Bearwood West Yard

Update on the MXA boxes and Osprey Stanchions: (copied and pasted from my workbench thread) Last night I received the laser cut pattern boxes and plates, so I spent yesterday evening making them. Made from 5mm Perspex and to my own specification, they should be robust to last a good few years and will save me a lot of time and effort in preparation work. These have been superglued together for the time being. The pattern plates have been cut to take a 0.3mm clearance. I need to order the Aluminium plate and round bar that will be used to make the ejection rig. Anyway, I've taken a few pictures of the two mould boxes sizes to give an update as to where I'm at. I plan to pour the first silicone half tonight. I have also received the Osprey Stanchion samples and I'm rather pleased with how they have turned out. These are printed in 3 parts, with 5 required for each wagon. I have lined the samples up against less accurate scratch built versions from about 18 months or so ago, using what I had at the time. Unlike the MXA box, I have not quite yet prepared any samples for an initial resin cast. That's all for now.

Update on the MXA boxes and Osprey Stanchions: Last night I received the laser cut pattern boxes and plates, so I spent yesterday evening making them. Made from 5mm Perspex and to my own specification, they should be robust to last a good few years and will save me a lot of time and effort in preparation work. These have been superglued together for the time being. The pattern plates have been cut to take a 0.3mm clearance. I need to order the Aluminium plate and round bar that will be used to make the ejection rig. Anyway, I've taken a few pictures of the two mould boxes sizes to give an update as to where I'm at. I plan to pour the first silicone half tonight. I have also received the Osprey Stanchion samples and I'm rather pleased with how they have turned out. These are printed in 3 parts, with 5 required for each wagon. I have lined the samples up against less accurate scratch built versions from about 18 months or so ago, using what I had at the time. Unlike the MXA box, I have not quite yet prepared any samples for an initial resin cast. Thats all for now

I believe Cav has 3D printed a Perch in N, though his thread hasn’t been updated since 2016. I’ve built a Porpoise in OO and am currently in the process of finishing the stabling wagons and scratchbuilding the manipulator gantry. Dapol did announce welded rail wagons of a sort before the 2010 management change, along with MLA wagons but these never materialised. I have had the MLA on AutoCAD for a while, waiting for covid to pass so I can get some dimensions.

Indeed, Cambrian make their own bogies however Tim has outsourced the pattern making so is only involved in the production. I don’t know if he made the master as I’m not involved. Without WW having their own bogies to offer, they can only suggest the closest alternative, right or wrong. Tim has sold out on his first batch so I can’t say whether they’re good or not, as I don’t model the areas his products are used in.

I don’t know too much about Tim’s work as I’m not associated with WW, though I am a good friend of his. All I can say is that Tim as a keen modeller has attempted to recreate the wagon and chosen the resin/silicone moulding route as production. From what I’m aware of, he runs WW in his spare time and had stated from the outset that he would be providing the wagon as a raw kit, no different to Cambrian in that respect.

Tim has begun selling his IHA's and I believe they are quite popular. I don't believe he is on RMweb but I'm certain he has contact information on the Waterside Wagons facebook page which is searchable via google without a facebook account. Jordan

Its now February and things have moved on a bit! I have on block release to college from work for the lase three weeks, however due to the lockdown this is all now remote from home. It has had its benefits especially when using my old commute time for extra modelling activities. The mould in the last upload from the 10th of January was not successful and I have shelved the exercise to resin cast salmon parts, mainly due to allocating resources elsewhere. More to come on that later. 3D Printed YSA/YKA Osprey Stanchions: I mentioned these in late December 2020 and since then, they are currently sat with my commissioned studio for 3D printing. The initial samples quote for just 8 wagons worth was more expensive than expected, however that does not necessarily rule out a production run. It may just require a change of production method. I have attached some conceptual imagery on a base made to look like an Osprey. More on that when I receive the samples. Resin Cast MXA Boxes: Something I mentioned in the last update was the plans to convert my Ospreys into MXA's as they were based on Bachmann BDA's as 3cm to short donor wagons. With a lack of dimensions publicly available for the boxes, I put my Welded Rail Train skills of trial, error and a metric tonne of photographs in to action. It was a relatively simple build, with dimensions based on a Bachmann BDA, with box overhangs and height/spacings proportioned from photographs. For a 'rivet counter' such as myself, I'd consider it as close as I'll get! Well... I might have made more than one attempt... MXA box sales Anyway, I produced the one box to save my precious plastic sheet and strip. I will be using this box as a master so I can resin cast the 7 boxes I need. The silicone moulds will have a life-span of 50-60 castings before they start to perish, so there is scope for these to be saleable. I may even tool a second mould if they prove popular, though I would only sell these as raw castings. Mainly as I lack the appropriate facilities to conduct batch painting, as well as keeping costs minimal and affordable. More on this when my laser cut mould containers are picked up and the silicone casting commences. Cambrian Salmons I have purchased the first of two batches of 4x Cambrian Salmons for Osprey conversion, though these will most likely take a while to arrive as the Flangeway ready to run Salmons have just landed are in the middle of a catastrophic under-size scandal. With the return of these models and lots of Cambrian orders placed, I'm not expecting the salmons to arrive any time soon. The Bachmann BDA's I had previously resprayed into Salmons are now going through a jar of IPA to strip all the paint, fresh for respray into MXA's. The first model will probably be complete some time around early March to showcase the first MXA and the quality of the castings as well as how well they take paint. Thats all for now. - Jordan

I'm not forgetting anything considering that I would not make such a comment without living in such a way you state. I built a highly detailed wagon from scratch whilst doing rotational shift work as a fitter, adding overtime and college work to that. It used to be chaotic, hot and extremely busy, and with the fatigue that used to set in it was very much a "do I really want to do it" attitude when an hour of spare time came about. It took me a full year from start to finish under such conditions, and if I can do it with an hour here and there... don't tell me it can't be done. There will always be ready to run products but that should not make people shy away from kits and scratch building like it is.

It may seem that way Shane. As humans, we are naturally lazy and I feel as if this has fuelled a ready to run reliance. It may be a controversial view but I find that there would be much more kit and scratchbuilding if there wasn't a reliance on ready to run products. I couldn't scratch build 20 months ago, but self taught and I'm there now. Its all about willing, something again that is down to human nature. Its why I personally don't buy the 'I cant scratchbuild' argument unless medical records dictate.

Well February is here and surprise, a bit more has been achieved. I've been at home for a fortnight now on block release from work to do virtual college, so I've had that an hour or two extra a day for research, organisation and bits here and there. 3D Printed YSA/YKA Osprey Stanchions: Although I mentioned these in a previous update and one CAD has been seen on my workbench thread (do check it out if you haven't already), these have progressed significantly and are currently sat with my commissioned studio for 3D printing. The initial samples quote for just 8 wagons worth was more expensive than expected, however that does not necessarily rule out a production run and may require a change of production method. More on that when I receive the samples. Resin Cast MXA Boxes: Something I had wanted to do for a little while now was make some MXA's for the layout. With a lack of dimensions publicly available, I put my Welded Rail Train skills of trial, error and a metric tonne of photographs in to action. It was a relatively simple build, with dimensions based on a Bachmann BDA, box overhangs and height/spacings proportioned from photographs. For a 'rivet counter' such as myself, I'd consider it as close as I'll get! Well... I might have made more than one attempt... Anyway, I produced 1 box which sits nicely on my cut-down BDA. To save my precious plastic sheet and strip, I will be using this box as a master so I can resin cast the 7 boxes I need. The silicone moulds will have a life-span of 50-60 castings before they start to get tired, so there is scope for these to also be saleable. I may even tool a second mould if they prove popular, though I would only sell these as raw castings. Mainly as I lack the appropriate facilities to conduct batch painting, as well as keeping costs minimal and affordable. More on this when my laser cut mould containers are picked up and silicone casting commences. More Static Grassing: Well, the large sand bank next to the cutting bridge is no more. It would seem that the vegetation of the heathland has overgrown it! A bit of The Range's burnt umber as an earthy base coat, followed by a selection of 4 and 6mm grasses from War World Scenics formulated into my own heathland mix. Some Woodland Scenics scatters and hey presto Heathland expanded! I also static grassed some of the yard cutting on this side, along with overgrowing the cess. 2 and 4mm grasses were used for the lusher areas, again using woodland scenics scatters to form the plant leaves and give a variation in tone of the growing plants. It is missing those pesky brambles but I will add them in at a later time. YSA/YKA wagon project reversal? What Happened? With commencement of the MXA boxes, it dawned on me that my use of Bachmann BDA's to make Ospreys was indeed flawed. Although to most this wouldn't matter, I've decided to scrap my BDA-YKA/YSA's. With the 3D printing of the stanchions, my scratch building efforts of the same pieces 18 months previous would be inferior to the CNC manufactured versions, so I've chosen to let these go and I currently have my resprayed BDA's in a jar of IPA being stripped. I have ordered 4x C88 kits from Cambrian, though this has been caught up in the Flangeway Fiasco, where their RtR salmons being subject to trial by RMweb over a catastrophic tooling error scandal. Many are being returned and Cambrian stockists flooded with orders. So that could take a while! It gets more ineresting... The BDA's were re-bogied with Cambrian ASF's when i converted them, using the Bachmann wheels and cutting the NEM socket holders off of the bogie for gluing to the ASF's.... The plan is to use the existing ASF's for the Salmons when they arrive, swapping the Bachmann wheels for some Alan Gibson ones recommended by Cambrian. All I will need to buy are half a dozen pairs of wheel-less Bachmann BDA bogies and NEM sockets if not included. I do have a habit of complicating things! That's all for now - Jordan

Well this thread has become rather lively since last kept tabs on it half a week ago! Just a notice for all that are considering the Cambrian kit route. I placed an order for 4x C88 Salmons late last week through Eileens Emporium of Gloucester (as I had intended to before this release) and I was emailed the following day that I am over 100 in the queue for that Cambrian product alone. When I ordered, the stock level was 2! So if anyone has ordered or is planning to order Cambrian Salmons of any product, please be patient with Stockists as Cambrian now have a rather massive work load on, and that is without taking delays through Covid and raw material sourcing into consideration. Jordan

I've got some mould boxes I'm getting laser cut at the moment from 5mm Perspex, along with pattern plate inserts for these. I'll be sure to make another post once these are assembled. The way i have produced mine is by the good old double sided tape. I stuck mine to the bottom of the greyboard (same as what ill do on the pattern insert plates) and sprayed Macwax over it before casting the silicone first half. Macwax is essentially a wax based aerosol release agent. I just follow the instructions and usually all is well. Its the stuff we use at work as well so I can vouch for it over talcon powder. Depending on how you plan to make your second half, it may be worth taking the master out (if you have detail notches that can be used to retain the pattern again) giving it a wash with a toothbrush to get rid of any tape residue, putting it back into the mould, Macwax-ing it all and then pouring the second half. This is the approach i have planned to take. I would also recommend the use of rubber bands to hold the mould together or quick release clamps and pair of small wood sheets to prevent excessive flashing and leakage.

It is very easily done. Especially in the times when you're busy with numbers in your head and all of a sudden "I've brought you a cup of tea" comes out of the blue. I can't be the only one to admit that's happened. It is entirely possible that the same factory could have been used. However, you could say that its a game of roulette with whoever does produce it, as its the capital available in the budget that dictates what facilities can be afforded. The only thing the factory is involved in to do with the tooling is machinery parameters. As an example, there's no point tooling around an X21 model machine when the factory upgrades to L13 model machines with different tool mounting positions. Those machine types are entirely fictional just for the purpose of the example, though you can fit adaptor plates if you tool around a small machine and newer machines are larger. As is the case with some Disa 'A' plates we still have, little things, putting them on plate adaptors to fit onto our Disa 'X' machines. I haven't heard anything bad about the build quality so we can rule out a Hattons or Heljan phenomenon.

I don’t wish to sound like the tradesman that ends up picking out the flaw on a forum such as RMweb and getting known for it, however I am critical of the attention to detail that occurred during the development process in the sense that 10 seconds with a steel rule has outdone what appears to be several years of hard work and development, with major cost implications to the manufacturer. When we receive new tooling, we always check dimensions from the datum (always the joint face on our tooling) against a set of re-validation sheets and the casting drawing. In this case, the tooling should be checked against the tooling CADs if no reval sheet exists, and also against the casted product specifications to determine clearance/interference.... etc to ensure the CNC shop has not incorrectly made the tooling. The tooling should always be whatever the product material’s shrinkage percentage is larger than it needs to be so that the product is made the correct size through contraction from liquid to solid. When receiving the first engineering samples of the product, these should also be checked against relevant drawings etc to make sure no faults are found. I do not wish anyone to think that I am writing this to create slander, as I am sure that Flangeway/Footplate have done everything correctly when it comes to procedure. I am just highlighting my working procedures as a tooling and pattern maker to assist those who may not be in the know to better understand what goes into toolmaking. I am in agreement with @Dungrange on his point about potential incorrect scaling in the CAD phase being down to this. It’s impossible to know if anything physical is incorrect if the drawings were incorrect from the start. These things do happen though and I’m sure it will all be sorted out soon.

If you're still planning on converting some Ospreys but from Cambrian's C88 kits Mark, I have initial samples of the middle stanchion and end trusses being 3D printed at the moment. I plan on running a production batch around Feb/March time providing the samples come back good. If they would help, I will be posting updates in my workbench thread.

If 20mm is missing from the Salmon, that would make it no more than an over-length BDA. I've stuck to the Cambrian kits as £50 per model is a bit steep just to strip, respray and modify it into an Osprey. I don't doubt your findings, but being a toolmaker apprentice I can't imagine a tooling error as catastrophic as being 20mm out given the precision measuring equipment such as a Stiefelmayer that are available today. If the tooling had been made to the exact 60ft specification (measuring solebar length) then the tooling would be wrong anyway. Given Flangeway are experienced in manufacturing from the Snowplough, it does question what happened with your example. Tooling is always made larger than the model to counteract the contraction rate of the metal as it solidifies. On the assumption that the production material was a Zinc based white metal alloy as is common in the hobby, the tooling would have to be 2.5% larger. And even if the tooling was to wagon spec of 240mm on the solebar, -2.5% would only make the model 6mm under size. I'm very intrigued.

Your Osprey thread was the initial inspiration for converting my BDA's to Ospreys and Salmons in the beginning. Those stanchions took a long time to make! I have enough for 8 wagons currently being 3D printed. It is great how all these ex-BR departmental wagons are being re-used in such a way that they are the backbone of track renewals with the exception of the FEA and KFA flats that are now popping up with modular decks of course.

Thanks Andy. Surprisingly I didn’t use a dremel but now you mention it, I do have a dremel! I did it rather crudely using a Stanley knife about a year or so ago in an attempt to make some Ospreys. I’ve managed to get ahold of some Cambrian bits so I’ve re-purposed the BDA’s. The three Ospreys I’ve made will be recycled as well, the scratchbuilt stanchions being replaced by 3D printed ones. It wasn’t that difficult to take the sides down, though the smell of plastic was very strong and overwhelming at times. I’ve got a BDA in IPA being stripped ready for going into DB red for the first casting samples.

Great progress on the MXA’s. I think I’d have had enough by wagon 5! I’ve just finished making my MXA box pattern, going down the resin casting route to save my styrene for other projects and also to shave some time off production. I think I’m the first to make the MXA’s with the BDA sides cut down to the bed? Very inspiring, always a pleasure to read your thread and see what you’ve been up to. - Jordan

Due to the extent of how long I've been away and everything I've been up to (model and non-model related), I've decided to break the essay down a bit into 3 Parts. 19/01/2021 UPDATE: Part III - January 2020 January The coming of January saw the real 'getting back into it' of the layout. I ran a few trains and gave the 2020 additions their needed run in period, as well as having filmed a selection of clips for a forthcoming running session on YouTube. I spent a weekend on AutoCAD drawing up the truss and column stanchions for YKA 'Osprey' wagons, a conversion undertaken by Network Rail in the late 2000's to 199 YSA/YWA 'Salmon' track panel carriers to simplify the loading and unloading. These CAD's have been sent off and are currently being quoted ahead of production. If the print quality is good and the demand is there then I may do a production run for sale. These would be made available as a 5 piece kit, with a pre-painted and ready assembled option also being available at a premium. I've also been taking the plunge into learning how to resin cast. Given the expense of mould making silicone, I've opted to take a 'practical model' approach where I may actually be able to get use out of successful castings. It would be a great shame otherwise to use so much silicone and get nothing back, even if learning is the aim of the game. My model of choice for this matter is a Cambrian C88 Salmon kit. I've attached a picture of two patterns I've prepared for making the silicone tooling. I have checked the copyright regarding that I am making an in production OE product, however the intention is to learn a technique using the product as a guide and not to produce a copy for sale as some may see it. Anyway, I have made progress on the LSWR bridge by furthering the brickwork on the font face and under the arch. Given how long it is taking, I've opted to only apply the bricks in visible areas. The rear face of the bridge will most likely be made from styrene sheet that I have self embossed. I have as of Sunday re-done the static grass Heathland down the back. It looks rather unneat for the time with grass stuck to the backscene board but this will be hidden when i get around to making the photographic backscene. I used a combination of 2, 4and 6mm Dead and Scorched from the WWS Scenics range, sprayed with layering spray before applying very light fine sprinkles of Earth and Soil fine turf (Woodland Scenics) to represent the varying tones found on Dorset's Heathlands. The Dead and Scorched represent the lightest and darkest tones as a base, with the soil and earth adding the tones between. The Gorse is my standard method of polyfibre, sprayed heavily with layering spray and given a few sprinkles of fine green scatter from Woodland Scenics, hoovering up the excess with a keyboard hoover before another lighter coat of layering spray is applied and an incredibly fine dusting of yellow flowering foliage is given. I usually give a quick squirt of spray to seal it in. Tonight on the workbench agenda I'm building a small storage and waste unit. I took delivery of some more Swann Morton blades today, this time having ordered some No.12's as well as my usual No.11 blades. I had previously just put the blade packets in with everything else in its own slot, but to save myself the confusion of 'what blade is this', I decided to build a brand new unit from the same 1mm greyboard as I've used for the LSWR Bridge. I'll be able to segregate blades by number as well as have a scrap bin for the blunt blades that are still very sharp. If and when that fills up, I'll take them with me to work for melting. Very much WIP as i started this about an hour ago and measures 100x70x210mm in L, W and H. So, that's where the layout and bench stand as we speak. I may have forgotten to mention that last summer I did apply the fence on the yard side of the island platform, and at Christmas I was gifted a totem clock sign for the layout.

Due to the extent of how long I've been away and everything I've been up to (model and non-model related), I've decided to break the essay down a bit into 3 Parts. 16.01/2021 UPDATE: Part II - October to December October October was a busy month in all senses. I'd sorted the garage out and made space for a proper engineering workbench in my allotted 4ft of space. I took two weeks holiday off work and ventured down the coast to Cornwall for half a week, tagging along on a family holiday. By this point I had still lived a very sheltered 2020, living in the shadows between work and home. I took the train home to Bournemouth from Penzance via Yeovil Junction and it made me realise how much I'd missed the hobby. In the week since I'd got home I had fabricated up and primed a steel bench, material obtained online from The Metal Store. I also bought the remaining wiring conduit and clamps from Screwfix for the rewiring. I de-soldered the old wire from the rail insides and cleaned the up with a dremel. I installed all the conduit and the transition box between conduit and trunking at the end of October. November November sprung round the corner and I had just started running the layout feeder wires. Due to the complexity of my layout's wiring requirements, I decided to standardise on wiring. I used 1mm^2 32/0.2mm stranded automotive wire (product codes at Rapid Electronics are: AC3220BK and AC3220RE, both made by Sealey and have about a week's lead time). These are most commonly used as bus wires and are perfect for the layout's needs. The bus run from the controller to the wall mounted panel is about 2 metres, with the feeder wires being between 2.5 and 5.5 metres long. I used 1.5 drums of wire per colour, which wasn't unexpected as that includes the distribution panel wiring too. Overall I spent about £65 on wire, though I still have 20m per colour left over which will do nicely for any workshop wiring. The wiring was completed by the end of November. I also bought a CMX track cleaner and a pair of Heljan Cargowaggon's to act as barrier vehicles though these didn't arrive until December. December December saw the arrival of the track cleaning wagon and barriers. That was put to good use before I started running trains again and testing the wiring. So far so good though I've some areas to still add connection wires between tracks. Over my two week Christmas leave, I added two pairs of points to the workbench end of the under-bed sidings to enable run round operations. This makes shunting more interesting as i don't have to rely on shunt and release operations. I also made a start on the LSWR style bridge for the heath access road by cutting some 1.5mm greyboard to make the bridge structure and starting to add the laser cut bricks individually to the external faces. A lot of work and a mega project that will look better than having embossed some card. Below are some pictures of the panel (done as close to BS7671 as possible), the CMX cleaner and barriers and the bridge with a Merchant Navy beneath it.

Due to the extent of how long I've been away and everything I've been up to (model and non-model related), I've decided to break the essay down a bit into 3 Parts. 16.01/2021 UPDATE: Part I - July to September Well, its been a long 7 months since the last post and and since the return to work in August 2020, I cant say that everything has turned out as planned... My furlough ended on the 31st July '20 so it was back to work in August. I've undergone some changes to my work life very recently which has enabled me to spend more time on the layout, but at the end of furlough I was back in my role as a foundry plant fitter apprentice on day shift rotation. It wasn't easy getting back into the sleep pattern-less routine, with most layout work being done in the morning before a 'late' shift, and the weeks of 'earlies' having nothing productive to offer. July Anyway, during July before i went back to work, I managed to get a few things done. The Porpoise got it's transfers printed out and applied. I have to say I'm rather amazed at the quality of the transfers from a domestic Inkjet printer. I used transfer paper from Mr Decal Paper in both Clear and White, using Plastikote Poly-urethane Varnish to seal the ink. A thin-ish coat was applied the second it finished printing to again after 15 minutes and 20 minutes after that. Luckily the transfers did not go brittle. Not bad for a first ever attempt! The only transfers I did buy was the cantrail stripe from Railtech as its too fine a transfer to have to want to cut around. I skipped adding the Hydraulic pipes as its fragile enough without having the finer details, though the rail position arms below the cab front will be made once the whole train is complete and I can assure myself its danger free in a box. The doors are yet to be glued in place but these are only a minor detail considering the doors have been replaced in favour of a single chain rail on many examples. NLU 979507 has both sides as doors in the pictures I can find but for now it wont make much difference The JZA Clamping banks and various jigs were collected from my local CNC studio (along with the bricks) so these got produced and took a full day and a half to prepare and build with a tube of superglue. I also got the 3x Salmons and 2x Ospreys all airbrushed up with the Ospreys ready to take stanchions. Layout wise, I installed 6x 1.2m shelves above the layout in 3 tiers of 2 for additional space. Finally I have a proper area to store empty boxes without cluttering the family's attic, and also appropriate storage for scenic materials, equipment and the lighter in weight rolling stock. Though this is all where it went downhill and the brakes of work were applied. August During August, I don't recall anything of significance happening to the layout or on the workbench. I had started to work on the JZA 'gantry' wagon but decided to take a break from the workbench shortly after as the mental impact was starting to grow on me. I had previously been working on a CAD of a bogie box wagon but this had grown from a past time idea into an unhealthy obsession. In the end I took a break away from the layout. September September saw the hobby as mostly a month full of neglect, par receiving two of the Hornby CDA wagon triple packs. One of these packs found its way into a vat of IPA for stripping before spraying into EWS Maroon to give variation to the full blue rake. Its imaginable the frustration at the time of writing when Hornby announce the EWS livery for the wagon just as you're waiting for the better garden weather to come about for spraying them up... I had also bought 7 of Hornby's ex-LSWR 58' coaching stock for respraying into LSWR Salmon and brown at a much later date. I managed to test run the Welded rail train wagons behind a Hatton's 66 early in the month. All the rail carrying components were loosely fitted. I even managed to get a full set of 5 Autoballasters trailing the 12 wagon rake and the 66 performed well. The train weighed in at just under 4kg. Shortly after this, I decided to cut the feeder wires as i was very unhappy with the wiring I had in place. I fabricated a new enclosure for the layout with a proper distribution panel towards the end of the month. All components being sourced from RS Components except the wire which was from Rapid Electronics. The installation becomes a saga spanning several months. Below are some pictures of the Porpoise, Clamping banks, Osprey and Salmon.

So, this weekend I’ve been rather busy! Finally got ahold of a Cambrian C88 kit and decided to have a proper go at learning resin casting. I have previously delved into this quite lightly with the JZA wagons as the buffers are very brittle and made of several pieces that don’t take well to dis-assembly. Given that I’ve been after a load of C88 kits for some time to replace the BDA conversions, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to learn. Although there’s nothing wrong with the BDA to YSA/YKA conversions, they are a little unconvincing when put against Network Rail Falcons and Autoballasters. They will be given a new lease of life once I make some MXA boxes, part of the reason I’ve decided to resin cast a true Salmon. So, getting straight to the point, I’m using Polycraft GP-3481-F silicone rubber from MB Fibreglass in Northern Ireland for the moulds in a 1:10 ratio with the catalyst. For large moulds like these, I wouldn’t recommend anything less than the 1.1Kg silicone kit. I have ordered a 2.2Kg kit (£40) for the other moulds as I had just enough to complete today’s moulds. Each half has used approximately 350g of silicone. The patterns are the salmon cross beams and using Evergreen plastics 4x3.2mm styrene strip as the runners and risers for the mould. Having changed my professional occupation from industrial fitter to toolmaker, I’ve learned a few things about runner and riser design. The founding box for the silicone mould is 1.5mm greyboard, commonly used in model making as the rigid material in house and structure scratchbuilding/card kits. The box is stuck together externally with sellotape while the interior of the box is liberally painted in neat PVA glue to seal the porous material, providing support and leak prevention on the joint lines and to enable trouble free de-moulding from the box. The patterns are suspended as square as physically possible from an overhead ‘gantry’ of superglued greyboard and 4x3.2mm strip styrene. I also glued in some locating dowels so the mould cannot be put together incorrectly. The first silicone pour was made up to the bottom of the patterns, in the end I made a primary bulk pour and two adjustment pours to achieve the required level. With the pattern not square, the box had to be angled with a table coaster to ensure the silicone did not level itself at an opposing angle to the pattern. Although the cure time is 6-8 hours, I gave the mould five hours to cure before pulling the location dowels out and de-flashing any silicone set in places it shouldn’t be. The support gantry was removed and after 7 hours and multiple checks over, the top half was poured. At the time of writing, this is still curing. Providing this is successful, I will produce a tutorial on Bearwood West Yard’s YouTube on how to produce resin castings. Below are images from after the first pour with the gantry and runner cup to riser vent support bars, and after the top half’s pour. I have also included a picture of the silicone kit I am using.

As it’s the weekend I’ve been working on my own resin projects rather than maintaining iron casting patterns. A bit more complexly shaped this one but it is mounted at 45 degrees. The runner and riser system took me a full afternoon and evening to do, though I did waste an hour on the lathe trying to face off part of some sprue plastic to use as a runner (in the end I gave up). All the runner/riser system for this casting is 4x3mm styrene strip, with the exception of the runner feeders into the pattern which are 1x2mm strip in two layers and given a radius. There is a choke point on the main runner and also on the runner feeders, to enable air in the difficult spots time to escape. Admittedly, the pattern I am using here is part of an existing C88 Salmon kit by Cambrian. For pouring the silicone, I have previously used one of the clear Oxford vehicle boxes, though this is rather large for that. I’ve cut up some 2mm greyboard and stuck the box together on the outside with sellotape. The sides are 50mm high. For added strength on the joint lines and to prevent the silicone being absorbed by the greyboard, I have treated the box interior with some neat PVA glue via a large modelling brush. I put this over the radiator last night to cure quicker given how cold the modelling/bedroom room is and it only took an hour and a half to fully cure. This morning I’m planning to raise the pattern to about 30mm below the the top. Hopefully having a silicone pour by mid afternoon. I will add the locating dowels prior to pouring.