Silver Resin Dye?

[Blue Leader]

Greetings,

I hope this is the right place to put this question. I really couldn't figure out where the best place to put this would be, as none of the forum sections really seem to fit. If I should have put this somewhere else I apologize.

Anyhow, I was wondering if anyone knew where I might be able to find some metallic silver dye for resin? I'm looking to cast a few small things I've made in resin and I'd like them to look like metale, or at least just be silver in color, but I haven't had much luck finding anything. TAP Plastics didn't have any clue where I could find some metallic silver dye, and the only I could find online was some "nickel silver metal powder" at Smooth-On for $54 a pound. I don't need that much, and that's a bit expensive for my blood. I'd be happy with just a silver color, I can always make it shiny with glossy clear-coat if I really have to.

Does anyone know where I might be able to find a cheaper metallic silver powder (or in smaller amounts)? Or perhaps just a cheap silver dye for resin, not necessarily a metal powder?
Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[Jaded Monk]

SmoothOn, and most other vendors for that matter, offer metal powder additives. Bronze, Nickel... etc. That's how its done.

http://www.smooth-on.com/index.php?cPath=5_1119_1215

 

[Blue Leader]

SmoothOn, and most other vendors for that matter, offer metal powder additives. Bronze, Nickel... etc. That's how its done.

Cast Magic® Powders Create Amazing Effects on Resin Castings

Ah, thank you. I didn't see those. Like I mentioned, I could only find the "nickel silver metal powder" when I searched for silver dye/pigment/powder at Smooth-On. Even a Google search only lead me to that same thing. And when I went into a TAP Plastics store and asked about it they just looked at me like I was crazy. They had color dye (red, blue, black, et cetera) but didn't know anything about silver.

 

[morrris99]

I've heard you can paint the inside of your mold and pour resin into that. The finished product bonds with the paint. I'm sure it won't work with every paint/resin out there, but might be worth a try.

 

[Mike J.]

I think the short answer is: there is no metallic silver "dye."

IIRC, there are only metallic powders that you mix with the resin.

I am not an expert.


-MJ

 

[who45]

ive used a silver metal pigment, once the resin has set you can rub metal polish, 00 guage wire wool or brasso (which gave me best results) to make it then look more metal - imo though you never beat paint - best paints i found in a can were plasticote range (as i dont own an airbrush)

out of the mold the resin and the pigment merely looks grey until its polished or rubbed, then the metal pigment can be brought out

the pigment polishing works but i wanted more metal than it gave so ill always use paints

i hope person that did this doesnt mind me posting this (i got it from a google search ages ago) and hope its ok with rpf too, but this is exactly the result from the pigment and metal powder mix you get with the effort.

 

[Blue Leader]

Thank you for the tips. I'll have to keep that in mind. And I hadn't heard that about being able to paint the mold first, like morrris99 mentioned. I may have to try that on a test piece and see how that goes.

And yeah, I know I can always paint the resin piece once it's dry, but I was worried about it being scraped. So at least it would be nice to have a silver/gray resin under the paint so if it does scratch it wont be too noticeable. Call me paranoid.

But now that I know a few things that were mentioned here I guess now it's just trial and error. Again, thanks for the information, all.

 

[wasili]

the Doctorr Who Cybermen costumes were made from aluminium filled resin, then sanded and polished. I would say the result is better than average.

Here's an older thread that describes the screenused helmet and the licensed replicas that were made using the same process.

http://www.therpf.com/f9/helmet-comparison-original-cyberman-millennium-fx-replica-16902/

Painting your mold with silver does work, but the layer is very thin. If you sand your casting, you easily sand through the paint.

cheers,

Wasili

 

[Steamtech]

I've tried both methods mentioned, cold casting (mixing the metal powders into the resin) and painting the mold surface before casting.

Cold casting looks great and even has the satisfying weight of real metal. The trick is using enough metal powder to get a good polish on the finished casting. Depending on the size of your casting this can be pretty costly though, and I tend to have more trial and error expenses from cold casting than normal.

I've only painted the mold for casting latex and foam latex before, never resin. It works great, but there's no sanding or finishing needed that could risk the surface layer.

 

[franz bolo]

Cold Casting Real Bronze Powder & Resin | Mold Making Tutorials - YouTube


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