Greek Warrior bust

[Mongo Mel]

Hello everybody,
I had mentioned this piece in another post and Guy Herrick asked to see it so...

It's from Bonapartes and is was a very nice piece to paint.
Just for information, the resin had what I believe to be marble dust mixed int it. This makes it harder than plain resin and a bit of a marble feel in your hand. I liked it .
As always, any comments and constructive criticism are welcome and appreciated.
Craig

 

[btavis]

Fabulous whites - please explain your mix.

They use Cold Cast Resin which is quite hard on the drill bits.

 

[garyjd]

Craig, Nice job on the busts. The textured base for Batman compliments the figure well.~Gary

 

[Mongo Mel]

Hi guys,
Thanks for the kind comments. Much appreciated.
Keith, you're close. I actually used Liquitex Parchment OIL paint. I stumbled across a tube once and I'm glad I bought it. I hear that it's not available
anymore .
I undercoated it with the Parchmant and let it dry. Then I painted it with a mix of Parchment and a little Raw umber for average. The shadows are straight Raw Umber and the highlights are Titanium White.
I've heard of Cold Cast Resin but I don't know what it is. Can you explain it to me?
Thanks,
Craig

 

[btavis]

Cold cast resins usually are polyesters with marble or bronze powders in them. They are very hard and can hold detail like porcelain. I believe they are more expensive castings.

 

[quang]

Bob,

I may be wrong but AFAIK, polyester resins are CHEAPER than polyurethane, and 'charged' (with filler powders: marble, metal,...) polyester even more so.

Polyester also has a longer curing time (24 hours) as opposed to urethane's (40 -60 minutes). The longer curing time allows the air bubbles to go up and break free by themselves. Cheaper, less powerful equipment can be used.

RTV moulds used with polyester last longer too (about 5 to 10 times more than urethane).

But the major drawback for its use in our hobby is its extreme hardness making the slightest removal of seams even more tedious and irritating than it usually is. Ironically, it's also more prone to accidental breakage (like glass).

We used polyester for our first 100 busts and quickly changed to urethane.

Quang

 

[gordy]

yes the whites are excellent!
It looks like a very "cool" white (blueish) versus a "warm" white (yellowish) and quite striking

 

[garyjd]

The drapery on this bust is very very good. I would think when a painter has a high quality piece such as this, You can't help but do a good job. It almost seems to paint itself.~Gary

 

[btavis]

Originally posted by quang@Nov 8 2003, 05:18 AM
I may be wrong but AFAIK, polyester resins are CHEAPER than polyurethane, and 'charged' (with filler powders: marble, metal,...) polyester even more so.

You probably know more about it than I do but I do remember a sculptor friend of mine telling me that the use of cold cast with real bronze powders became prohibitively expensive and some ersatz bronze powders were being used to lower the cost.

Yes, it is also very brittle. I wonder why Bonapartes is using it.

 

[MSzwarc]

Beautiful job, Craig. I'm still many years away from a paint job like that, I'm afraid.

Quang, Thanks for the info on resins. Every little bit helps us to learn about this interesting hobby and its infinite possibilities.

Mike Szwarc

 

[quang]

Mike,

Like you, I find the technical facets of the hobby fascinating and quite worthy of investigation.

Bob,

What your sculptor friend was talking about is the filler, not the resin.

Most of the readily available 'bronze' fillers are in fact a mix of aluminium, brass and graphite powders in varying proportions. The aim is to give the resin the COLOUR of bronze. The result is 'bronze'-tinted resin and a little heavier than plain resin. To the touch, it's as 'warm' as resin.

In the case of fine arts (which I guess your friend deals with), cold-cast bronze is actual bronze powder/dust with the polyester resin acting as a medium/bonder. The result is almost as heavy and as cold to the touch as real bronze. When properly done, cold-cast bronze can be polished and chemically aged (patina) like real bronze.

The confusion between the two is carefully maintained by some manufacturers who, indeed, use the cheaper variety.

Quang

 

[Guy]

Thanks Quang,
Like you, I find the technical aspects extremely interesting in our hobby....and believe me, I have learned alot today...

Guy

 

[Richard E]

Go away for a few days, and I miss loads ????, Craig that is a wonderful job on the bust, and an inspired choice of colour for the robe. It puts my version to shame.

Richard