SW1's Scenery Project - Buildings on the way!

[muggs]

Looks great - the barrels not being completely circular shouldn't be too much of a problem, surely they've just been in use for a while!

[GhostMalone]

Dude that shots awesome

[SW1]

Cheers. Quite chuffed how they came out. Managed to do a second casting run and did the other mould as well. That's worked as well so I just need to cast up enough parts to cover the first board. I'll need to cast 16 of one of the 100mm x 50mm tiles and 22 of the other one. Then there's 8 of the textured piece that goes under the mesh bit. With the old type of resin I was using I could have done upto 4 casts an hour but it's looking like I might get 1 an hour possibly going up to 1.5 and hour if the room temp is increased. Currently trying to work out a way of supporting the moulds level over where I have a vivarium with my pet lizard in. If I can work that out I may be able to do 2 casting runs an hour.

 

Once there's enough tiles cast up the tiles should come together really fast. I'll need to glue something like cardboard to the top surface to get it a bit more level before the tiles go on as the foam is 24mm thick and the stuff I've been chopping up has been measured to 25mm. The 1mm doesn't sound much but it's enough to make the tiles sit a bit off. Only really noticed when I've just started trying to lay out a few this morning.

[Andvarr A]

Looking good, what rubber did you use?

[SW1]

It's an RTV (room temperature vulcanising) condensation cure silicon rubber from Polycraft.

[GhostMalone]

Hmmm how bout you cast me some

[SW1]

Once I've cast enough for my brothers board I'll be happy to. ;)

[Andvarr A]

It's an RTV (room temperature vulcanising) condensation cure silicon rubber from Polycraft.

You lost me at RTV....lol

[SW1]

 

It's an RTV (room temperature vulcanising) condensation cure silicon rubber from Polycraft.

You lost me at RTV....lol

The RTV bit just means the rubber turns from a liquid to a solid at room temperature rather than having to be heated under pressure. The condensation bit is that it uses moisture in the air to aid the curing.

[Andvarr A]

 

 

It's an RTV (room temperature vulcanising) condensation cure silicon rubber from Polycraft.

You lost me at RTV....lol

The RTV bit just means the rubber turns from a liquid to a solid at room temperature rather than having to be heated under pressure. The condensation bit is that it uses moisture in the air to aid the curing.

Hah hah that makes more sense to my non chemestry brain. Is it reasonably priced?

[SW1]

Depends on what you mean by reasonably priced. If you buy in bulk it gets a lot cheaper, but it's a waste of money if you can't use it all. I've just had to throw a fair bit of rubber and resin out as I have had a break of many months from the casting lark and it's gone off. :(

 

It also depends on what your casting. For example I want lots of a certain shape that's actually a milk bottle top. That's not worth casting up as I can just save up the tops as we go through lots of milk with a young family. If I spotted a top from a bottle I was wanting to use a lot but it was something I'd never use it might be worth casting up if you can't find someone else using that item a lot.

 

I'll give an example of when it's definitely worth while:

 

My current build which is my brothers table which will be 8 foot by 4 foot. If I used 50mm squaes it would take 1,152 squares to cover. Now crafting 10 or so of the squares is little effort doing over a thousand would take a daft amount of effort. So just on an effort/time saving outlook the casting makes sense. Cost wise I could get 50 squares out of mdf for £9 which means for over a thousand I'd be looking at over £200 plus the cost of the textured plasticard which is about £4 for an A4 sheet. An A4 sheets about 0.65 of a square foot, the table is 32 square foot so youd need 50 sheets (well 49 and a bit) if there was no wastage. Now I can guarantee it'll take more like 60+ sheets with wastage but for this example we'll stick to 50. So the plasticard would be atleast another £200 which would total over £400 before you factor in man hours.

 

Now if you factor in I've used about a sheet of textured plasticard at £4, a sheet of plain plasticard which is £2 and bunch of spare bases. Then £15 worth of rubber and some wax spray to stop sticking and a sheet of boarding I got free from work. So Just to get to the mould stage we're looking at £21. I have calculated it'll probably cost around £150 for the resin if I cover the entire board with tiles. So less than say £180 for the same outcome if I don't need to replace the moulds and call it £200 if they need replacing.

 

So £400 v's £200 is halving the cost and when you combine this with the time saving it's a no brainer. :D

[GodEmperorOfMankind]

Liking the updates mate! Can't wait to see the finished product!

[jeremy1391]

Awesome!

[SW1]

Liking the updates mate! Can't wait to see the finished product!

Cheers Altis. It's finally getting to that tipping point where I have a tile close to finishing. Just hoping it lives up to the image in my head. It should do but there's lots of little bits I'd do a little different with the next board.

 

My brother is coming over tomorrow or should that be later today looking at the time, for a few hours to see if we can get more done. Main issue is getting the casts done as the curing time is quite long with this resin.

 

One thing I forgot to do was trim the edges of the moulds before starting to use them for casting so the sides were a bit off level wise. The rubber goes up the sides of the mould walls meaning the top of the pour which ends up being the base of the finished mould sits on isn't level. Didn't notice till the second pour but it doesn't show too much on the bits I've already cast up. So I spent an hour making them more flush this afternoon and should get better casting now that's done.

 

Just had a games night playing board games and should head to bed but thinking of doing a pour before I hit the sack. Would mean I could pull them when I get up and pour another before heading out to pick my bro up. Think sleep will win out tonight though as I'm too tired to measure out things accurately.

 

The other thing I need to do it crack on with the other moulds I want to do, as I'm not wasting even more rubber and resin this time around. Worked out I had to ditch in total near enough £100 worth of raw materials just down to not getting off my backside and using them up. Previously thought it was half the value but found some more half used stuff. :(

 

Atleast I can be happy the chemicals have been shifted out of the house now rather than having them sat in a corner possibly causing some form of hazard. One of the things a lot of people don't realise is that these are industrial chemicals not to be messed about with lightly. Correct ventilation and protective equipment/clothing should be used which a lot of hobby enthusiast seem to forget about. This is one side of casting most people skip over but is really important especially if they have small ones in the house!!!

 

Lol ... It's taken that long to type out I'm definitely calling it a night.

[SW1]

So time for a little WIP update on the first board section. Just need 15 pours/casting runs to get enough tiles to finish covering the section. I've managed to get it down to 30 mins between pours with demoulding just before it's set solid. Laying the tiles down on a flat surface keeps everything from warping while it finishes curing.

There will be new resin bought to finish of the following sections with a much quicker demould time as I don't want to spend 12 hours casting tiles for a single board.

With the current cured tiles it's looking like this:

Really looking forward to getting paint on the cast parts soon!!!

[Subtle Discord]

I applaud your ambition and commitment. This is going to look steller once it's done, and this is just once tile. Excellent.

 

And yes, casting. It's both liberating and daunting at the same time.

[SW1]

I applaud your ambition and commitment. This is going to look steller once it's done, and this is just once tile. Excellent.

 

And yes, casting. It's both liberating and daunting at the same time.

Cheers SD. From you this means a lot!!! I'm limited to casting in a smaller and smaller space so pressure and vacuum processes have had to be ditched. I've been watching your builds and casts over the last few months and they are inspiring. :D

 

So every workaround and trick to getting clean casts without those methods is being tried out at the moment.

 

One of the biggest tips for anyone wanting to try casting out is I was using a mould release agent but now get better casts using talc instead. It seems to lubrucate well enough to allow decent flow. Dries out any moisture which can cause foaming in a lot of plastics curing processes and it's cheap. I'm also seem to be getting longer usage out of the moulds before wear an tear kick in. Though that might just be the different shapes I've been working on.

 

The issue of making a mould for the textured detail to use around the edge of the biggest recessed areas has just come to me as well. While typing. I can cast a sheet the right thickness in 200 x 100. Then cut strips out of this sheet to patch under the sections. I can also use the sheet of textured stuff to help in future builds. I probably should have done this in the first place and done the same thing for the smaller recessed sections. But it's done now so not to worry.

[GodEmperorOfMankind]

That tile is looking amazing mate, keep up the good work!

[SW1]

Cheers Altis. It's been a chore to do the multiples of the same piece with such a slow cure resin. Pay day on Thursday so will be getting some new faster curing resin ordered then. Once it arrives should bounce through this tile pretty quickly.

 

Will plod along getting more tiles cast but priority will be getting this one completed. So I need to make the sheet mould ASAP. If I can get it done and poured by Monday evening I could be using it to cast on Friday when my brother comes over again.

 

We seem to have got into a bit of a routine which works with my brothers Autism. He's been a bit up/down so having something we can try and get him to focus on is really helping. Should be fun when it comes to painting as I'm not sure if I'm going to be doing it or if he's going to want to give it a go. :lol:

 

Whoever ends up painting it I think the tiles are better off being painted first and then glued on. Though to be honest I'm hoping I'll get to paint it as it may end up being rather unusually coloured otherwise.

[WilhelMiniatures]

inspiring stuff! 

I must however say that bent straws, always look like.. well straws, to me. I would consider using plastic pipes for this. Maybe this tutorial helps? 

 

Looking forwards for more updates!

[SW1]

inspiring stuff!

I must however say that bent straws, always look like.. well straws, to me. I would consider using plastic pipes for this. Maybe this tutorial helps?

 

Looking forwards for more updates!

Spotted the tutorial via Pinterest after the board section was done. This board will keep to the straws but my next project (yes I'm mad to be looking at the next one already) will likely be using that tutorial. ;)

[SW1]

Ordered the quicker cure resin on Friday night along with a smaller amount of some resin that's meant to be ideal for really fine details with a maximum thickness of 5mm. Not sure what would happen if it was cast up thicker? Maybe generate too much heat and warp? Who knows bit I'm hoping for it to work on some smaller stuff I'm after casting up. It's got viscosity of 35mPas which should work nicely.

[SW1]

Ordered the resin Friday night and it turned up Monday afternoon. Spot in with the delivery service!!! :)

 

Looking at the resin it's much more watery than the stuff I'm used to. The mPas is how runny the stuff is. So water is 1mPas and warm olive oil is 107mPas. So a rating of 35mPas means the stuff will be close to water when I pour. However with a 2 minute pot life it's going to be an extremely quick mix and the pour. So lots of small mixes rather than mixing up big batches.

 

The stuff for my brothers tiles is not far off with just a slightly higher mPas and 3 mins pot life. Can't wait to get a chance to have a go. :D

[SW1]

Just nipped I to a PC repair shop to ask about getting the laptop fixed up and spotted a fan unit I the bin. It doesn't work but that makes it idea for scenery making.

 

They have to pay for disposal of rubbish so they were happy for me to have it for free. They don't often have that type of bits thrown out but will keep them to one side for me. :)

 

Walked passed the small train hobby shop and got waved in by the owner. He'd had a collection sold to him recently with some incomplete industrial bits. So I got hold of them for £5. :D

 

Looks like my search for gubbins to detail up buildings has started.

 

It's not linked to the scenery side of things but lady luck seemed to be with me even more when the flgs round the corner had a damaged box of grey knights in PA for £10. Ooops ... My no buying more models policy slipped. ;)

[GodEmperorOfMankind]

So where's the casting pics? ;)