I know, not technically a paint, but applied with a brush, so I figured this was the forum. I know The Small Shop EU originally produced it, but I can't find it anywhere. Does anybody still make it, or a similar product? Or, better yet, something similar that contains a much bigger bottle of the base coat - which didn't go very far - and small bottles of the various grades of texture powder - I still have most of that from my Cast-A-Coat set left.

I know it's possible to get casting effects using stuff like Mr Surfacer, but I prefer not to expose myself to lacquer fumes any more than I have to. Cast-A-Coat was nice and easy to use and odorless, and had uses that went beyond just providing a cast metal texture.

Al

Hi Al,
Sorry but I believe you are out of luck. Cammett's in England was the last place to sell Cast-A-Coat and the supply ran out in 2008. Smallshop.eu is nowhere to be found and the domain name is for sale. I haven't seen Alasdair Johnson, the stuff's creator, at an AMPS show since 2006. He used to come over the pond every year.
The Small Shop is still alive and well and living in Washington State but they don't produce or carry it.
I believe it's long gone...

That's a shame - something like it is really needed for all those "too smooth to be true" kits. It's a shame Alasdair has vanished - he might at least have been able to pass on the formula to somebody else. Then again, maybe it just didn't sell well. It did have the basic problem of all the bottles being the same size. They provided ample powder, but the base coat really did need to come in a much larger bottle.

Hmm, wonder if Brian at DOA might consider something like this one of these days. The base coat was really just a thick acrylic, after all.

Thanks for the info - just wish it had been better news :-)

Cheers,

Al

Why not try playing around with some of the Acrylic artists' mediums? I'm sure you could find a suitable powder to use as well....

My experience of seeing actual armoured vehicles at places like Bovington Tank Museum etc. is that its normally very smooth. Of course the Russian WW2 etc. castings are a bit different. But as for example the German WW2 armour, taking into account the reduction from actual size down to 1/35 then the imperfections and marks in the armour just wouldn't be visible at this reduced scale. Certainly not to warrant a textured coating being applied. Even the glue and stippling method I would regards as excessive in its portrayal of genuine armour plate.

I think the texturing of armour models whilst valid in some cases is like the chipping and weathering we see on many kits today, a current trend and in the main done to excess, playing more to creative artistic representation than actual reality.

Alan

The nice thing about Cast-A-Coat was that, with the fine powder, you could get a pretty subtle cast effect, suitable for cast US armor or the "higher quality" cast armor on late Czech-built T-34s. My primary need for it right now, though, is getting stuff like the Italeri M-47 hull and turret to be slightly less "silky smooth" than they are, and getting the Tamiya M-48 cast hull to match the nice Tank Workshop turret I've bought it. The Cast-A-Coat base can be applied very thinly, just enough for the very fine powder to adhere to it.

I'd considered artist's acrylic pastes, but the ones that I have, at least, are rather too thick and gritty. However, given that I bought them specifically because they were gritty and would provide a rougher texture for dioramic work than "raw" Celluclay, I may be biased and should perhaps look at what's on the market again.

I'm going to be interested in seeing what the new Tamiya diorama textured paints are like. They are meant for diorama work, but if the grain size is fine enough (in the ones that are granular, at least - the grass texture I don't expect to be able to use for anything but grass) they may have other applications.

Al

Is a pity, because these products were really good, specially the snow coat one. Anyone know if Snow coat still producing or....is out of production also???

MIG
http://www.migjimenez.blogspot.com/

Well the good news is that you seem to have the most important component. There was a recent thread here where someone used Cast a Coat on a Merk, but used something else as an adhesive. Mr. Surfacer maybe? Others have used hairspray, and over a decade ago I had pretty good results just using wet paint.

lIt looks like it.

Hi all,

I sent emails a few days ago to Cammett Ltd, the company which produced cast a coat and ice/snow coat. They answered that snow/ice coat is no longer in production and Cast a coat is out of production for a while but they may reintroduce it, but unlikely for this year.
Besides, according to them deluxe materials is a very similar product to snow/ice coat.
Cheers
Didier

I know this is a old topic, but was wondering if they ever came back out with the Cast-a-Coat product from when they went out of production. Question is do they make it again?

Happy modeling
William