Gold pigment for resin?

I wondered what the opinions are on this? I want to cast something to look like gold, but I don't mind if it looks like tacky gold plastic jewellery (that would suit the project nicely).

I just can't seem to find anything to do it, I asked my supplier of smooth-cast here in the UK as they had a pic of this nice gold cylon helmet;

http://www.benam.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/TASK-2-helmets-196x196.jpg

They were really helpful but thought it was painted rather than pigmented, so I thought I'd see if anyone had done this or had suggestions.

I've heard of something called rub n buff for metal finishes so i don't know if that would work?

The finished piece is a pendant, designed to be worn - it probably won't be, but it should at least stand up to being worn!

Thanks.

You can get powdered brass and mix it into your resin, but it can take quite a bit to get a decent look, and even then it won't look like real gold. Dusting the inside of the mold with the brass powder before filling it with resin helps, but getting a really good metal look is challenging. And you can polish the finished casting a bit to bring out highlights, but I've never achieved a "shine".

Run n Buf is a wax with metal pigment in it. You rub it on to you piece and then polish it. It can give you a nice antique gold look, but it would looked wear off if used for jewelry.

I recently watched a video from brick in the yard that they put a layer of spray paint on the mold before filling. It was with plastic I'm not sure if it works on resin or not.

That almost looks vacuum metalized rather than pigmented.
It could be a very high quality paint, but the photo just isn't high enough quality to tell.


Your best bet, for a cheap but alright gold look, is to paint it. If you go for spray cans, an old trick I learned is to use a high gloss cherry red base coat, and then do you gold coat lightly over that. It will give it a very nice gold color.

First off, look into the pros and cons of all materials and techniques before spending any money on anything. Rub N Buff may or may not be the easy way out. In the end a paint system may be what your after.

There are various ways to get a gold tone but the OP's photo of that gold helmet isnt easily done with casting in color. There are costly spray in metals that would need be hand buffed and polished, or as prior mentioned vac metalized, or a simple gloss black casting material topped with MirraChrome yet again, all are costly.

In regards to casting in color im afraid the investment and learning curve are also costly. It took me years to perfect something similar through trial and error all out of pocket. And even then the end result inst a mirror finish, but its not meant to be. Much comes down to the quality and color of the base material as any metal pigments tend to separate leaving spotty looking parts. One of the most difficult colors to do is gold. Reason is the base casting material color itself. If its too white the gold looks fake, too black and it looks like brass. Ive rotocast metal looking parts with great success but said parts were to be weathered for its intended purpose, not clean, so any imperfections would play. Again, all trial and error. Technique just cant be taught over a keyboard. Its first hand type stuff.

These are strait from the mould, in color as is. You see the difference in the "gold" tone going from dark brass to lighter gold on different items yet its the same color gold being used. Again reason is the base color material used for the casting.

Thanks for all the replies and advice, it looks like I'm gonna have to go the paint route so I'll do some test pieces I think.

I can see on digging further that a lot of the cheap gold jewelleary out there, which I had just assumed it was all pigmented plastic, is acutally gold plated. That's what I get for guessing!

@Duncanator - sounds like rub n buf is off the menu then, thanks for the info.

@Badgersbunk - that's interesting, the customer service guy I spoke to suggetsed I prime the mold before casting so my final was ready primed, so I guess the same could apply t othe final coat.

@Mr Mold Maker - thanks for the paint tip, it'll be cans for sure if I go that route!

@robstyle - thanks for taking the time to put together all that info, those pieces look great - loving the knuckle duster! I'm already finding out the cost of trial and error, I think that's the problem with lack of experience in this area, I just thought i'd make the original, take a mold, cast it in gold resin - I had no idea what I was getting into!

I know this is years old, but just wanted this info to be out there:

Smooth-on has two powders. One is the right color, but the particles look like glitter. The other has the right size particles but it's more copper than gold. I didn't go with these, but instead found a gold mica powder that was perfect and cheap. Mixed in with smoothcast 325, this makes the perfect gold color cheaply & easily!

A+ to smooth on pigments. IF you put enough in the glitter effect goes away.

Ive had good luck using Pearl-Ex powders as well, though you can get swirly patterns.