1204m Shmel Riverine gunboat by RGL - Tiger Model - 1/35 - PLASTIC

[yvesvidal]

As mentioned before, resin will find its way through the tiniest leak, where water would not even react. I like the heeling of the ship as it gives a more dramatic perspective in this ultra nasty environment.

 

Yves

[Nirvana]

Greg, as a matter of fact that looks more realistic with the listing. Glad she didn' sink.

[RGL]

I’m so glad it didn’t sink!  I actually think it’s grown on me, I will have to amend all the figures to NOT have a list. Interesting that the back base resin, the ink is starting to leach upwards )it looks really cool) 

[RGL]

So 10 days, a bout of Covid and I’ve ripped off the Perspex frame. Still wet and runny in places like the layer joins. I now need to let the sides go off and I will sand them smooth not a total fail but a big learning curve

[Jim Lad]

That swirl of water around the dock looks very realistic, Greg.

 

John

[RGL]

So it’s  leeching resin at the join of the pours. Few days in the sun to bake it 

[RGL]

So back to lernin mode; the layer between is still wet and will not set but it is really hot, so I think the AK radioactive resin reacted with the top and bottom layer, so I’ve separated them now so hopefully that’s going to work as the clear resin top layer is hard

[Old Collingwood]

7 hours ago, RGL said:

So it’s  leeching resin at the join of the pours. Few days in the sun to bake it 

"Sun you got sun  -  whats  that thing"

[RGL]

[Nirvana]

Looking good for curing.

[RGL]

That’s the thing, it won’t cure! Apparently after 48 hours it just worn so I have a sticky mess. The clear stuff is rock hard, if the bottom is sloppy it can just sit in the base 

[Javelin]

It's not the radioactive resin from AK, but the dark earth... That's the reason I was asking about that before. I've been mixing acrylic with sand to create bottoms  in the past and then poured epoxy over it. On 2 occasions it started making bubbles very late in the curing process, which then got those bubbles stuck inside the epoxy due to the low viscosity of the curing resin. I believe acrylic gel reacts with epoxy. 

In my latest attempt I'm mixing sand with epoxy to pour the bottom, this also would get any air bubbles between the sand grains stuck inside that epoxy layer when hardened. 

 

High temperature/sun affects epoxy curing, but it's not something that starts it. Too hot and the thing will start to go really bad, too cold and the chain reaction of the two components will slow down and stop. It cures by a chemical reaction, that reaction creates heat, which then creates a good temperature for the surrounding molecules to react. When that heat is taken away by the surrounding environment which is too cold, it stops that reaction. If it's too hot around it, the reaction will go really fast, so the heat created by the reaction itself can not get away and builds up till very hot temperatures, creating a boiling effect. 

To get a proper curing you need the good quantities of the components (weight wise), properly mixed and be in the good temperature range. Another thing you need to check is whether the epoxy is suitable for the thickness you're trying to pour, again related to getting rid of the exothermic heat by having enough contact with the environment. 

 

However, considering it didn't harden only on that contact surface, I guess it did react to the acrylic. On the other side, the heat you encountered might be caused by overheating in the sun and perhaps melting something on that contact surface with the bottom? It's also an area far away from any contact with the environment in all directions, so perhaps it couldn't release the heat? 

 

Not sure how to solve that though... Is the upper part contact surface still really liquid? Or is there some kind of reaction going on? Opening it up might have helped to get rid of the heat and let the curing proceed. Fingers crossed! 

 

 

[RGL]

Ok that makes sense, it was the sandwich filling ( acrylic paste) that must have been the problem as the top and bottom are hard