[Jason]

Hello Katherine,

I have an old military bullet from my uncle’s time in the military and I wanted to cast it in resin for him as a gift.

However, I wanted to get your advice and input on the best way to go about it – for a couple reasons. I’ve attached a picture so you can see what I’m referring to .
The bullet is a metal projectile, with a plastic casing that helps initially guide the bullet. As you can see from the picture, there are (4) slits down the side of the plastic and as we both know from experience, unless these are sealed, they are going to become pockets of are and I’m going to be left with the dreaded bubbles and a ruined/expensive/rare bullet.

So my question is, what would you do to seal these slits prior to casting?

I have two ideas in mind, but not sure which/if either will work..

The first is to spray the bullet with enough coats of sealant to cover the slit openings.

What kind of spray sealant can I use, that will not bleed from the heat generated by the casting?

I have not had great success with Castin Crafts Acrylic Sealant, so I am looking for something else. Can you offer me some suggestions?

The second option is to just put a dab of resin over each of the (4) slit openings, let them dry, then cast the piece. This may work, but I am not sure if the small dabs of cured resin will show up in the final casting(?).

Thank you Katherine!

Jason
Ballistic Impressions

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Jason,

I like the second option of sealing the cracks with resin better. Using resin on top of resin is always my first choice, but sometimes can’t be done or will ruin the item. In this case, it’s a great way to seal it because I am not worried the bullet will take up water stains. While a little bit tedious, for the best results, I would seal each one in 4 different castings so that you can concentrate on one by making sure it is level and the resin doesn’t run out. If possible, to make sure you don’t have any compatibility issues, I would try to use the same resin for the groove sealing that I was going to cast with.

Now, if you are feeling extra brave, you could use something to suspend the bullet, dip it in resin, then put it on a piece of wax paper to cure. It will puddle resin at the bottom, but you will be able to peel if off when you are done. If you are planning on using a doming resin to cast with, there should be enough surface tension in the grooves to hold enough of the resin in to fill them in. If you are not using a doming resin, this won’t work.

In this case, I don’t think a sealant will work since you need something to place volume in the grooves, not simply seal them.

Let me know how it ends up!

[Jason]

Thank you Katherine, I will let you know how it turns out!

Jason

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