I Got Asked About How I Did My Resin Sharks, And I've Had An Octopus Sitting On My Shelf For Ages Waiting

I got asked about how I did my resin sharks, and I've had an octopus sitting on my shelf for ages waiting for the same resin treatment, so I figured I'd kill to birds with one stone, and take some pictures explaining the process!

Here I've got the octopus I'll be casting in resin, and a thick cylinder with the same diamater to the base we're using.

I 3d print my bases, so getting this cylinder was simple for me. I just 3d printed a thicker version of the base and called it good. If you're using a store bought base, you can probably just stack a few of them on top of one another and tape them together to make a cylinder. You only need about 2-3cm of thickness.

I've also put just a teeny bit of blutack on the cyilnder, to keep the base from shifting around while I do the next step.

Step 1:

Put the cylinder on the base, and tape them together like so. Make sure that the tape forms a tight seal around the top of the base. This is to stop any leaking resin from getting between the base and the cylinder and sticking them together. If enough gets in there and sets, they won't be coming apart.

(Also, be sure that any basing material or bits of the mini don't extend out over the side of the base, that will also cause problems with making a tight seal).

Step 2:

Now we're going to need a laminating pouch. I use A3 sized pouches, but for something this size you could get away with A4 easily enough. You should be able to find packs these from any office supply store for fairly cheap.

Cut the pouch were it joins together, so you have two sheets of plastic.

There should be a glossy and matte side, take note of which is which. The glossy side needs to end up on the inside of the dam we're making, so that the resin turns out smooth and see through. Be careful while handling these sheets, as any creases or dents will show up in the final product.

Determine how deep you want your resin to be, and mark that depth on the sheet. Don't forget to factor in the depth of the cylinder attatched to the base of the mini for this.

Here, I want this octopus to be the same size as my sharks, so I'm using one as a reference.

Make a quick mark at the height you want (on the non-glossy side of the laminating pouch), then cut the sheet about 1-2 centimetres higher than that. It doesn't have to be particularly neat.

This is the sort of thing we're going for.

(Apologies for the background, its kinda hard to get a good picture of something transparent :p ).

Note that we've got a neat, straight edge along the bottom, unlike the top where it was cut. So long as you have one edge that is neat and straight, you're all good to continue.

Step 3:

Take a small strip of tape, and attatch it to the matte side of the sheet. Then take the base and cylinder, and line the bottom of the base up along the long, straight edge of the sheet.

Carefully roll the base onto the tape, so that the bottom of the cylinder and sheet are flush with one another.

Be careful where you do this on the base, as there will be a small seam in the resin along the edge of the sheet going up from here. I've put mine at the back of my octopus, so it doesn't get in the way of looking at it front-on.

Step 4:

The sheet is long enough to wrap around the base with quite a bit of overlap, which we don't want. So before continuing, quickly wrap the sheet around the base, and find where it will overlap. Cut the sheet so there is only about a centimetre of overlap when it is wrapped around the base.

Then carefully wrap the sheet around the base, keeping the edge of the sheet flush with the bottom of the base. Make sure the sheet is wrapped firmly around the base, and is forming a straight tube, not a funnel. Use a small strip of tape to fix it in place.

Double check now that the glossy side of the laminating sheet is on the interior of this tube. If it isn't, undo all this and start over.

Step 5:

Now take a long strip of tape, and wrap it all the way around the base. Line the top edge of the tape up with the top of the base (not the sand on the base, just the top of the actual base). Keep tension in the tape while you wrap, the goal here is to hold the sheet close to the base, to form a seal that will keep resin in the tube, rather than leaking down the base.

Step 6:

Now put another strip of tape along the outside seam of the sheet. Don't be too woried about getting a really good seal here, the weight of the resin should keep the inner flap of the sheet pressed against the outer one anyway. This is just to stop sheet from moving when resin is poured in, so it stays as a tube, rather than turning into a funnel.

Step 7:

Finally, take a rubber band and wrap it around the base of the mini. Try and line it up with the top of the base (like with the tape from step 5). This just adds a little extra pressure to try and stop resin leaking out.

And thats done! We've now got a cylindrical resin dam ready to pour resin into!

I hope this helps anyone curious about my process for doing this!

I've hit the 10 image limit on this post, so I'll make another one soon showing my resin pours and the finished mini.

Update: post showing the resin pouring process here.

This is the third beholder I've painted.

I might have a problem :T

I just really like them. Maybe its because each gets to be unique and different.

Maybe it's because they're such iconic monsters.

Maybe it's because, unlike regular minis, the eyes aren't tiny little specks that require perfect pinpoint precision to paint.

Anyway, I really like how this one came out. I played around a bit with the airbrush on this one, and tried out doing a little bit of purple undershading in which I think turned out quite well, though it could've been maybe just a touch lighter in retrospect.

I printed the support piece separate from the mini and base, so I could do it in transparent resin and give it a purple stain. My thought is it's meant to be a sort of psionic pillar of anti-gravity or something. (because psionics are purple, as we all know).

I also had a go at making a glow effect on the base around the support, something I've been nervous to experiment with so far. I'm always worried about ruining a paint job I spent hours on, but since this base is a simple and quick paint job it was the perfect bit of low-stakes practice.

This model is Beholder by Lord Of The Print.

Double post! I realised I never actually made a post about this halfling smith I painted last week, which is a travesty, because she's cool as heck! Also, she's a four fingered smith now, because I'm a clutz and dropped her while carrying her over to take pictures ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

One of the great things about 3d printing, is that when I want to paint a mini like this to display on a shelf rather than use on a table, I can just scale it up a bit before printing, rather than having an oddly sized mini on a shelf next to a bunch of larger figurines!

I really like how all the different colours and materials came together on this paint job, I think I managed to keep everything cohesive but distinct.

I'm also pretty happy with how the skin tone came out. I tried something a bit different to what I usually do, by mixing my favourite light skin tone paint with a little bit of reddish brown paint to get a slightly more tan colour as a base I could work up from. I think it turned out great, and really suits this halfling smith!

This print is Helen, the Blacksmith Halfling by Bite The Bullet

I put these in my drafts and forgot them! Red and Blue fire elementals. They were super fun to paint, lots of drybrushing which is always fun to do with a lot of sculpted detail.

This is my first time trying to paint fire effects, and I think it turned out fairly well! Room for improvement certainly, but it does read as fire when you look at it I think, and thats the main thing.

I tried making some sort of obsidian-gravel looking bases to put these on, but they didn't really work out, so I just tried painting a sort of gradiant like they're glowing from the elementals on them. It sorta worked? IDK, its fine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

This model is Armour-bound fire elemental by Rocket Pig Games.

They've got a great patreon that has a bunch of awesome minis like this every month: https://www.patreon.com/rocketpiggames/posts

Finished off my blue dragon today! Painted its perch, applied some washes to the wings and horns, and of course what dragon doesn't have its hoard?

This is definitely my favourite mini in my collection now. Its hard to not love a dragon, and this guy was tonnes of fun to paint!

I was playing with a cheap necklace I got off wish a while back, and managed to break this starry cabachon off it (I threw it into a fan on accident, no further questions).

I thought it was a cool little piece, so I went ahead and put together a wizardy table for it in fusion360, printed it out, slapped some paint on it, and here it is! Just a quick little scatter piece. I guess the ruined portal from my last post has me in a wizardy mood.

I like using fusion360, I'm still fairly inexperienced with it, but that just means I can learn new things each time! This time I figured out how to use the sweep tool to create the swoopy tubes running up the sides of the table.

Also pictured, Edwin, my sorcerer PC from a Curse of Strahd game I'm in! He was the most wizardly character I had on my shelf. I should fix that at some point.

If you want to get the file for this, you can find it here.