Tek Titan

Sunday – April 29, 2018

Time to start cutting into some of this resin. Step one for me is to remove all the poor blocks fro all of the pieces. The poor blocks are the large lumps from the top of the mold where the resin is poured in. These wells or reservoirs allow a large area of resin that will seep into the mold as air bubbles are shaken out or as the resin dries and shrinks. The shaft that connect these to the part is often large enough that a hobby saw needs to be used to cut through. I cut these about .25 inches from the part to make sure not to damage the part.

Once all the poor blocks have been cut away I can sort the parts into groups. All armor plates will be set aside in one box, the torso in another and the parts (that I have) for the legs and feet. This final set of parts stay on the bench for cleanup. I need to go over each part sanding down anchor points, told lines and flash while looking for defects, bunnies, warping or other issues that will need attention. Sanding sticks and emory boards work for most of this but a Dremel and Flex-I-File helps a lot.

These parts are pretty large so there is little warping and the few bubbles i have found on the components of the feet will work as battle damage or wear so I think I will be leaving them in place for the moment. As I work through the parts I test fit things and consider how the pose will work. I also want to start thinking about where pining off joints will be needed and what I will be doing to help strengthen the overall model

Once I made it through the all the parts its time for their bath. Resin parts will need some kind of a release agent to make sure they come out of the molds correctly. This release agent can be oily and does not allow glue or paint to adhere to the part correctly. This has to be removed before you can continue with the build. I use to plastic tubs, a vegetable brush, a toothbrush and a grease outing dish soap to do this. Hot tap water and dish soap in the first tub and then drop in the parts. I have a wire basket to try and keep smaller parts from disappearing in the bubbles. I leave the parts to soak for about 15 minutes then pull out parts staring with the smaller ones and scrub every surface with a brush. Once clean a quick since in the second tub, filled with warm tap water to clean off only soap and onto a towel to dry.