Nothing I've seen on it says that it needs anything. I still give mine a wash - but it's usually to get rid of any stray sanding dust from the mould line removal. It takes primer just fine.
Less durable than metal is main reason I would not buy it. Not long time ago I bought some sets of archon studios miniatures, that was mentioned here, and if CB would use this quality of plastic - I would be fine. (Even due too economy terrible situation the prices for a big and good set of them was lower than Action pack of infinity. (I bought set of 62 miniatures) So, may be it could be possible to make digger boxes at least. But I am not expert here, how prices are working for sure...) For now I am still negative to things with resin in the name. Because of instability and fragility. I don’t like, how easy it is bending while heated. And I got no info about temperatures it becomes unstable. Yet.
Siocast is unaffected by temperatures to be honest, I have not tested this one in extremes, but "cold" temperatures are coming to an end soon here so I can test it.
Would be much appreciated. But I am more worried for hot weather. Anyway, some cold is interesting. Our winter and summer are - 35/+35 (celsium) or more sometime. During winter they would be at home for sure, but +35 or higher... I just dont want to touch miniature and see it deformed a little. But I doubt, I would use it anyway. Siocast for sure. New resin the same way. But I really wantbthem. To be good T-T
Siocast has endured been intentionally left (and then forgotten) on the hot summer sun on a metal table in the peak hours of the midday, so I am confident it can seriously resist heat, I know it has also been baked, but since I was not the one doing that test I cannot give more info than that.
From what @Muad'dib told us quite a while ago, Siocast is, from a chemical point of view, some variant of nylon. As such, there's some variation on the temperatures in which this kind of materials degrade. I don't recal the specifics, but it was in the realm of what you'd need, at the very least, a good oven to reach. Maybe even a furnace. Point is, if the temperature outside gets to the point where it can harm Siocast models, we'd have more pressing matters than the state of our models.
I got a siocast penitent. Two mangled parts, which CB replaced (in record time!!!) then a breakage from pretty much just holding a third part. So this gave me the opportunity to test the material with few solvents and a bit of temperature. Long story short - ethanol, acetone, and a mixture of ethyl acetate and butyl acetate all seemingly had no effect on siocast. Isopropanol, if it had, had quite minimal one, making it a bit softer (which it already is, quite a lot). That last part surprised me, the others - not so much. Heat to about 55 C, for 12+ hours didn't seem to have any effect either. So when it comes to temperature and chemical stability - I'm pretty happy with siocast. Now, its detail quality and mechanical properties are a whole different topic.
@Koni Any update on the actual material composition on these new models? It's been a few weeks since we asked. This is correct, with most nylon grades you would need to heat above 80C to observe any change in stiffness and even then it won't be a significant change until you hit close to 200C
I'm still holding out hope that siocast will be retired as a CB model material. We're quite a few models into its use now, and I'm still seeing mould lines in terible places, and unconvincing detail. I'm sorry, I just don't think the material can hold a candle to metal. These newer plastic resin minis, on the other hand, seem to be of a really decent quality, from the few I've seen up close. Fingers crossed that CB migrates to this superior material instead, and writes off its losses in siocast.
I like siocast, mostly because it make TAG light and easy to transport with magnet, but I hate how fragile it is I received my Lizard last week and the arm with the gun was broken in 4 pieces (front of the gun, back of the gun, arm and munition). I was able to rebuild it using some greenstuff/liquid greenstuff to fill the small gap so I did not ask for a replacement but it could easily become an issue if we get more mini in this material
