Scottnkat

Okay - I poured my resin for the first time. Before I show the results, I'm going to show everything that led up to it. Here's the molds with one pouring channel and one vent to allow the air out: I heated up the molds in the microwave for 50 seconds (it's supposed to be one minute for each pound and I almost used the full pound of silicon). I then used Legos and rubber bands to ensure they were tight: I then poured equal parts of the two resin parts into separate cups: Finally, I mixed the two up stirring slowly so as not to introduce any more bubbles: After it was all mixed and there were no swirls of the individual colors left, I began to pour the resin into the molds - here the molds are with the resin poured: The resin started turning a milky color before I had even finished pouring it, so I think I took to long to stir and didn't allow enough time for me to do the pouring.

My philosophy for scratchbuilding is simple - it simply amounts to "Oh, God, please let these fit together and look okay!!"

Thanks, Jacen. Doing any kind of scratchbuilding like this is really out of my comfort zone. As such, I am not expecting perfection from myself, but I am just trying to make this a learning experience so I can do better next time. Still, I do want this to be a decent job. It's kinda strange - I could go much more slowly, do the same part multiple times until I get it right, but that wasn't quite what I was planning on for this build. Still, I am doing what I was hoping to accomplish, so that's as good as I am hoping for.

sorry, Ian - I was planning on trying to pour some resin tonight, but Kat's got me helping her in the kitchen - cutting up 20 pounds of chicken wings, mixing crab for the stuffed croissants, etc. I am hoping to get some free time before I just get tired - oh, she's a slave-driver. But I want the good food tomorrow, so I kinda feel obliged to help.

Well, I did get a little done. I have made an approximation of the front rollcage on the stock Torino chassis. It's not exactly pretty, but it is functional so far, and it's nice and stable. It's getting close to the time to get some color on these two chassis once I get just a little bit more done. Woo hoo!! I also did some sanding and smoothing on the two bodies. Goodbye mold seams. I thought I had sanded the front fenders of the Talladega until they were smooth, but the primer shows I still have a little more work to go. You can also see the hole for the gas cap and the vent on the sides of both cars - remember one on the right and one on the left.

thanks for that - no pressure pot (I'm poor)

thanks, guys - I appreciate the feedback

Looks great! Wonderful idea using the wooden sticks!

I've tried looking for an answer to this question, but could not find one. I am just getting ready to try pouring resin for the first time and I had a question for anyone that may know. If you pour resin into a mold and there's not enough resin to complete the mold, can you just mix up some more resin and pour it in on top of the stuff you just did a moment ago? Will the two "pours" sort of meld into one the way it should be? Or will they remain as two separate parts that fit together, but just aren't one piece?

Well, in lieu of being able to pour some resin, I worked some more on the cars themselves tonight. The main project this evening was the Talladega. Thanks to Lanny Haas for the excellent information on this kit and how some things need "tweaking" and thanks for Douglas for pointing that information out to me. As I mentioned, the Talladega is going to get the Boss 429 engine. Only problem is that the Boss 429 doesn't fit when building the kit as the instructions state. So we had to make a few changes. First of all, the engine doesn't have a positive locator on the pan to make sure you get it in straight. So we drill a little hole in the oil pan, insert an aluminum rod, then slightly enlarge the existing hole in the crossmember - voila! Instant positive location!! Now that we know just where the engine is going to fit, we need to make some adjustments to the front rollcage around the engine. By default, these posts that come down around the wheel's A-arms stick out too far. The engine won't even get down in there unless you leave the valve covers off. Well that just won't do - I like the Boss 429 valve covers. So, we have to cut those supports off as shown on the right below: Once those were off, we had to cut out the whole middle piece so we can get these to lay closer to the outside and not so close in. Basically, we're just using the outermost 1/3 of each piece and scrapping the inner 1/3 of these pieces. We then glue those into place as shown: Now to test-fit the engine - and it fits!!!! Yippee!!! Now to replicate this part of the rollcage on the Torino's chassis!

My wife hates pink, but you got a thumbs up from both of our daughters!! That looks good.

I've used that myself. It's best with cheap dollar store foil - don't get the good stuff - it's too thick

I haven't done it yet - our son was moving out yesterday and today the wife has had me cleaning the room (geez, that guy was a pack rat) and I still have to get to the store. I'm hoping in the next couple of days to be able to try out the molds I made and see what worked and what didn't.

Great! Now I know I had my thinking straight about only having to switch it on the one car (but needing to switch it on that one car). I appreciate the confirmation, Jacen!! That's cool info, as well. I have been setting it up so the engines are only single 4bbl carbs - I'm doing the 427 in the Torino and the Boss 429 in the Talladega.

Well, I just found out that the gas vent in the picture is for a road course car - for an oval track car, the vent would have been on the driver's side. So, I am moving the vent to the driver's side on the Talladega as that would have definitely been used on the oval tracks. I'm going to keep the one on the passenger side of the Torino because I'm figuring that would have been the car that would be used on the road courses. It'll give them just a bit more individuality. Thanks for the tip, Mo

Thanks for the tip, Tommy - as soon as I can get to the store, I have another option now. I appreciate it. Well, Daniel, I'd always wanted to try making resin parts before but I felt really unsure of myself. I figure that by documenting this (both the good and bad) it may help someone else like me that's been nervous about it and maybe my mistakes can be an example of what not to do for everyone else.

glad to see this going again. I'm looking forward to seeing it all come together

Well, I got home and pulled the molds out of the Legos. They don't look pretty: But after a little clean up, they looked okay. I also cut two holes in each two part mold - one to pour the resin into and one to act as a vent to make sure the air escapes. I started to get out the resin to try it when I realized - I don't have any small funnels! I'm afraid without the funnel, I'll just get resin all over the place. Looks like I've gotta take a trip to the store before I pour any resin. Sorry for the delay, everyone. I tried taking pics of the molds with the slits cut, but my camera just doesn't show it at all (even after trying a couple of times) - it has terrible contrast.

Alright - time for a break from the resin / silicon stuff and back to the styrene. I did a little bit more on the chassis of the Torino building up the back braces of the rollcage and getting the back cover thingy in place. Here's how it looks: Gotta check for fit and all to make sure everything is still in place where it needs to be: Yep - it all still fits. So far, we're doing okay. As I was reviewing some pictures of the car, however, I noticed something that is not built into either kit: there's a vent above the rear quarter panel near the trunk. These two closeup photos show that: Well, I've come this far on this car - we're gotta do that. Some time with some brass tubing and a dremel resulted in this: I realized that I had gotten the vent a lit forward from where it is on the real car. But I didn't realize this until after the superglue had set. So, here's my first blatant error. Next time I will try to take the reference pics downstairs with me so I can get things in the proper place. That's what I get for just going down and doing it as I thought I remembered it.

Well, Bart, good or bad, you'll all see how it is. I'm hoping (of course) that everything comes out well. But if there is something done wrong, I am hoping that this little thread will show someone what I did wrong so they don't make the same mistake.

Okay, while I was mixing up the silicon again, I started thinking - if newly mixed silicon adheres to fully cured silicon, then I should be able to use the old silicon scraps to help "fill" the molds so I don't need to use as much newly mixed silicon. So I cut up the old silicon into small pieces as shown here: I then used the "chunky" silicon to pour into the molds. They are all sitting now and curing. Maybe tomorrow, we can take these molds apart, see how they are, and mix some resin. Woo hoo!!!

Okay, I just got home from work a little while ago and started looking at the silicon parts. The first thing I had to do was remove the clay from each of the molds. So, the one-piece mold I had made of the clay parts was first. I used a couple of picks to pull all the clay out of the silicon. I then turned my attention to the majority of the other molds - the ones with the clay on the bottom. I turned them upside down and used the picks to pull all the clay out of each of those molds as well. Note that I didn't have to do this for the mold using the nails to hold the tire in place. This may be a benefit of using the nails instead. Here's all the molds with the clay removed: I broke the Legos off the one-piece mold as this mold is done. I found that the silicon had seeped into the Legos a bit, but was retained inside the Legos I assume because of how the Legos are made (two sides and firmly snapped into each other). As with the clay, I used the picks on the silicon to pull it off of each Lego piece: In order to make sure that each half of the mold fits together the way they are supposed to, I made a small trench in each piece. The new silicon will flow into this trench and make a pin and hole to ensure that the molds are lined up properly when I go to use them - one note: I did not do this to the one with the nails. On that one, the nails themselves left the trenches to ensure alignment. I am also keeping one of the nails in so I will have a ready-made hole to pour the resin in. The other three holes were covered with packing tape: Finally, you need to use silicon release on the silicon halves before you pour the new silicon in. Silicon will bond with already cured silicon. By using this, it will ensure that the second half won't get bonded to the first half. It says to use this three times before pouring the second half of the mold. Well, back to work - I'll catch up in a bit.

He he he - I asked Stephen if he had some extra Legos that I could use. He brought me a 5 gallon bucket and said, "Here. Take whatever you want" - I did. I not have my own Lego stash.

Well, I mixed up the silicon. The instructions state a 10:1 ratio between the two parts. I pulled out the postal scale and used that to make sure I got the ratio correct. Here's the silicon carefully stirred so as to not introduce bubbles and ready for pouring: I then started pouring into a corner and letting the silicon roll and pour over all the parts: And here's the pieces the way they will sit for the next 8 hours to dry. Heck, it'll be overnight as I won't have time to get back to this until tomorrow after work at the earliest.

Well, I've been working on mixing silicon today, everyone. Yep, the time has come for me to try my hand at making resin parts. First, I had to make a part that was not included in either kit. See, this is what the rear end cooler looks like in the car I found for reference: Well, neither kit had a piece like this. So I thought about it and decided that I could build this in two parts - one part for the main body and the other just a cylinder cut from styrene rod. Then I could do a one piece mold to make copies. So I got out the modeling clay and made the main body part. I then cut off a piece of rod and sanded the ends smooth. Here's how they looked: The rod looks weird but that's because part of it was painted and the paint matches the background. Well, I got those nice and stuck to a piece of glass so they wouldn't float up when I poured the silicon. I then used Legos to build a wall around it the right size allowing room on all sides: I then used modeling clay to seal the bottom of the mold walls (the Legos) to the glass. It looked like this: I decided to go ahead and make molds for other parts as well at the same time. So, I am taking a mold of the PL tires (notice the modeling clay inside the tire - these won't be hollow and I couldn't figure out how I'd get the tire out if I didn't do this), the rims (both parts), the PL rear bumper (it has the nice edges that the stock Torino doesn't), and a CrossRam manifold for a later project. I am trying three different things with this: 1) Making a single piece mold 2) Making a two piece mold using clay to form the base when pouring the first part 3) Making a two piece mole using nails to hold a piece suspended in the silicon Here's pics of everything all ready for the silicon: At this point, I was thinking I was ready to mix the silicon... PS - if anyone that has experience with resin casting has any comments or suggestions, I am all ears...