Hi Joe, I know what you mean. This is one of the reason for which the production of those busts has been stopped until now.
Perfection is not from this world and I am not a so experienced guy, but I can ensure you that the current casting is a little different from the previous.
I tried a lot of brands until now. As with painting and sculpting, casting results may vary substantially depending on products and equipment you are using.
I experimented with my own pieces first. The beige resin is the first I tried and is the only one I still use from the beginning. It is a big rough resin, but the final result is good and that beige colour seems to be one of the preferred by most of modellers.
The other you can see, the white one, is a resin I tried lately. The first attempt was a total mess, due to my inexperience, but once I understood and fixed my errors I got an almost perfect result. I love that resin, I simply think it is one of the best product out there. Even touching it is different, its surface/finish is simply beautiful.
It is just a matter of practice, I think. The first copies of my own pieces were not same quality as the current, but now I can see an improvement, and this is the reason for which I would like to follow that way. I am using pressure now, and this means a great advance in respect to pouring by gravity.
I am used to clean all the pieces after the casting, to give you an idea on the left you can see the piece as it comes out of the mould, and on the right as it will be packaged.
Take a look also at this casting, it was just a test with an original from another sculptor (it is NOT a sculpt of mine). The mould line is supposed to runs on the back, up to the first half of the head. It has been casted with that beautiful white resin.
And finally some close up from Lhara and the Elf. The basement now does not suffer any imperfection, as well the bust.
The mould line of the bust runs from the bottom up to the head, but you can only see it on the bottom, and note that the shadows are not from a misalignment, but for the talcum used while casting. And consider that there are pieces where you can see nothing. Every step, if present, will be cleaned, so the painter can just start with the primer. I am a bit paranoic about that.
This is the hair as it comes from the mould, but once again you will get only the cleaned piece, not the sprue.
This is the uncleaned hand of the Elf.
With those small parts you may clean something, but as usual no imperfections.
And here some more close up of the Elf. The mould lines are running on the two sides (torso, shoulder and head). Once again you just get a cleaned piece.
The two masters of the previous post (the one you have commented and the other) will be casted with the white resin to ensure an even better result (I hope...).
it looks like you are doing a great job on the casting.
