u/The_Metallurgy

I finally had an opportunity to purchase some premium silicon bronze from a company and oh my god what a difference in quality. I did hollow casting only for the 2nd time ever with this, and the detail that came out was astonishing. I can only imagine what I'd get when I practice hollow casting more and get better at it (and also a better vacuum chamber).

Anyways, I added LED lights to most of them which is why I made them hollow and I like how they turned out, especially the skeletal native Americans. Most of the unfilled areas were intentional, but I did have a few areas not fill in which was weird because the high detail and thin areas filled out perfectly. I think it was because of trapped gases/air?

I was able to retain a rainbow patina by heat treating the surface prior to buffing. I'm amazed at how well the color stayed because every other bronze I've cast oxidized too fast to retain the color for very long and washed out pretty quickly. Also, adding protectaclear drastically reduces the color retention (didn't add on the skeletons vs. the others I did). The 2 outer skeletons ended up solid because I forgot to drill holes to vent the plaster, the middle one is hollow.

Lost PLA investment casting method

Lost PLA investment casting method, liver of sulfur for the patina. Melted scrap metal that I alloyed together for the Nordic Gold. I absolutely love this color and it's by far my favorite look. The red and white colors are epoxy resin that I added for effect

I made these statues out of an alloy called ZA-12 which is 88% Zn, 11% Al, 1% Cu. Incredible alloy that I'd recommend to any metal caster. In my ranked spreadsheet, it's #1 and actually higher than yellow brass or silicon bronze as far as casting goes.

I made these statues of Leon Kennedy and Grace Ashcroft from the new Resident Evil Requiem game! I plan on gifting these to their respective voice actors as a big fan of the franchise. The bronze I used was Nordic Gold. Molds were made out of plaster of Paris and play sand.

I made these out of ZA-12 (88% Zn, 11% Al, 1% Cu) with the investment casting method. ZA-12 is actually more difficult to cast than I first thought, because you have to balance the melting point and being too hot. Having a similar specific heat capacity to copper, the thermal conductivity is ~3.3x less so it takes much longer to cool down relative to the flask temperature.