Resin-Casting, Chicken Curry, & The Dark Side

I'm currently in the process of building a model city. This project is inspired by my ventures into the world of miniature war-gaming, where I've met a lot of cool folks. These people share one great love, and that is getting together to hang out and play tabletop games.

I've been focusing on building my own armies for Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy in the past couple of years, both great games from Games-Workshop, while dabbling in other games here and there. (but, more on that later)

Today involved my first experiment with resin-pouring. The plan was to make realistic water-effects in the canal of my city diorama. My other goal was to figure out a safe way to work with resin so that I can use it in future projects. After suiting up with respirator, goggles, and gloves, and tarping off the studio floor, I went to work mixing and pouring.

The experiment was a small success. The resin set up very fast, and looked like water for about 5 minutes, and then it went foamy. This was an unexpected outcome, but the resin still solidifed with no other problems. I'm guessing that the resin managed to seap through the protective coat of gesso, dissolving the polystyrene insulation foam underneath. So resin + insulation foam = solidified foamy mess. The irony is that I was trying to make the water in the causeway appear to be grimey and polluted. It definately looks polluted now-- like a caustic green and pink blob. But that's okay. I'll try again later this weekend. I'm building another section of city right now with another canal. To prevent the 'blob' from showing up again, I'm not going to add the insulation foam until after the resin has been poured.

We had dinner at our friends' house tonight: salad, chicken curry, brownies, and good Burgundy wine.

When we got home, we watched Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. The wife fell asleep sometime after the Ewoks showed up, so I was left to ponder the second half of the movie by myself. It still shocks me when Luke Skywalker removes Darth Vader's helmet at the end of the movie-- one of my favorite moments in cinema. It's not even the dialogue between the characters that interests me at this point, it's just Vader's face.