Thank you for choosing Hearns Workshop (HWS) for your hobbying needs! We are both proud and excited to be Australia’s first hobby shop based company providing high quality, in-house designed and manufactured hobby parts and accessories!

Each HWS product is printed in-house using UV light curing resin techniques. Each piece or kit is manufactured ‘on demand’ with a typical lead-time of between 2-5 days (as of September 2020).

Whilst SLS technology is currently the most versatile and highest resolution manufacturing technique available (short of injection mould processes), it is not the same at injection moulding. The technology comes with limitations, and we encourage you to understand those limitations, learn how to work with the material, and decide for yourself whether it’s the product for you.

WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD – Model contains small parts. Not suitable for children under 3 years.

What should I expect?

Supports and Rafts

Each piece or kit is supplied with supporting material and/or raft(s) still attached. Whilst every reasonable precaution has been taken to deliver your product intact, some features of your HWS product are fractions of a millimetre in size making it impossible for us to guarantee that all the supports and the parts they attach to will be delivered intact.

Dislodged Parts

Small parts can often be easily dislodged during transit, so as a precaution we often will print spares or multiples. The vast majority of the time dislodged parts will be perfectly usable with a little cleanup. Again, this is perfectly normal and you should expect to have to deal with this from time-to-time. A dislodged part does not indicate a defective product.

Warping

Because of the characteristic of the resin curing cycle, some warping of the model - especially in parts exhibiting thin or challenging geometries - can occur. While all care has been taken to minimise the possibility, this is normal and not a sign of a faulty product.

Bonding

During manufacturing, each part is ‘grown’ using multiple UV light cured and fused layers of resin. Depending on many factors such as geometry and orientation, sometimes these layers can be visible in the form of ‘banding’. This is a completely normal part of the technology, and whilst every effort has been made to eliminate this, it can still occur.

Semi-Cured Resin / Fillets

You may notice some shiny or ‘gloss looking’ areas on your model. On occasion there could be some residue of resin, giving some small areas a glossy look. This is a perfectly normal part of our production process. You can either just paint straight over them, but if you are concerned about how those areas will take to sanding, you can attempt to matt those areas off by exposing them to direct sunlight or UV. Although super rare, if you find some wet resin in or on your piece, you can wash it off by using Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA), or if you wish to cure it, a few hours in the sun should do the trick.

How do I finish and prep my parts?

If you are familiar with working with cast resin kits and aftermarket parts, you’ll be familiar with finishing and preparing your purchased parts - the materials and techniques are essentially the same.

Sanding and Cutting

Anything that will sand or cut a cast resin or injection moulded PS or ABS should be suitable for sanding of cutting resin parts. However, please keep in mind that resin dust can be an irritant, so please take adequate precautions, use the appropriate PPE, etc.

Bonding

The various types of Cyanoacrylate (CA or ’Super Glues’) have proven best for bonding HWS parts to other parts, or to injection moulded PS or ABS parts. UV light curing ‘glues’ as well as epoxy resin glues can also be effectively used. We recommend you experiment for yourself to see what works best for you.

Filling

Any of the regular hobby-grade fillers and putties can be used on our resin manufactured parts.

Surface Refurbishing

Because the parts are manufatured in layers, sometimes they can exhibit ‘banding’, as described above. If you wish to eliminate any visible banding, we recommend sanding with approx. 600-1000 grit sandpaper or sanding sponges until you get the desired finish. Once you have done so, prime the surface with a primer-surfacer to get a succesful base coat, or otherwise if your sanding, and repeat as needed. After you have achieved a satisfactory finish, you can then paint as you would any other plastic model kit.

IF YOU PURCHASE ONE OF OUR PRODUCTS, EXPECT THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO DO SOME WORK TO IT TO BRING IT UP TO FINISH QUALITY. THEY ARE NOT READY FOR PAINTING STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOX.