Anglia105E

Here are a few ' teaser ' photos for Ricky and Paul as requested ! David

Hi folks...... I have been working on a 1:24 scale diorama for nearly one year now, and it is almost ready for me to show some pics on this forum. The building is the famous Rolls-Royce, Daimler and Bentley coachbuilders as it was in 1958, and is located at St James's Street in London. There are quite a few vehicles including Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud motor cars, also Rolls-Royce Phantom I, II and III motor cars, an Austin FX4 taxi, an early type AEC Routemaster bus, a Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle, Hispano Suiza, Jaguar XK120, 1886 Daimler-Benz carriage and a Bedford tanker truck to follow soon. Some of the 1:24 scale cars I have built from kits, one is moulded and cast in resin by myself, some are Franklin Mint and Danbury Mint diecast models and one is a Hubley promo model. Kits used have come from Minicraft, Revell, Italeri and Emhar. The Hooper building is entirely scratch built and to compliment this there is a telephone box, pillar box, tree, bus stop, zebra crossing with belisha beacons, pavements, flagstones, cobblestones and grates, all scratch built. There are a few 3D printed figures from Shapeways and a street lamp from Shapeways. The building has interior lighting on all three floors, which are LED aquarium lamps, and additional lighting is provided in the form of three 100W daylight bulbs. This diorama when completed, will be exhibited at the 2018 Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club Annual Rally at Burghley House in Stamford, which is a three day event for Rolls-Royce and Bentley owners from all around the world. My research has made use of material from the Science Museum Archives, the RREC archives, also Denver Public Library archives in Colorado USA, and the Rolls-Royce Foundation of North America and Canada, as well as the Royal Colwood Golf Club of Victoria, British Columbia in Canada. I am not sure about uploading photos within a post just yet, so this is a test image that I have included in this post. More will follow if anyone is interested in the ongoing project. Thanks for looking...... David Watson of Derbyshire, England, U.K.

Steve Hemming, Hiroboy, Zero Paints are really good. Huge range of quality products that include some more unusual items. Paint mixing service, even for old Rolls-Royce colours has been excellent. Delivery is fast, and only a bit pricey because here in UK they use Interlink, who tell you not only what day your delivery is arriving but also a one hour time slot, which is very useful when you have a day to plan out. Prices of items seem very good too. Friendly service, especially over the phone if there is some issue.

Exactly.... I find Shapeways exceptionally good.

Good advice from Greg Wann and bill w Excellent idea Greg, to pour only a thin layer of silicone mix over the part and see how it reacts, much better than my idea to pour 130 ml into the latte glass! - Also, I was considering painting the figure with grey primer before producing the mold, so I agree that coating the part with sealer should help. As regards the 3% catalyst bill w, this is definitely the correct ratio according to the suppliers instructions. I have previously produced a large two-part mold using 3% catalyst and it turned out really well, nice and firm all the way through the silicone. The Blu-Stuff is different because it is a 1:1 mix of 100 ml blue to 100 ml white, so equal amounts of that product. Only one Blu-Stuff mold failed on me, and that was because it was my first encounter with the product and I didn't mix it for long enough or well enough. Again, I agree with bill w that a coat of primer should stop the material of the part reacting with a good mix of silicone.

Thanks for your comments Peter, and the figure was printed as described below... 3D printed in White Strong & Flexible: White nylon plastic with a matte finish and slight grainy feel.I think I might just bite the bullet and have another go, as surely the latte glass can't be a negative factor?

Thanks guys for helpful suggestions. I didn't brush the master part with release agent because it is a one part mould, so no silicone to silicone. You may well be right about the sulphur Scott as it would be quite reasonable for Shapeways to put some chemical in the 3D printing material to discourage modellers from copying originals. I have now given the master figure a thoroughly good clean, during the process of removing all the failed silicone gunge using warm water and washing up liquid. Need to try again for a mold using Blu-Stuff and a plastic container. I only chose the glass because it allowed me to stand the figure vertically rather than lying it down horizontally.

I have been producing molds with no issues, using silicone and 3% catalyst in plastic containers, but today something has gone badly wrong. This time I used the same silicone mix but used a latte glass as the container, and I have a Shapeways figure that was slightly damaged so I thought I could make a copy of the original. Now I don't know if it is the glass that is the problem or the material that the 3D printed figure is made from. What I got was a spongy gooey mess that was extremely difficult to extract from the glass container. The silicone mix had set properly on a plastic spoon that I used up some left over mix, but the mold in the glass was a complete disaster. I can't see how the glass would be a problem, so I assume that there must be something in the 3D print material that has reacted with the silicone? Thought about repeating the process using Blu-Stuff but I am worried the same thing will happen, and so more time and money wasted. Any thoughts from forum members would be most welcome as always. Thanks, David

Thanks Gary (oldcarfan).... I shall try nail varnish and also enamel paints (Humbrol), using a small part of the car before producing the full body shell. David

Hello Geoff Brown, I have seen several articles that say food colouring does not cause problems, but the product is water based, which is what concerns me. Also, my resin is not clear, it is Ivory White and the part that I want to colour blue is a full body shell from a two-part mould. I realise that the sensible thing to do is to test the food colouring tinting on a smaller component first, before going onto the resin body. I suppose only one or two drops of the food colouring would be needed in any case. David Watson

Hi Greg, I like your 1963 Pontiac Bonneville mold and cast, which looks nicely done. I was trying to find a kit or a resin body for a Pontiac Parisienne 4-door RHD Canadian model, but there doesn't seem to be such a thing. I always go for the hard to find ones, including Ford Anglia 105E and Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud. Yes, I shall take your advice and do the chassis in 2-part mold as well as the interior module. It was just that I saw a You Tube video that showed a guy doing a chassis as a one -part mold. I will have a look at your other projects. David

Thank you Leslie Budge.... that is exactly what I was looking for. EMA have Resin Opaque Dye - Blue at £4.66.... perfect ! Cheers, David Watson

Thanks for helpful suggestions, and some interesting ideas for me to consider. I can't afford to ship from those companies in USA, here in little 'ol England, but I'm sure there must be similar suppliers in UK. ( nail varnish could be a strong possibility, as my daughter has loads ! ) One further question while I am here, if you don't mind.... the two parts that I am producing moulds for at the moment are a chassis and an interior seating module. My thinking is that a one-part mould would work for the chassis, but the interior module will require a two-part mould... is that correct? David

Hi to resin experts on this forum..... Sorry if this question has been asked previously, and I did try a search before posting. I am wanting to add something to my resin in order to change the colour of the part produced following moulding and casting. My first thought was to add one or two drops of food colouring to the A part of the two part resin mix, then mix it thoroughly and add the B part as normal. However, I am worried that if the food colouring is water-based then the curing process of the resin will not work properly. Would something like a tube of artist's oil paint work better, or possibly clothing dye? Any thoughts from forum members would be much appreciated and also any personal preferences for this type of work. Thanks guys. David

Yes Leslie, it would be worth a look and as you say, it would be pure luck. Thanks for the suggestion. David

Hi Guys, When building a 1:24 scale Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud by either Minicraft or Revell, the Spirit of Ecstasy hood mascot is way too big at 10 mm. This is excessively large and quite ridiculous really. They have the same size mascot at 10 mm on the Franklin Mint diecast version too. Now I have purchased a donor kit, which is an Italeri 1934 Rolls-Royce Phantom II, also 1:24 scale, and the hood mascot is absolutely the correct size at 4 mm. Trouble is, now that I have used the Italeri mascot on my Minicraft build the donor kit has no mascot. I tried moulding and casting a Spirit of Ecstasy in Milliput Black but it failed badly. Does any one know of a clever way to reproduce this important part for the Rolls-Royce build?

Ace-Garageguy and dodgefever, I shall certainly take your advice and I am fortunate that you have pointed out the potential failure of my plan. Thanks for the impressive selection of 'How To' videos which I intend to study closely before proceeding. The Milliput did work well in respect of the fine detail with the Oyumaru product, but the liquid resin looks like the way to go. The Blu-Stuff is pretty expensive as you say, but many of the American products mentioned on this excellent forum are not always available in the United Kingdom. or indeed Europe generally.

Thanks also to my66s55 and I realise now that in my original post I was asking about moulding and casting a body shell, so my point about the engine part is not quite the same issue, sorry. My thinking is that if I can successfully produce a 1:24 scale engine then I would like to use a similar technique to produce a complete body shell. It's been a busy week and my brain has turned to mush ! Sorry guys. David

Thanks to both Mark and Ace-Garageguy, and sorry for the delay with my response. The Liquid Blu-Stuff product is poured into a 60 ml container, and around the original assembled part, in this case a straight-6 cylinder Rolls-Royce engine which is placed in the centre of the container. Once the mould is carefully cut open with a scalpel knife, and the engine part is removed the Black Milliput Two-Part Epoxy Putty would then be pressed into the mould and the blue mould would be placed back into the same container. Any excess putty should be squeezed out as the mould returns to the container in which it was formed. I am hoping this will work, so the first engine to be cast will be an experiment as it dries overnight !

Hi everybody, hope it has been a good Christmas for you all. Sometime early in the new year I shall be using Liquid Blu-Stuff to produce moulds for casting 1:24 scale engines, and if all goes well I would like to mould and cast a complete body shell. The product used for the casts will be Black Milliput epoxy putty, and I have studied videos showing the use of a box assembled from Lego bricks. My question is what do forum members recommend to pack out the interior of the body shell for the second mould? They appear to use some sort of plasticine type material that is white or brown in the videos. I understand the process for producing the first interior part of the mould, so it's just the process for the second mould of the body shell exterior. Already practised by casting a radiator grille and a wheel and tyre assembly, but using Oyumaru instead of Liquid Blu-Stuff. Thanks for any helpful replies., David

Thank you Rodent, and I shall keep that one in mind, US$ 12.00 is a good price. I have managed to locate three Minicraft #11209 kits in Canada, and I am waiting to hear about the cost of shipping by Canada Post Air, which will be similar to your California rates I would guess.

Thanks very much to Mark and Art Anderson for your valued contribution. I have followed the various change of companies involved in the production of this kit, and I did find that Hubley were the first one in the US around 1959, then came Minicraft, Academy, Entex, Minicraft again and then Revell in Germany. The response that I got from Minicraft themselves was as follows (quote): Unfortunately we do not have any of those left as it was discontinued a few years ago. Not planning to reissue any time soon. Thank you I can't comment yet on the quality of the Revell version of the Silver Cloud kit as yet, as I am having one delivered at the end of this week, but I understand that the early Hubley models were more ' toy ' like, and the early Minicraft were also poorly crafted, whereas the later Minicraft are much improved. Now I think about it, you are quite right to point out that an earlier tooled moulding should be better. The worst part of the car seems to be the boot lid, which fits really well on my kit but there are gaps in places that need filler. Bonnet ( hood ) panels look to be problematic with some kits, the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot is way too big, 10 mm on the model translates to over 9 inches are the full size car, so needs to be around 4 mm, and the windows are a little on the thick side. I have made my windows from ginger beer bottle plastic and they come out really well. David

What a coincidence! Not seen any 1:24 Allegros ( oh I see, you are only joking ) but I tried to find a 1:24 scale Ford Anglia 105E kit, and the only source in the world is Airtrax in Finland. It is bloody expensive at £72.00 plus shipping to UK and is not complete, needing a donor kit of the Tamiya Lotus 7 ( no longer produced I believe ) David

Hannants were very good actually, and although they have no stock they suggested I try King Kit in Telford UK who have one Revell kit in stock. I don't mind using a pre-owned Revell kit of this Rolls-Royce as opposed to the Minicraft kit, because the only difference is the Minicraft is white plastic and the Revell is black plastic.

Thanks Dave, Your build looks very different to mine! My approach is to build an exact replica of an actual car, right down to the precise Rolls-Royce paint code. Your car does look very interesting, and sounds like you got one for a good price too. David