Migo-resin is currently used as a material to make nigh-indistructible constructions from. But could a entroprising survivor use it for other things?
Is it strong and maluable enough that you could make vehicle frames or armour out of it?
Could it be used to make body armour or ballistic plates out off (seems to be fairly bullet resistent)?
Could a survivor file a sharp point onto a resin spike (would be nice for traps)?
It’s very much a question of what its properties actually are.
The description seems to indicate it’s sort of living, and possibly sort of flowing under its own control. If so, it might be self healing and refuse to maintain a point.
Ballistic plates and vehicle armor viability depends on whether it can be molded into smaller “things” than a building, but also how you’d fasten the pieces, as drilling holes seems to be rather difficult. The same issue goes for frames, as you’d hardly be able to weld frames together, even if you would be able to shape the resin into a frame (on the other hand, resin might “glue” itself to other resin parts automagically).
Think of it like concrete. It’s strong because it’s thick (there’s a lot of it). There’s some minor help from it being alive, but for other uses than construction, ask if you can use concrete for the same purpose. If you can use concrete, maybe you can use this?
Mi-go resin is, to my mind, fairly different from concrete in that it’s much stronger (and thus less is used/lower thickness: you don’t need that many pods for construction), and seems to be much more flexible than concrete, so force applied to it typically gets distributed and dispersed, which concrete shatters (not all in one go, but each blow chips away at the material).
However, I agree that resin may well be used for similar construction purposes as concrete, such as e.g. ramps, and possibly bridges.
If resin glue itself to itself or other objects than it could function pretty well as a adhesive. Of everything vehicle armour would seems to me the most likely you might use it for. It’s very light compared to steel so you could get away with a armour that is relatively thick. Making poring it into a mold for it easier. It would probably leave you with a nigh indestructable buletproof armour that could be surprisingly easy to repair and maintain as long as you have sufficient resin (aquiring it and getting more would be the hardest part).
edit: Would it also be possible to cut out the resin cages you find in migo structures. I think that they would make a fine armored grill for my car windows given that not even a hulk can get through them.
It’s not. Resin is very strong because it is very thick. The amount of pods used is on account of the whole “it’s alive” thing.
Based on?
You both are attributing many material properties to resin with no basis, particularly when this has come up before, and has been discussed by core developers, leading to the information I am relaying.
Also - it’s alive. If you try to use it as armor, it will grow roots into you. Aside from the poor feasibility of the material as armor due to similar material properties to concrete, it needs nutrients to survive.
From what I gather and have read in previous chats about it, the resin is hard yet brittle and will indeed shatter. Less like uber organic epoxy resin and more akin to a living oyster shell. And yes, living.