UK supply of wheels/tyres

I've had no experience of using rubber moulds and very little experience of moulding in any medium. Nevertheless, I did have some success with a simple technique in the mid-1970's that might help.

I was scratch building a Morris-Commercial CS8 15cwt lorry in 1/32nd scale and neded four suitable wheels for it. Having nothing of the right size, I borrowed a set of wheels from a 1/35th scale kit of a CMP gun tractor. To produce the wheels for the lorry, I used Plasticine to make one-shot moulds and a liquid resin from a car accessory shop for the wheels. The resin was sold for car repairs, didn't seem to be hazardous in use and dried hard overnight. In case you're not familiar with it, Plasticine is a form of modelling clay that softens when warmed, hardens on cooling but can be softened again and reused as often as needed. It may not be sold under that name now but appears in toy shops under various names.

I began by softening a large piece of Plasticine, thicker than the wheel. I sprinkled talcum powder onto the wheel to prevent the Plasticine form sticking to it then pressed the wheel into the Plasticine, folding the excess material round the sides of the tyre and a little way round the back. I then gently opened out the Plasticine, just enough to release the wheel from the mould, and sprinkled the inside of the mould liberally with talcum powder to act as a release agent. The Plasticine was then bent back to shape at the edges to form a mould which was open at the back. The resin was then poured into the mould and left to cure.

The following day, the resin was set hard and the Plasticine was easily removed. This destroyed the mould but the material was reusable and, once I had seen that the technique worked, I made three moulds and cast the remaining three wheels in one batch. The sole drawback was that there was no detail on the backs of the wheel hubs but I didn't find that it mattered too much.

This is probably not a suitable technique for mass production but might meet your needs if you only want a few wheels for a specific project.

Gordon McLaughlin

Hi, Well not sure these will help but, These are here in the states;

Supplies

Supplies and how to's

From a guy that has done it;

The following is a report on my first attempts at resin casting. I apologize for the length, but, I'm trying to make it as easy as possible for those modelers who think it is too difficult.

Hope they help. Mike

-- If you think there is good in everybody, you haven't met everybody.

Hello Gordon, Thanks for your reply. I have something similar to plasticine but did not warm the stuff first when I tried to press the tyres into it, so will give it another try. The only problem is that the rubber tyres are fairly flexible, so I think I will assembly one tyre and rim and see how I get on. Regards Geoff

Hello Mike, Thanks for the reply and web site addresses. Great help. I do have Aluminite resin. Regards Geoff

Play Doh is better than plastacine - softer, non tack and water washable from the masters

Ian