Epoxy Resin

Epoxy Resin

From the very start when I was designing “Vetehinen”, the 3D printed sculpture, I had thought about the idea of water. As the myth of the character goes, Vetehinen is a mysterious and dangerous entity, which lives underwater and preys on people by drowning them underneath the surface. From the get-go, I wasn’t entirely sure how I would implement this element with my 3D printing, and plans from using actual water to even projecting on top of glass panels were introduced. After some discussion with Sean, the idea of epoxy resin came up. I knew what it was, as I enjoy watching diorama builds on YouTube, but had not seriously considered it before because of its tricky nature. I felt like the process was difficult, messy and even a little dangerous to someone who didn’t know what they were doing.

After some thought, however, I figured it was actually the best option I had. Not to mention the best and most natural looking. With resin, I could submerge half of the character model and use resin to build a mysterious and dark underwater scene around the model. Even lighting the resin from below would give a very nice effect to look at. So, resin it is.

What is epoxy resin?

Several types of organic compounds are called epoxy resins. These compounds consist of carbon chains linked to elements such as nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen by covalent bonds. These bonds allow two electron-sharing elements to bond together. As a result, the polymers become flexible and durable. They are therefore ideal for a variety of applications. In simple terms, polyepoxide is a thermoset, formed when two or more compounds react. They radiate heat which cures the material into a solid.

A thermoset resin is one that sets or cures depending on the heating or cooling of the material. When epoxy cures, the process is irreversible, since covalent bonds are introduced into the polymer chain in the curing process.

In order for an epoxy resin to react, it must be mixed with the hardener, which makes cured epoxy honey-like or more viscous, depending on the type of reaction. Furthermore, the actual molecular weight of the cured compound determines its application. It is possible to simulate the appearance of colours and textures by adding dyes, colours, and fillers to the mixture. Epoxy resins should only be dyed with dyes designed specifically for use with them. The resin’s normal properties may be destroyed by other colouring agents. (Jd et al., 2021)

Pour testing at home

To start off with, I checked multiple of Luke Towan’s diorama videos, as well as looked through some blog posts and tutorials I could find. I really needed to know the absolute basics first, as I have never done anything like this before. Quite frankly, I was very scared to even try. I decided to follow this blog post about the process, whilst watching the video on which the written tutorial was based. With this combination, I felt like I could actually succeed.

I went to trusty Amazon and bought myself a starter kit for epoxy resin, as it included protective gloves as well as other needed accessories I would need. The kit came with some pigments too, but as the kit was mostly targeted to jewellery and decoration pouring, the pigments were quite “fake” looking and bright, not something you’d see in the murky lakes of Finland. To fix that, I also bought some Vallejo murky pigment I could then mix with the existing pigments so that the end result wouldn’t be too bright. I also bought Vallejo Water Effects, so that I could mimic movement on the surface of the water and not have it so mirror still.

After the delivery arrived I excitedly unpacked everything and started to pile everything on my desktop. Pretty soon I realised that the surface of it was nowhere near level like Luke Towan had told me it needs to be when pouring. My flat is pretty old and for some reason not a single surface in it is level so I had to level the surface with some notebooks first.

After I was happy with that I took the silicone moulds I had bought and placed them on the table. I decided to pour three times, once with just the clear epoxy resin and hardener in the smallest one, in the second middle size poured some diorama dirt and stones I had bought years ago to mimic the bottom of the lake as well as a piece of plastic fake plant and in the last and biggest one, I added just some fake flowers. In the last two, I decided to pour tinted resin.

I was all ready to go and then I chickened out. I realised that I couldn’t ventilate the room since the outside air was too cold (the temperature needed to be kept at +25 degrees Celsius during curing) and I couldn’t leave the room unventilated as the toxic fumes would swirl around the air that I and my dog were breathing. So before continuing I contacted Sean to ask for any options to do the pour at the university.

Unfortunately, no such room was available so I had to think about my options again. It took me a while of contemplating to finally figure out what to do. The answer was pretty simple actually, I bought an airtight and moisture-proof garage box, then would mix and pour the resin outside my flat, close the box and bring it inside for curing. The bad fumes would then stay inside the airtight box and I could continue using my office without trouble for the next few days while the resin was cooking.

I picked a sunny day and set up my movable resin station outside my front door. I wore my protective gear and got to work. The actual mixing and pouring were super easy, the only bit that took the longest was when I had to keep mixing the two liquids for five minutes straight. I first mixed 10ml of just the resin and hardener and poured that into the first one, and then mixed around 40ml of resin in which I added the muddy Vallejo tint. I was surprised how little you actually needed to achieve a very nice Finnish lake-looking muddy colour and the tint even came with some bits and pieces for texture.

After roughly 28hrs I opened the box and checked the results. The blocks of resin were quite easy to peel off the silicone moulds. Like the youtube video showed I used a craft knife to peel off the sharp edges, which was easy as the resin was easy to cut. I even managed to cut a little too much of the middle one as it wasn’t perfectly set yet. Need to be careful of that when I finally make the last version.

In the video, Towan used a small torch to burn away any air bubbles, but since I don’t have one mine had them in. The bubbles are clearly visible in the clear block, but not so much in the tinted one. To be honest I don’t mind the bubbles in the resin anyways, as it only makes it look like the water is actively moving, creating bubbles as it goes. For the final version, I want to make sure that all the small details are showing with the light, so all the bubbles and texture bits from the tint would be pretty nice to see.

During next semester I’ll start pouring into bigger moulds to figure out do I need to pour in layers or if one big go is okay, as well as what kind of items I’m able to put in. So far the sand and stones stayed down pretty well even without any glue, but I feel like that might not be the case in bigger pours. As much as swirling sand looks good, I don’t want it to completely obscure the 3D print I have there with it.

References

How to build an Ultra Realistic River – Realistic Scenery Vol.13 (2018) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yygwun1cdug&ab_channel=LukeTowan (Accessed: February 24, 2023).

Jd et al. (2021) What is epoxy resin and how does it work, Resin Affairs. Available at: https://resinaffairs.com/what-is-epoxy-resin/ (Accessed: February 24, 2023).

Murphy, B. (2020) “How to Make Fake Water For a Diorama? Step-By-Step Guide,” Your Diorama.com, 3 April. Available at: https://yourdiorama.com/how-to-make-water-for-a-diorama-simple-tutorial/ (Accessed: February 24, 2023).

Valentin (2022) How to make water for a diorama – with and without resin, Craftknights.com. Available at: https://craftknights.com/how-to-make-water-for-a-diorama-with-and-without-resin/ (Accessed: February 24, 2023).