I am wanting to purchase a model with Cast Resin parts. What exactly is Cast Resin? Can anybody help?
The resin is cast in open molds and this can result in uneven thickness of wall sections and holes (air bubbles) in the casting surface. The thickness can make joining at corners difficult. Some filing is required to made a good square fit. Detail is usually good and results in a fine model if you do it right. Resin kits are usually limited run of prototypes that will most likely never be mass produced. This may be your only way to get a model of the prototype you want.
Some of the most accurate kits are resin-Westerfield -F&C-Wrighttrak etc.The new kits are often one piece bodies(not cast in open molds!) and are excellent. They are not as easy as plastic but often have better and more accurate detail. They generally are more expensive,require more time and skill to build. There have been many threads about them. Also most of the manufacturers have web sites.
As others have said, some resin kits can be more difficult to build than plastic kits, but not always. Some resin structure kits, like those by SLM and Main Street Heritage are of extremely high quality. I would rank the kits by SLM as some of the finest kits I have ever seen of any type - plastic, wood or resin. So it all depends on the brand you are interested in purchasing.
Jim
Resin casting are castings that are made of 2 liquids (resin & hardner) when combined transform into a hard plastic-like material. The most well known Resin material is Epoxy. Another is fiberglass, which also containss glass fibers for additional stength. The most common used to cast model parts is Urathane resin.
This hand poured process is often used for low production/high quailty kits and parts with silicon molds. This is a “cold” process
Styrene plastics require steel hot injection molds and are very expensive. To recover investment costs, a manufacturer must produce thousands of pieces generally.