As you may recall, at the end of the last post on this I had produced one DZ door panel casting, but of course these wagons have three drop down doors on each side.
So I went into mass production and using my rubber mould cast another 5 pieces.
The instructions and advice with the moulding compound suggest it is good for about 20 castings before it gives up too much silicone and the resin begins to stick.
With each DZ requiring 6 castings I figured I'd soon end up having to make another mould. At which point an alternative thought crossed my mind.
I had been intending to make up each wagon side from 3 castings connected with styrene channel representing the uprights between the doors.
It occurred to me it would be a lot more efficient to make up just one of these complete wagon sides and use it as a master to make another mould.
You can see in the picture above that the cast pieces have had extra styrene details - such as the door hinges - added on.
Why did I not include them on the first single panel master?
Because it turns out when you look at the DZ's closely that the hinges are handed - ie. the bottom bit can be on the left or the right hand side - and none of the three doors on the wagon are identical.
Isn't that just typical!
Here is the master, then, in its styrene coffin ready to be entombed in rubber.
So I'm off now to make up the RTV (Room Temperature Vulcanisation) silicone mix and we'll see how it turns out in 24 hours time.
Good luck, looks like it could be messy.
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