Brush With Death 2019 Entry

This was my first water effects resin pour.  After a lot of research, I settled on polyester clear casting resin from Swindon Watersports, as well as green and black dye from the same company.

By complete coincidence, I’d recently decided to throw out a lightbox that wasn’t doing it’s job properly.  For whatever reason I decided to keep the plastic panels.  They turned out to be large enough for my purposes (yay hoarding!).

I lined the edges of the foam base using Milliput, waited for it to cure, and then repainted the bottom of the sewer.  I also switched the blue for green along the bottom.

The next day, I started setting up the plastic (this was Tuesday, three days before the entry was due.  I was sweating a little).  It turned out to be a much longer process then I anticipated.  Each side needed to dry separately before adding the next.  Similarly, I used two kinds of glue: PVA/Elmer’s Glue along the edges of the diorama, and superglue on the plastic itself.

Much of the construction took place using the edge of my sink and a box of spray paints for support.

Before moving on to the actual pour, I re-upped the PVA along the inside so that the resin wouldn’t leak.  This turned out to be the first of two mistakes I made during this pour.  I should have dammed on the outside of the diorama.  As it was, the glue created gaps between the bottom of the resin and the top of the diorama.

As you can see in the above picture, I balanced the entire thing on top of a baking tray.  It was the only thing I had on hand to catch the resin if it leaked.

And, roughly twenty-fours later…

All in all, not bad for a first resin pour.  Here, I made the second mistake: I poked the resin.  Bam: fingerprint.  After I’d cleaned up the edges, my SO and brother in law each proceeded to do the same thing.  What is it about fake water that’s so alluring?

My third mistake took place the previous day.  I’d forgotten that the rough texture sculpted into the sewer bed would create bubble problems – I should have used an awful paintbrush to scoop and smooth resin onto the base before proceeding to the actual pour.  I think I was just too excited.  Also, I performed my practise pour into a smooth, round receptacle, which didn’t give me any bubble problems to think about.

No worries, though: learning all of these things will make my next diorama better.