Wednesday 6 November 2013

Glass Half Full?

The first casts with the Super Barn door moulds have not been a complete success.

They haven't been a complete failure either.

In fact, taking the two sets I've cast so far 50% have been acceptable and 50% not.

I can't decide whether or not I should be satisfied with this - bearing in mind I'm accustomed to something more like 85% with the parts for my wagon kits.

Here's one lot that I am happy to use which I will deploy in my prototype.


The problem has been tiny air bubbles becoming trapped in the beading and droplight details.

I can't be sure yet how much of this is because the details are finer than my wagon masters or whether it's just new mould syndrome (the first ones can often turn out badly for whatever reason) or just one of those things.

Either way it hasn't filled me with confidence about how well the sides are going to turn out.

They are very long (about 130mm) with a lot of beading detail.

I'm unsure of whether there will be enough time to chase out all the bubbles with a cocktail stick before the 90 seconds of working time with the resin is used up?

I suppose there's only one way to find out which is to press ahead with making a master, forming a mould and seeing how I get on.

But this is the reason why I'm being a little cagey with all the people who've been getting in touch asking me if I'll be doing Super Barns as a kit?

If I can't manage to cast the components at more than a 50% success rate then it's not a very productive use of my time and the answer will probably be a no.

And in any case I would only be able to offer sides and ends because doing the roof and chassis are not going to be practical, flat back casting projects.

The one advantage of having a few rejected casts at this stage means I have at least been able to glue a couple of them together as a test to see how well the vestibule section goes together.


I'm very pleased with how it all fitted - now I've just got to learn how to cast them better.


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