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Looking to try my hand at casting including mold making. Anyone have a source to recommend for quality, reasonably prices supplies?

I use mainly Alumilite ([Admin Edit: Do Not Link To Non-Advertisers, please... Ironically]) - in no small part because they are located within 20 miles of me, which makes reordering a breeze. I know some people who swear by Smooth-On ([Admin Edit: Do Not Link To Non-Advertisers, please... Ironically]). Either are good - basically, just make sure you read the material specs for the rubber and the resin; especially things like pot life for the resin and tear strength for the rubber.

I have used both.

I like smooth on XLS a little better seems to hold up longer than the alumilte molds. But I have some alumilite molds that are 12 years old and they still work.

To make decent things reliably you will need a pressure and vacuum pot - And a compressor/c02 tank to pressurize the pot, and a vacuum pump for the vac chamber

Use quality ingredients, so smooth on mold rubbers - We use dragon skin 10 for all of our molds and smooth cast 305 for all of our pigmented resin - both of them combined with ease release mold spray will get you longer mold life and thus more casts out of each mold so you dont have to pour new molds all of the time

Without the pressure pot, and depending on the model the vacuum chamber you will get sub par results - Which is fine for hobby, but if you want actual results that look good and are not a lot of work to make you will need to invest in the equipment for it

That's a good point, what quality are you shooting for? Fun side project for you or your group, or garage business, or what?

Mostly hobbying and for my group. Although who knows, if I end up with decent product..

I think I'll start with higher quality depending on cost so I don't have to upgrade.

Thanks for all the feedback guys!

I'd recommend you play around with plaster and latex a bit before making a big investment: I've done a bit and realized that it's much harder to make worthwhile designs than it looks, and know I'd have regretted putting in for even a home made pressure kit/resin.