Reaver Titan Pt 3 WIP Resin Tips

As I'm trimming and preparing the pieces of the Reaver Titans' legs I thought I would share some tips on working with resin. Of course, the first tip is always safety, never inhale the dust from sanding or grinding this stuff! Next we have the washing which I covered in detail in an earlier post. The following are just a couple more tips in regards to trimming the pieces...

Mold lines. They suck. That's not the tip, just a fact. On resin pieces we want to trim the piece so that there is no line. Easy enough if it is a traditional plastic type of mold line where the piece is one uniform level with the line protruding out from it. But what about when the piece is not uniform and the line is the result of an uneven cast? We still need to get the pieces to match up while trimming the least amount possible. Here is an example of such a mold line.




This a trick I use to help ensure that I trim just enough. I take a sharpie marker and make trace over the line. Make a couple of passes if needed, but get the whole mold line black.




Now you can begin to trim along the mold line. You may use a file or a hobby knife, whichever you are comfortable with. Where the part doesn't need much trimming, the marker will come off quickly. Where marker remains, the part is not even, or flush.




Concentrating on areas where the marker remains, you will see less and less marker as the two sides of the part become more flush. Use common sense here, you may have to trim down areas where the marker has already disappeared to reach the parts where it has not. The idea is to use the marker to help you see where there is more trimming to be done and where the part is already even. The line will eventually disappear completely, but it is not always necessary to go that far. This much marker is acceptable to me for this particular part.




Another thing to remember about resin, it cuts a little funny when you use clippers. Sometimes where the vents (the extra sprue bits colored black below) are you can cut too close and break off a bit of the actual piece. I believe this happens because the resin tends to be weaker in these areas. So, when trimming these large bits I recommend clippers. But, I also recommend trimming different ways according to where vent is located. On a vent like the one below, where the vent is on surface you will see when finished, you do not want to have your clippers flush with the piece. I would leave some space between the clippers and the edge of the piece, then trim the remainder with a knife or file.




For the next piece, you may notice that the vents are on surface I've designated with marker. This surface will be hidden as it's the inside of a joint. The hip joint to be exact. I will put the clippers right against the piece in a situation like this. If a small indention results from the close cut it will never show.




I hope you've enjoyed this quick trip to resin land. I'm sure as this project moves forward there will be more tips and tricks that pop up and I'll be happy to share them all with you. The trimming is coming along and I hope to have all the leg parts trimmed by the end of this weekend. Now I'm just trying to think of a way to stick the legs together to do mock ups for positioning. Some sort of super blu tac may be in order!

Thanks for stopping by. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or entertaining insults, by all means leave me a comment!

Reaver Titan Pt 2 (legs and questions)

I've decided to follow the order of the instructions and start at the legs. I think they have you knock these out first because if you can get these done, you probably won't be scared of anything else that has to be done.

With that decided, I have to consider what I'm going to do with the legs. Should I go for a completely static pose, or try for something more dynamic? I am leaning towards at least having one foot in front of the other, but every once in a while I think one foot coming up off the ground might be nice. Not off the ground, mind you, but maybe up on some of its toes.

Another thing I need to think about; what kind of base should I make... or should I make one at all? I've thought about one big base, or one base for each foot. With one big base there could be problems with maneuvering and placement. Does something this size warrant a base for each foot leaving room between for troops or some such? With the feet close together (inside toe to inside toe) the outside toes are about 14" apart. So any posing whatsoever and this could increase to 16" or 18" or maybe more!?!

Here is a photo of the leg parts laid out and ready to begin trimming.




I'm hoping that while I'm trimming the leg bits this week I can get some feedback from you guys out in blogland about my above questions (dynamic or no and base or what). I may even post a poll, so keep an eye on the left column. I'm hoping to have the leg parts trimmed up by this weekend so that piecing them together can begin.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, drop me a line. I have had one question recently regarding scanning the instructions. I'll have to familiarize myself with the lingo in the GW IP. I may be possible that I could scan myself some soft copies and share a sample with individuals on request, but I don't know yet so I'm not making any promises.

Take caer and thanks for stopping by!

Reaver Titan Pt 1

The adventure begins!

I'll not waste a lot of time on preamble and we'll jump right in. The box as shipped is well packed. The parts are all nestled away in their individual bags, organized by sections of Titan.

First off are the bags with Laser Blaster and what I like to call, "Piston Hell"...



Next we have the huge bag O'legs...



The Gatling Blaster and Torso...



Then there is the Head and Interior parts...



And, of course, the Instructions and Certificate. Number 122 for the record...



Now comes my first of what I'm sure will be many apologies. Somehow I've lost pics of two more large bags containing large parts. I assure you, there will be plenty of opportunity to see all the parts as we begin assembly!

Now that we've ogled the parts in bag (those that I managed to show you), it's on to the wash! The parts have a coating of a release agent from when they were cast. This has to be removed or paint will never stick. My weapon of choice for this process is Simple Green. I went to my local DIY store and bought a couple of 2.5 gallon buckets for under five bucks. The blue one has several small holes drilled in the bottom, this will be my rinse bucket. The Red is intact and will hold a mixture of Simple Green and water in about a one to ten mixture.



I place a bag or two of parts into the cleaning solution and let them sit a few minutes. The parts go in no particular order, but I be sure to keep only one category or small parts in the process at once. So until all the small leg parts are completely through the process I won't run any small torso parts through. But, I might add any bags of large pieces. The process itself is pretty simple. I pick up one piece at a time, scrub it with a soft bristle brush, and rinse it manually then put it in the rinse bucket. At this point there is a slow stream of water flowing into (and out of) the rinse bucket to facilitate the first rinse and a soak in water. With some care, the water going into the rinse bucket and out of it will be about equal. Once the cleaning solution bucket is empty and the rinse bucket has a good pile in it, I fill up the wash bucket with new parts and let them sit while I give the parts in the rinse bucket their final rinse. I turn the water on a little stronger and hold each piece under the flow again. Then it's off to a towel or paper towel to dry. Repeat... repeat... repeat...


(in my meager defense, I was making a face for the camera... thanks sweetheart!)


A couple hours and sore back later and we have all the parts cleaned and drying!

Some large parts in no particular order...



Some small leg parts...



Some small head and interior parts...



And, some small torso parts...



It's about a metric ass-ton of parts. Now, on to what I've learned so far about this kit.

The quality is really good. In fact, I'd go as far as to say, excellent. The washing process gives you a chance to handle each and every part... several times. I noted one part that may need a little filler in a non critical area. I also noted two parts with very slight warping. For the sheer number of pieces in this kit that is amazing! Of course, I might find more as we begin the assembly process, but I don't think there will be too many. This kit also included no chipped or broken pieces... amazing! Maybe I'm too easy to please, but I must say, I'm happy with the quality of the kit so far.

I hope you've enjoyed this first step in building a titan. If you have any questions, comments, or critiques please let me know. I'll happily clarify or, if I can, re-photo anything that's not clear. Thanks for stopping by!