G'day everyone,

I am making a diorama at the moment which involves having a few muddy puddles. I am about to make them using Resin.

I'm using a product called Spakfilla, a type of wall plaster/filler as the groundwork base. As a preliminary test, I poured some water onto the base, but it was absorbed by the Spakfilla (which is a little porous). How should I prepare the base for these Resin puddles, i.e. what product/s should I use to seal the base before adding puddles? I don't want the resin to be absorbed into the groundwork and lost.

Look forward to some help.

Chas

Maybe, you could use some Varnish before pouring on the resin, Warhammer (Citadel) Clear or Matt Varnish might do the job...
try on a small piece to see the result, I think it will stop the resin to be absorbed into the groundwork...
/Thomas

Hey Chas
I use a product from Bunnings called Agnews putty for groundwork, and once shaped and painted, it took deep puddles for me no worries. I haven't used spakfilla for a groundwork, but I heed your concerns with it, although water would most likely react differently than the 2 part resin. Are you going to tint the resin prior to pouring, or have it shallow enough to have the painted bottom show through?
Cheers
Brad

Thanks both,

Would you think Future (Pledge here in Australia) would stop the Resin leaking through?

Brad, I'm pre-tinting the resin with tamiya acrylic. These puddles are going to be really muddy.


Chas

i´ve had similar problems a couple of times myself, using Woodlands water, after a few days the pond/stream would shrink and finally disappear.

regards
Thomas

what kind of resin will you use? if it's epoxy or polyester the stuff is pretty sticky and thick and won't be absorbed by polyfilla kind of plaster.
No for Future being as strong as it could be used as a "resinproof" filler. A good coat of wood varnish should work way better.



i am very surprised you get this Thomas! you mean that the "water" was aborbed by the plaster? The Woodland water does shrink a lot while drying anyway:)

Thanks jba,

I'm using epoxy so I guess it should go on without a problem. I'll post pictures to let you know how it turned out.

Thanks everyone,

Chas

white glue is great for sealing pourous things you want to put resin on.

when i worked in a surfboard factory, we used white glue on polyeurathane foam to seal it when the customer wanted epoxy resin fiberglass instead of polyeurathane resin fiberglass work (epoxy dissolves polyeurathane foam if it isn't sealed!).

It is also used to seal styrofoam from polyeurathane resin (which again will cause a chemical reaction if it isn't properly sealed)

If it can protect foam from resin, i suspect it will work in your less demanding case too

Hi All,

Ok, here is how the first pour turned out. I still have to do a second pour to deepen the puddles and add some shallower puddles around the place. I will also give the rest of the dirt a gloss coat to indicate it is wet, at the moment the contrast between wet ground and dry ground is to stark.





Chas Young

I like the dirt alot very convincing. I can understand your water problem, a pond I poured was ruined. In an attempt to repair it I am using latex caulk as a sealer but not sure what the outcome will be yet.

Here are the final results. All in all, everything turned out very well. Sorry about the pic quality, I don't have the weather on my side today.



Chas

Ok new question. What dissolves resin? Is there a chemical I can use for clean-up?

Thanks,
Chas