Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[davidwest]

Although nothing to do with the above van, I also, I hope, now have my first "proper" silicone rubber mould set aside curing, after splashing out money for some proper "Phil Traxson approved" materials, via Phil Atkinson's stand at Nottingham show last weekend. It wasn't nearly as easy for me as a beginner, compared to the effortless Traxson demos at shows.........

Does this mean some of your conversions are to be available as kits?

[Atlantic 3279]

Too early to say yes at this stage, although I have it in mind to try to produce one. At this stage I would regard some hollow boiler shapes like the K4 or O4/8 as too difficult, since as far as I can see such shapes (even minus dome, chimney etc) might require at least a three-piece mould - or they would need moulding in separate parts, which would not satisfy me unless they fitted together really well.

[jwealleans]

No-one else has commented on that H & B van, but I'm impressed. That's set a standard for mine to aspire to when I get round to them.

The axleboxes are the ones he sells as 'CR' (CRC005)?

[Atlantic 3279]

Thanks JW. Yes, the 'boxes are CRC005.

[52D]

No-one else has commented on that H & B van, but I'm impressed. That's set a standard for mine to aspire to when I get round to them.

The axleboxes are the ones he sells as 'CR' (CRC005)?

Ive given up commenting on his rebuilds. The saying silk purse from a sows ear comes to mind every time i drop in, his stuff is brilliant.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Yes I've run out of superlatives as well and there's no contest in what I turn out



manna

PS I want to see Atlantic 3279 make a make his namesake out of some cling wrap, sticky back plastic and a cigar tube, oh and I suppose a old 'Nellie' chassis............. no rush, but tomorrow will do

[Atso]

I agree with Manna about 3279 - tomorrow will be fine with me as well - I can wait!!!

[Atlantic 3279]

Although this might equally well belong in the Resin Casting topic at
resin-casting-t4792s15.html
I am now pleased to say that having left a resin casting of a full van side in the mould overnight, I have been able to extract it this morning without any sagging/sinking/rippling of the thin un-supported areas, as occurred when I took a previous cast out after the nominal 20 minute normal initial curing time. All detail is crisply captured, including corner straps, bolt heads, small brackets and even a set of fine moulded-on handrails that I left on the cut-and-shut master that I used, just to see if the resin duplication technique was up to the job. Flash is wafer thin and peels away easily without use of tools. The only defect on this second casting, which will spot fill, is a curious ragged line of fine (bubble) holes, making it look as if the van side has provoked a local Chicago-style gangster to open his violin case and fire off a short burst........

[Atlantic 3279]

First successful full-side resin mouldings done and a dry-run assembly to test the result. I also plan to mould some without the handrails, to allow easy fitting of wire ones instead. I'm not yet sure whether to mould outer ends and modified doors in resin too. It's a case of trying to balance the cost and time involved in making the moulds against the number of parts I'm likely to produce. If a lot of other people were interested in having Toad E sides and ends, to combine with a Dapol Toad D kit, then a mould would be viable. I don't yet have any plans to mould the shortened floor, solebars and stepboards, nor the full inner ends. That really would push up costs, and the modifications to the Dapol parts in these area are not that hard to do, with time and care. Also, some might prefer to see metal stepboards fitted. In any case, I think copying of the whole of the Dapol-owned design, even in modified form, would be a bit cheeky. If I simply do sides and ends, those facilitate an extra sale for Dapol. If I do the lot I potentially rob them of a sale.......

Not easy to take good pictures of an almost plain white surface with an auto-focus camera, it would seem.

The Milky-Bars are on me.............

[Atso]

That casting looks good Greame! I take it you used a two part mould to get the recessed detail behind the ducket rather than opening casting it. What did you use to break up the surface tension? I was recommended talc but never had great success with it...

[Atlantic 3279]

Yes Steve, the desire for the hollow ducket to open up the view into the van, and to a lesser extent the desire to reproduce the locating ledges on the inside face of the side, led to the production of the two-piece mould. I'll admit fully that there was also of course the desire to find out whether I could do a more complex moulding successfully too.
I didn't do anything to break down the surface tension - have I missed something as I'm not sure where that would be necessary? I simply used Phil Traxson's recommended "Wacker" silicone rubber and "RAKU-TOOL" casting resin. My release agent, on the master part, the moulding box, and on the first-half mould in readiness for making the second half, was Morrison's aerosol furniture polish with beeswax (and lavender.......)

[Atso]

The idea behind using a spray mould release to break up surface tension is to prevent bubbles forming within the casting. Youtube has some videos on the process but its not something I've tried yet as my own casting stuff has expired so I'll need to buy some more resin. I've no idea how well this would work but seem an interesting method to try and prevent bubbles.

I'll have to try the furniture polish next time as it sounds more user friendly than vasaline (and won't harm the mould either!).

[Atlantic 3279]

After scrubbing off possible silicone residues with kitchen cream-cleaner and a toothbrush, applying a light "revealing" coat of red-oxide aerosol promer, spot filling any little defects and then applying more primer, my Toad E sides are a little more amenable to photography. Again I've done a dry run of the van, held together with tape, to show the expected final look. I've also slimmed down the plastic "angle iron" stanchions on the ends by means of a bit of filing, and I have centre-popped the ends in guide positions for further handrails. I've marked two similar, but slightly different heights for these. The lower pair of pop marks line up with the moulded Airfix/Dapol handrails, which are about 1mm below the bottom edge of the pressed ducket on the van side. The higher pair of marks actually line up with the bottom edge of the ducket, and this is where photos and drawings show that any new wire handrails ought to be fitted if using the "plain" sides that I shall also make:

[Atlantic 3279]

Not much of an update, I know, not even any pictures to illustrate the point (blame it partly on the man &/or bird &/or swine flu that I've been suffering for the last ten days or so) but I have now managed to cast successfully in resin half a dozen Toad E sides without handrails, and my first couple of Toad E ends based on the masters shown above i.e. with integral headstocks, short angle-iron stanchions, lamp irons, and some useful features on the inside faces too. In order to make full use of the mould for the outer end, I also arranged it to cast a solid planked cabin door as a separate item, within the aperature provided by the verandah end look-out.

[Atlantic 3279]

Although these pictures are again cursed by the problem of photographing a white surface, they do give some idea of what I've been up to.
Here's an outside face of an end, and a cabin door. I've left the mouldesd handrails on the edges of the end to suit my mate who wants to build a couple of vans using the original moulded features. The exposed position of the rails makes it easy top trim them off to suit my requirement for wire replacements. The resin will not find its own way into the projecting bases of the lamp irons, it has to be "wriggled" in with a tiny screwdriver blade, making sure that the air bubble has gone, before the main resin pour. The same tends to apply to the handle on the door:

Here's a side, without handrails. With a dozen holes for rails to drill, per side, and half a dozen sides cast, it was great advantage to find that half of the holes had moulded "all the way through", copying the master, and that all of the others were at least part-depth or showing as dimples, making drilling out in the correct positions quick and easy. In order to save on rubber, I made the face-side mould for this version of the side using the same rear-side mould as had been used for the original sides with moulded handrails. The only possible drawback to this is that the second parting of the moulds caused quite a lot of damage around the edges, so it will not now be possible to re-unit the original pair of mould halves to make any more sides with moulded rails unless I make a new mould. Well at least I cast a couple of spares .......

Here are the rear faces of the parts. The side as you may be able to see has all of the necessary fitting ridges, the notches on the upper ends to suit the original Airfix rebate joint that makes the upper corner of the van, the hollow ducket, and some projecting stubs of feed-holes and breather holes for the two part mould. The end has the two raised joint lugs on the top corners, the inner face planking, the notches for the bottom corner body joints, and the thin headstock ends with little pieces of solebar extension on their rear faces to eliminate the gap that would otherwise result at the end of the solebar if cut down to give the proper scale wheelbase