Clear Sankara Stones *update* - COMPLETED!

[Mooniteman]

**UPDATE: Completed Stones on Page 3**


Hey guys!

So I wanted to try making some mini and maybe full-sized Sankara stone Replicas for fun. I have seen the PERFECT replicas by Restaurajones Jones, but just wanted to do this as a side project / chance to learn a new technique.

I've heard from him and others that adding a TON of hardener to Polyester Resin will cause cracks, but I've had some really unsuccessful tests (and ironically) near-perfect casts.

I posted pics of the effect I'm looking for below - If anyone has any idea how to achieve this I would love to hear thoughts! I'm absolutely fascinated with this!

-AJ

PS: I don't want to just add gold leaf like the crappy ebay ones. That looks terrible to me.

 

[Mooniteman]

halp?

 

[sapper36]

Maybe try taking it from the freezer and drop it in boiling water?

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

Crumpled balls of foil/gold leaf and off-cuts of clear plastic sheeting (warp them beforehand with heat, maybe). Spray one side of the plastic pieces with a little release agent and drop them into your mold negatives and fill with resin. The agent should create a light enough separation to resemble cracks. Another member on the board here came up with that technique, though I can't remember who to credit for it.

 

[Mooniteman]

Crumpled balls of foil/gold leaf and off-cuts of clear plastic sheeting (warp them beforehand with heat, maybe). Spray one side of the plastic pieces with a little release agent and drop them into your mold negatives and fill with resin. The agent should create a light enough separation to resemble cracks. Another member on the board here came up with that technique, though I can't remember who to credit for it.

Interesting. Gold leaf always looks wrong to me - I can't see any in the original prop.

I'd love to see that method with the plastic though. I've heard of something similar, but yet to see any results.

Thanks for the thoughts!

 

[Mooniteman]

Maybe try taking it from the freezer and drop it in boiling water?

Like after it's cured?

 

[Indy Magnoli]

azuma Are you still making the cracked stones?

 

[azuma]

Hi, I no longer making cracked stones. Adding hardener is the way we used to do, but there are about 50% defectives.

Azuma

 

[sapper36]

Like after it's cured?

That's what I was thinking....

 

[Mooniteman]

Hi, I no longer making cracked stones. Adding hardener is the way we used to do, but there are about 50% defectives.

Azuma

Hey! Was it as simple as just adding extra hardener? I was very unsuccessful

 

[azuma]

Hey! Was it as simple as just adding extra hardener? I was very unsuccessful

Hi, I did not cast the stone myself, they were casted by a friend, who once told me that he put extra hardener during cast, and during the cooling process, the temperature is not balance between hardener and resin, so the resin explodes inside out and generates cracks. That's all I can remember.

 

[Mooniteman]

Hi, I did not cast the stone myself, they were casted by a friend, who once told me that he put extra hardener during cast, and during the cooling process, the temperature is not balance between hardener and resin, so the resin explodes inside out and generates cracks. That's all I can remember.

Thanks Azuma. Yeah it seems like a real random process. I don't want to waste to much money sorting it out. Do you know if it was only resin inside? Or is there other addatives?

 

[Mooniteman]

Update: First off. Just buy these from Restaurajones Jones - don't be a fool like me. This is an expensive, messy and frustrating process!

So I did a very bad sculpted a stone in z-brush really roughly and 3D printed it.

I cast one that was a total dud with some excess resin and decided to paint it with some glass paint - not too shabby. Looks a bit weird though.

Then I just went absolutely ham on the resin adding about 45ml of Hardener to 16oz of Casting Craft resin. This stuff SMELLS! ...BAD!

I also had some little bits of resin that I broke up and threw inside the stone to fill out the space (I was out of resin)

But to my surprise... IT WORKED!!!!

Now there is no color since the heating process 100% baked out the color I added. So I'm assuming anyone that does this must add the color after-the-fact.

So here are some pics of the stone before it has gotten any sort of polishing or coating to make it amber. There are also weird ripples on the outside that was part of the horrendous casting process - those need to be sanded off.

So excited it's starting to work!!!

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

That looks really good. Especially for Castin' Craft! I gave up on that stuff ages ago. That stuff is genuinely terrible to work with and to get something as nice out of them as you did is a miracle in itself.

 

[Mooniteman]

Here is a small update!

My GF does prop painting and she took a crack at this.

She airbrushed a dye with a matrix clear-coat

 

[Mooniteman]

Here is a pretty decent shot of the first successful stone with full paint.

 

[Mooniteman]

UPDATE! Decided to ENTIRELY re-sculpt my stone from scratch because I wasn't happy with it.
You can see below the odd bump in the side that I tried to match _ the scratches. The Stone is tilted down in the refernce photo in the middle and taken from straight-on in the one of the right - so I did my best to blend the two.

Here is another Over-catalyzed casting. Nothing added into it. No gold leaf or shards of anything - this is just pure resin catalyzed to heck! For this I used about 20oz of resin and 40CC of hardener which is UNTHINKABLE, but that's how you get those shapes. It smells like hell and smokes and cracks a little bit.

For some of the other castings I've tried jamming a knife into it to cause it to crack more about 10 minutes in just as it starts to gel. It re-heals as it sets up.

This is pre-polish and paint. If I add any translucent pigment the curing process burns it out so i've found painting it after and clear-coating it is the best method.

Also here is a "villiage version" based on the one Indy gives to the village at the end. Just three drops of s-strong brown went a LONG way. I had to add the "bubbles" an imperfections because my casting actually came out very clean.

 

[Jakob Frank]

Looks great!
I just wanted to mention that Adam Savage just mentioned you and your project in this video: Adam Savage video. It is around the 10-11 minute mark.

 

[Mooniteman]

Looks great!
I just wanted to mention that Adam Savage just mentioned you and your project in this video: Adam Savage video. It is around the 10-11 minute mark.

I SAW THAT!!!!! THAT'S INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm deeply honored.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Yeah I saw that and the little kid in my head went "I was reading that thread!!!!" I really need to add one of these to my collection because I want to get some of the basic Indy props (Grail, whip, diary, fertility idol, etc.)