MouldmasterPlaster of Paris 2.5kg Plaster of Pairs Tub, Off White

This is nice quality plaster of Paris and the plastic tub means it stays nice and dry when storing.I found the plaster solution itself easy enough to make, though you do need to add a fair old bit to water when making the plaster solution, (just keep adding the powder to the water, carefully, like you were added sifted flower, without stirring, until you start to see little mountains forming on the top of the water which do not sink). Getting rid of all the air bubbles in the casts was a bit tricky.I eventually found a combination of; (1) not stirring until all the powder had been (carefully) added to the water and leaving it to soak for about a minute, (2) stirring in a way that minimised adding air to the mix (a flat wooden stick, stirring in one direction, not removing it from the plaster while mixing), (3) allowing the mixture to stand for a minute or so after mixing + tapping sides of container firmly to help bring any trapped air to the top, (4) half filling a mould with plaster (and by pouring as close to the top of the mould as possible and letting it "slide in" down one side, (like pouring a beer into a glass) to minimise air bubbles) then squeazing it to remove any air pockets, before carefully filling to the top and (6) once full tapping the sides of the mould or its flange, together, pretty much irradicated bubbles altogether. (Took me a few goes, mind!)I found plaster of Paris rather soft, powdery and brittle when making casts in latex moulds. Even using the trick of putting talc (or washing up liquid - though be careful with this, as it slowly degrades the latex mould over time) on the outside of the mould to stop it sticking to itself as you peel it back, I found the plaster very brittle and quite often lost little parts of the cast, as they just broke away as I attempted to demould them. No matter how careful I was.Secondly, the casts themselves, well fully dried, felt light and insubstantial, a bit chalky to the touch and were rather easily chipped or broken, if knocked over.You can add polymers to strengthen plasters and make them more robust (I tried SP201, which works well, but, frankly it ain't cheap and adding polymers to plaster mixes just seems like too much of a faff and suggested to me I needed a stronger plaster to begin with, rather than adding stuff to strengthen a weak one).Doing a bit of homework, I decided to test out a few other plasters instead and see how they behaved.I looked at three others; "stonecast", "crystacal-R" and "cassini" plaster. I found all of these much better than plaster of Paris to use. Cassini was the hardest when fully cured and the most dense (giving pieces cast from it a nice weighty feel). I had no problem making detailed pieces in moulds, including chess pieces, and no issues when demoulding. It cures to a very attractive, stone like, ivory colour. I think pieces made from this look very good without any further detailing, beyond a simple lacquer finish, but they can easily be painted or dyed too. The fully cured plaster seems a pretty water resistant, so I suspect this could be used for outdoor work.Overall, I found stonecast and crystacal-R, in particular, good for general casting and painting. If you want something with a bit more "presence", Cassini works well. (I also found that other "alpha plasters" like "Herculite LX", "Alpha K" or "Prestia Expression" are all very hard, dense, alternatives, so there are lots of options to choose from).Just to give a sense of the different densities of some of the different plasters, I cast the same zombie piece in plaster of Paris, stonecast, crystacal R and Cassini plasters (see photo). I also cast the figure in fast cast polyurethane resin, for comparison. After leaving the plaster figures to fully cure and to a steady weight, I found the plaster/resin figures weighed the following;Plaster of Paris - 149gPolyurethane resin - 160gStonecast plaster - 190gCrystacal-R plaster - 210gCassini plaster - 240g

Value for money, so easy to use

Great item I used to make a base for my sweet tree did the job perfectly and held up my ‘tree head’ of forrero rochers 😍😍I found it gave you just enough time to get things into place before setting enough so that I could let go of the stick, but at the same time still had enough time to be able to adjust slightly if needed. If thy makes senseI would buy again when needed

Good quality

This is fantastic. It was used for so much moulding. Excellent product, really good for my daughter, an art student, and so easy to use.

Good value, nice and smooth, quick delivery. Only slight *gah* is the lid is not easy to get off, you kinda have to peel it, BUT means if you drop the tub, lid is less likely to come off.

Didn't work as well as I wanted

I actually used this to make my own chalk paint. Worked really well & did the job. Thanks :)