http://www.resinsbyrandy.com/  and http://www.mountainviewstudios.net/

[Saja]

That's so helpful Diamond!!

[BethyVic]

Thank you!  I was worried I might be asking a stupid question.  The resin ponies I have seen look so good that I wasn't sure if they were fakies or partly store bought.  Seriously, sometimes I am just blown away at how artistic and creative you guys are! 

[Tiella]

I am the artist who makes resin ponies and I can assure you they are 100% handmade. They are an expensive labor of love I highly enjoy making.

[BarbedDragon]

Tiellas ponies are AMAIZING! I can vouch for the expense and care she puts in to creating each one. The costs to create are pretty high, none of the products are cheap and you definitely go through a few casts to get things right. Just creating the little pendants I make is quite pricey, and I only use 2-D molds that are much simpler than hers. I can't even imagine trying to do a whole pony!! It's worth it though I'm sure!

[Zaphy]

I haven't made nearly as many as Tiella, but I have a couple silicone molds I made from original sculptures last summer. I use tin-cure silicone (High Strength 3) and regular polyurethane white resin from Alumilite.com, which I've never had a problem with so add that to the list of places you can buy materials, I guess! I had some trial and error but eventually found methods of mold pouring and resin casting that work quite well! You can do a one-piece mold or a two-piece; I've had better luck with a one-piece (though the two piece was my first and I've been itching to try it again, curse my school/work schedule!).

To clarify the expense mentioned in earlier posts: The silicone is the expensive part, resin (at least the polyurethane stuff I buy) is fairly cheap (I did the math once and figured out it's less than a dollar's worth of resin I was using on my pony castings, mine are not made from the Hasbro baits as Tiella's are though and are a little smaller). If you are making many castings it is well worth it!

Silicone is much more expensive though, I've dropped $30-50 on a single silicone mold (for my small projects, mind you), and keep in mind that if you mess up there's no way to re-use the rubber, so you'll have to start over with more silicone. The first mold I made, I botched, so that's $30 down the drain!

I paint my resin with acrylic paints, if you wanna see examples of how well the resin handles the paint you can look at my little gallery if you'd like. DO note however that as far as sealant goes, Testor's Dullcote is still the way to go! I tried a Krylon matte sealant on the first two resin ponies I made, it still makes them sticky with a gross yellow discoloration to go with it. You can see that on the Screwball custom in my gallery. I've also noticed that even with sealing the custom, the paint rubs off a little easier I think than on a Hasbro bait. If you handle it with care you've got nothing to worry about but it's not really something I'd recommend for heavy use/play.

I hope that the information here is useful for you

[Flarewing]

Tiella's hubby here. I make our molds and pour a large share of the ponies she decorates.

One thing I want to point out is that the molds don't last forever, either. We also use tin-cured stuff, but it still wears, and eventually those molds become unusable. I've already had to toss a couple batches of molds out due to wear and heat damage from cured ponies, and I have a third wave about to be replaced. As Zaphy said, the silicone is the expensive part, and unfortunately, it's an expense that never fully goes away. This is a large part of why we charge so much for our resin ponies, simply to cover the costs.

[rebeccasx]

Flarewing / Tiella : how do you put those lights in without it sinking to one side of the body and do you cast the head seperate from the body or one cast? I have done a few things in resin but I must admit i would be super nervous to do a cast that big. The results you guys have are amazing though!

[Tiella]

The lights are on a bendable wire so it pretty much stays where I put it for the most part and it depends on the mold whether we cats the head separate or now. For most g4s the head is cast separate and most g1s it is not.

[Galactica]

Depends upon what you are doing, usually you take an original sculpture and make the mold.  Depending upon the pose can depend upon how complicated the mold is gonna be.  There are some wonderful tutorials out there on the how too.   But you need to figure out the part lines and such when you get complicated which is why many artist have professional places do em.

So far from the model horse hobby one of the better materials I have heard of to use is Smooth-on to make the mold.  The resin depends on if you are hollow casting, want white or clear.  http://www.smooth-on.com/

There are also companies many artist use to make the casting for them, as they are dealing with large numbers - such as this one http://www.resinsbyrandy.com/  and http://www.mountainviewstudios.net/

Wow- I might try that smooth on stuff! I have tried making resin casts in the past- and it is wicked hard!  Maybe these products are a little easier to use...

[SoldierofTwilight]

I have one of FW and Tiella's ponies, G1 Big Mac as a resin pony. They're awesome! I priced the materials myself too, and boy is it expensive to make! Expensive and time consuming. >.>

I was going to make a few for myself, but I'm reconsidering. Heh.

[BethyVic]

Wow, that is so cool!  I really enjoy looking at resin ponies, they look great!