I was wondering about maybe trying something and thought I would ask if anyone else had tried it and if so did it work.

It occurred to me that I would really like a paperweight of a model (Maybe 1/72 or 1/48) encased in acrylic resin in a flying position over an aerial photograph but I am not sure if such a thing is possible....... Has anyone ever tried this?

I've seen clear resins available in art shops, but I think the trick would be getting a model to 'float' inside it. Gravity would make it sink while it was still in a liquid state. Only way around that would be to build it up in gradual layers, but would those layers be visible and spoil the whole thing when its set?
I vaguely remember a similar discussion over on Model Shipwrights forum about the possibility of doing a submarine in the same way. The general consensus was that it would be very hard to do.

It doesn't seem very easy — maybe not bad at 1/72 though. Here are a couple of recent threads on a similar topic. Two of the biggest hurdles seem to be heat and shrinkage.

'Water...Going Deep'

'A Dragon Wagon odyssey' ... Very in depth info. on products and pouring disasters/successes.

HTH.

—mike

Casting absolutely clear resin block to look like air is quite tricky - mostly because of air bubbles and clarity second. Bubbles are easy to hide in water dioramas and hard to spot as water is mostly murky. Quite different story with air - you gotta be spotless in execution. Clarity of types of resin differs - you'll need to find resin that dries as you expect (plexiglass like), without a hint of yellow (most "clear" resins are yellowish). You probably want the stuff used for insects and jewelry.

You won't want to pour resin in all at once - most resins are poured in layers (1/4-1/2") to harden correctly. The mold and release agent are very important - I suspect you want clear walls to view the plane, so both need to be executed flawlessly. Some cast resins can be sawed, sanded and clear coated to provide good clarity, though I have no experience with that.

Bubbles can be defeated with casting at ideal temperature per product, correct mixture and stirring catalyst evenly. Poured resin is not like water, so you'll need to make sure it flows into every opening of the plane (more like goops into). Some resins shrink just a bit as they harden - crushing any fragile parts that have air trapped, maybe twisting some, pulling away or warping your mold.

The volume... You need quite a bit of resin to cast a 1/48 plane, especially height wise and time. When pouring layers, you can't pour over a layer of still wet resin but you also can't pour over already fully hardened (or you get striations). As I've mentioned, most resins won't harden if poured thicker than 1/2", so you gotta constantly mix new batches while pouring... With 30-40 minutes between pours, allocate the time of 1/2" until you get the desired height.

Resin stinks to high heaven, so pour in well ventilated place with fume protection mask. Some resins are odorless, but I don't trust them as you are still inhaling bad juju even if it passes the sense of smell.

Resin will break weak molds and goop right out, inadequate release agent will stick mold to your cast - I would recommend doing small scale trials to get the technique down.

There is also the cost - in the US, cheapest resin to suspend a 1/48 plane will probably run up 50-60 bucks, really clear stuff probably more.

Sauce - I did a number of swampy water dio scenes and it's not easy even to get the easy stuff... With murky water you can add blockers (so you are saving expensive resin with cheap filler), add dies and elements. Top of the water is usually done over with a layer of glue-like gel. Unless there is some wonder product that I don't know about, casting resin is a real pucker of a ride . I've tried 3-4 brands and while different, each had something that didn't quite work. They all ate up large chunk of my modeling cash though.

Hmmm upon reading these articles I think I will cease from even considering such an idea It seems an extremely time consuming and expensive experiment to pursue and could potentially destroy the model in the process. I had been reading how to's on the polyester resin and the mention of heat generation had been my major concern as I would suspect that if it heats significantly the model would become a melted mess but add into the mix shrinkage enough to crack the hull of the other chaps LCM3 and I reckon a fragile little biplane would be toast. I don't think getting the aircraft into a suitably aerobatic attitude would be a problem if casting the resin in layers but I think all the other factors would make it nigh on impossible to achieve success.

.......Oh well maybe a bipe snowglobe would be the way to go

Why not get a 3D laser engraved paperweight. You just send a photo and the do the rest. Here’s a link to a nice sized, reasonably priced piece. Figure a 1/72 fuselage length of 4(ish) inches, that should be just about right for that piece. I’ve been wanting to do one of these for one of my own builds for awhile now. Just send the photo and they do the rest. By the time you spend whatever it costs to get the materials, do all the work and not be sure of the outcome I’ll bet that price looks even better.

http://www.goodcount.com/product.php?productid=131&cat=21&page=1

That looks like a neat bit of kit Might just look into getting one done.

What about trying this with one of those metal die-cast models? At the very least the resin wouldn't crush it.

Ah well a big part of it is to have my own handiwork inside the paperweight in a much less delicate form which dosen't have to be locked away and kept safe from the kids