Casting

I should have added that the Smooth-On products are the ones I use in general, Cheers, Bill.

mornin'

Building a cityscape for my railway is proving to be very interesting, albeit a bit slow simply because of the sheer number of buildings required. I've started to think about taking castings of various parts of kits that I have lying around, with a view to creating small (say 4in x

I've only every done very small castings in the past and mostly stuff that was somewhat curvy, whereas if I attempt this new project I will need the castings themselves to be very flat and very square (oblong!).

Has anyone got any experience of casting and can pass on some hints and tips of materials to use, or point me in the direction of some helpfull websites etc?

TIA Pete

Hi Pete,

Might be considered a bit naughty in that you'd be someone else's work, certainly frowned upon in the wargaming world ... as though it's never happened. ;-)

What material are you considering using?

If it's straightforward stuff such as window frames, doors, chimneys etc in some form of white (soft metal) then bog standard hand casting will do the job ... if anything does distort as you pull it from the mould just push it square again against a hard surface.

unknown at the mo to be honest! I've worked with concrete and plaster for some large scale stuff (many moons ago) and I've used some resin and rubber bought from a local craft shop to cast small items, but I've never considered casting wall panels before, and am just thinking out loud in the hope someone can give me a shove in the right direction :)

I'll check the link out, thanks for that.

Pete

In message , mutley writes

Have a look at

I am in a similar position to yourself iwth the need to create a lot of City Structures. I have just read an article in Model Railroader (July 2001) which gives a method of doing this usring latex molds and modeling plaster.

If you can't find a copy e-mail me.

RichC

The linka Model Building system was based around casting your own plaster of paris with rubber moulds. Each mould could make(on average) 6 interlocking wall sections per casting. (+ there was moulds for trim parts such as church doors, log cabins, roofs / chimneys..... even down to the plastic drainpipes. I've been told that they moved to the US. I've seen a few sets on e-bay recently....

Craig

Excellent stuff. I always drool when I see DPM stuff in the Walthers catalogue. Unfortunately, and I never mentioned it so apologies, I'm modelling Japanese (I know, I know, it's a UK forum!) and there are very few brick built buildings in Japan because of the earthquake risk.

Thanks anyway.

Pete

Will do, thanks for the offer. I think our local Craftworld has leaflets on casting so I'm going to try there next and see what I can find.

thanks for your help Pete

I have to say I've never liked the Linka stuff, don't know why, but it's not for me.

Thanks for your help though, Pete

How about this.

1. Use latex to make a mould from the brickwork etc.
2. Cast from this mould in plaster of paris.
3. Lay the DRY plaster of paris on a flat surface (face up).
4. Build a dam all the way round it.
5. Pour resin over the plaster of paris and lay some gauze bandage on the top and prod it in.
6. When the resin has gone off, scrape the plaster of paris away.
7. You now have a stamp that you can repeatedly press into large sheets of clay or semi- hard plaster of paris etc to make whatever size sheets of brickwork you want.

If you want to be clever, you can also mould a handle on the back.

Simon k

As a matter of intrest are the Lilliput Lane range plaster or some form of resin?