Hard to acquire pieces, recast your own or proxies

Looking through my collection of RT era space marines I'd quite like to acquire a few additional original metal jet packs and a few of the small odd-shaped flat plates for the metal marine jetbike. The post-92 jet packs don't do it for me, and the ones I want go for about £6 each on eBay (now,I like my vintage jet packs, but not THAT much!). The jetbike piece I don't suppose I'd find anywhere other than by accident in a pile of bits.

pOSW5Ws.jpg


So, setting aside any legal or ethical issues, is it practicable to make a cast of these components and make my own resin replacements?

Alternatively, for the jet packs at least, has anyone used any modern alternatives from other suppliers?

Thanks,
 

ardyer

Member
Someone does a jet pack accessory that is very similar to the RT jet packs. It's the top of head, I can't remember who it is, maybe maxmini?
 

Blue in VT

Moderator
Max,

I feel your pain on some of these hard to find bits...but please tread lightly around the subject of recasting. We are looking to avoid any "Imperial Entanglements" for the forum.

Cheers,

Blue
 
Thanks for the nod towards maxmini, plenty of interesting stuff on there! It never occurred to me that they would be so much commercially available conversion stuff out there.

I think the cost/time/benefit of trying to cast such a small number of parts is not practicable. I'm sure that in the fullness of time some idea will pop along as to what to do with them.
 
Nice one Blue "Imperial Entanglements" :lol:

Regarding the "winglet's" that your after, it's a pretty simple piece of modelling to be honest. You could just make up a few yourself out of plasticard?
 

Zhu Bajie

Member
De minimis non curat lex. For a few small pieces (like the Bullock Mk.14 stabilisers) for your own personal use, try a green stuff press mould. There's a lot of tutorials out there on how to do that which will give an idea of the quality of results. The time/cost part of the equation is much smaller than tooling up to cast in resin.

You could ask Mr Papafakis aka The One aka optimus, if his Bullock Stabilisers fit the original, he might have some, they might fit, idk?
 
HOw many of the jet bike part do you want?

ALso, I agree with Zhu, doing some press moulds. I guess doing a 2 part mould using some of that putty stuff. The one that you put in water and it goes soft. I have heard it is very versatile and reusable.

Even more complex castings like the back pack could be done with a bit if experimenting.

I can also give you advice on resin casting your own in your garage. That route would be about £50 in materials, but you could do LOADS of moulds of little bits. If you want any advice please PM me ;)
 

Fimm McCool

Member
ramshackle_curtis":3r87nli1 said:
ALso, I agree with Zhu, doing some press moulds. I guess doing a 2 part mould using some of that putty stuff. The one that you put in water and it goes soft. I have heard it is very versatile and reusable.

http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/#!/...orm-polymorph-pcl-thermoplastic-granules.html

Very good value, totally reusable and great for simple, flat objects. With a bit of planning work I bet you could make a simple multipart mould from them too. These are the same thing sold as 'press mould' but much better value. :)
 
Hmmm, many thanks for the ideas! I only need about 3-4 bike stabilisers. That thermoplastic stuff looks like it offers possibilities and can then be reused for other bits and bobs.
 
Just took receipt of 15 of the Maxmini Jump Packs.

First impressions are that they look fabulous; really nice details, requiring only modest filing to clean them up. Quite considerably larger than the old RT-era ones, which gave me some doubts. But I've done a few dry fit with blue tack and I think I like the look of their chunkiness. Makes me think the old ones were undersized to the function that they were intended to provide.

Will knock a few up assault marines and get some pics up on my WIP thread in due course.

It has occurred to me that if I may replace all of my old RT ones...
 
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