Hi.
What is the difference beteen resin and plastic models, which one is better and which one is cheaper.
Thanks, Tom.

Hi Tom,

First of all, Welcome at Armorama!!
Now for your question:

Resin is a two component paste that is poured in molds, plastic is injected under high pressure in molten form in molds.
Resin has better detail, in most cases that is, but is more expensive than plastic.
Plastic can be glued with normal plastic cement, while resin has to be glued with Cyano Acrylate glue (CA) this is also called super-glue...

Hope this helps, John.

John said it all. Plus that most types of models in armor and vehicles and planes are in plastic. When u go to figures resin and metal is the best while plastic usually have soft details and theyre not worth

The one thing not already mentioned is that Resin can be injected by machine the same as plastic. The main difference is in the type of mold that is used. Also most resins are not a paste (they are liquid) but are two part chemical compounds. Both parts have a limited shelf life as well (about 6 months)

Resin is also very heavy in comparison to Plastic injection stuff. You will normally find that resin kits are short run production for example say 100 to 200 kits (or much less) where as Plastic kits are done in 10000 or more a production run.Resin can also be done reasonably cheaply at home in a garage by one person where plastic injection molding costs a lot.

Tom -a Little warning use a mask when sanding Resin cause the dust is dangerous- just want you around longer mate - We aussies have to stick together LOL
Resin give undercuts and beautiful detail but is fragile som e resin figure use metal parts for these, an also some have brass etch as well fore buckels and spurs
Ian

Is there anywhere on the internet where someone has documented the making of a model from start to finish? I mean from the initial sculpt to the molds being made, poured and then packaged. I think something like that would be pretty neat to see, maybe we need to get the Discovery Channel to do something on this.

Another thing about resin- while plastic kits have parts cut off the sprue, resin usually requires you to cut large the parts off of the blocks left from the casting process. I happen to use a razor saw and a fresh X-acto blade for this. Usually some clean up is required, with your knife and sanding. Maybe a bit of putty here and there. But it's well worth it in the end. Always wear a mask. I always cut and sand resin outside in the garage to keep the dust out of the house.

Welcome 07 and Lcuky. Nice to see new people! A long story short, go with resin if you want to give the most accurate details and money isn't that important. GO for plastic if you are cheap (like me) which isn't bad. Plastic is lower grade of course but cheaper.

Have a look at GC dreamer shows the steps ezcept the actually mould work - about to start on first mould but will not post till I give correct advise- very careful as can be expensive

Nicely put but completely wrong! You can get as good if not better detail with injection moulded plastic and Plastic kits, for example Tamiya & Italeri Kits, are more expensive to produce then resin kits. This is the reason they are mass produced because they need to sell X amount of thousands to get their money back plus make a profit.

Resin kits can be made in your garage by hand without the need to have expensive equipment to do it like Plastic injection molding. They are much more expensive because they are often of obscure subjects that will never be made by injection plastic manufacturers as 10000 kits are not required because 10000 are not needed as the subject is not popular.

the cost in most resin kits is the time put into research and the making of the detailed masters. Then the fact that this cost has to be spread over at most 500 kits and often over 100 kits rather then 10000 kits.

So there we are. Resin kits are cheaper to produce by far but more expensive due to all the other ingrediants and Injection plastic are expensive to produce and only cost effective if large numbers are made and SOLD!

So this is the reason that Tamiya, Dragon, Italeri etc will always do mainly popular subjects like Tigers and all that other German Junk cause most of you guys will buy it. :-) before you buy a British Army 1950 Bedford or any other obsure type vehicle.

cheers
Cliff

hi guys
im just wondering
if u want paint u resin model, do u nedd prime it first ?
thks

Ricky it is better to prime first but not an absolute must. As a lot of my builds end up multi colored with cream resin, white evergreen and green or other colored kit plastic then I normally prime before putting the base color on. This is to try and prevent pre shading the base coat.

Like any material being painted whether kit plastic or resin/brass etc you must make sure it is very clean or paint will not adhere properly.

cheers
Cliff

Stephen and Cliff bot have good points. But when it comes to figures, I find resin gives a better product than plastic. DML plastic figures are nice, but resin figures from Jaguar, Warriors, and Nemrod are better.

Thanks everyone for the information, are there any Australian sites to buy resin kits, or any good hobby shops, because i'm from the country and there aren't many good hobby shops around.