KezyGLA
Arachnoking
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2016
- Messages
- 3,013
So this morning I made my first attempt at casting a couple my deceased Ts in resin so that I could make them immortal.. well not immortal obviously because they are dead. I wanted to see how it goes and I could use them for display.
I read up about it online before giving it a bash and it was all good until when I removed them from the mold tonight. I noticed that that had leaked hemolymph into the resin while the resin was curing .
The page I read about 'preserving insects in resin' did not mention anything about removing the internal stuff. I did think for a moment that I should remove all the internal fluids and fill them back up with something. Though seeing as I knew nothing about casting anything in resin up until yesterday(and the page never mentioned to extract anything from the subject) I thought it would be ok just tossing them in.
I noticed that the colours were kind of drawn from the specimens too. On the left (MM M. Balfouri), the blue had turned brown. On the right (Juvenile female P. cautus) seems more brown but still has some violet shine to it.
So my questions are
1. Does anybody that has done this before have any tips on how to remove the internal fluids and how and what to replace with so the subject keeps it's shape?
2. Is there a specific resin that I can use that won't ruin the colours of the specimens?
I would love to be able to keep my specimens forever so any help is much appreciated.
Here is a photo so you can see how bad I messed up. I will be keeping them anyway, but instead of mantle piece maybe paperweights
First time for everything I suppose
I read up about it online before giving it a bash and it was all good until when I removed them from the mold tonight. I noticed that that had leaked hemolymph into the resin while the resin was curing .
The page I read about 'preserving insects in resin' did not mention anything about removing the internal stuff. I did think for a moment that I should remove all the internal fluids and fill them back up with something. Though seeing as I knew nothing about casting anything in resin up until yesterday(and the page never mentioned to extract anything from the subject) I thought it would be ok just tossing them in.
I noticed that the colours were kind of drawn from the specimens too. On the left (MM M. Balfouri), the blue had turned brown. On the right (Juvenile female P. cautus) seems more brown but still has some violet shine to it.
So my questions are
1. Does anybody that has done this before have any tips on how to remove the internal fluids and how and what to replace with so the subject keeps it's shape?
2. Is there a specific resin that I can use that won't ruin the colours of the specimens?
I would love to be able to keep my specimens forever so any help is much appreciated.
Here is a photo so you can see how bad I messed up. I will be keeping them anyway, but instead of mantle piece maybe paperweights
First time for everything I suppose
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