C. C. Crow Stone Church - First Annual Raymo Build Challenge 2016

[S&S RR]

So I can't hide this with a bush - tomorrow I'm going to make a mold and see if I can make a 5 or 6 step design by chopping up the castings.  I like the brick detail on the top of the stairs so and would like to preserve it if I can. My fallback is going to be a custom wood stairs. I will never be happy with the model if I don't fix this. Good Eye Mark.

[S&S RR]

John, if you get brave file off the top brick layer and recarve the brick onto the new surfaces. They would be near perfect.

Marty


You are correct - the brick on the top - which looks great - is what caused the rise height problem.  But I need more stairs to solve the problem. 


My game plan is to make a duplicate casting and cut it into four steps - adjust the rise to 8 inches.   Then I will add a 5th step and/or raise the ground level around the area to ramp up to the first step. It will be a bit of work but I think it will make the model much better.  I will send a link to this build thread to C.C. Crow when I'm done to see if they want to change their design. Thanks again for your input. It is a build challenge after all.

[martin.ojaste]

John, depending on the effect you want, either add another large step to the bottom, or add a stoop step to the front door. This was very common to do. So when you cast the model, it will have all the steps in place to the right height and all you need to do is file off the existing brick.

[S&S RR]

Well, the mold box is ready for the pour.  I have a plan that I think will work to fix the raise of the stairs and preserve the brick pattern in the top surface. 1) Make new castings 2)Cut the stairs out to be separate castings. 3) sand off the bottom to get 8 inch HO stars
4) Glue everything back together. 5) add a mound of dirt when I mount this to the base to make up the difference of needing another step.


I will probably switch to a resin casting to make the cutting work easier.


We will see how this works out.

[S&S RR]

Here is a couple pictures of the casting - trying to show the brick pattern - I know it's hard to see in all that white.

[S&S RR]

Follow-up to our previous discussion on mold material shelf life.  I found where Micr-Mart adds a shelf life date on their material.

[S&S RR]

The mold is made and I poured the first batch of hydrocal to see how it will work.  The lines you see on the mold are from me tapping it with a putty knife.  You can see how this brought a few air bubbles to the surface.  I'm off onto another project for the rest of the day while the hydrocal cures.


I also ordered some more resin so I can give that a try in a few days. I just noticed that spell checker likes to change resin to resign.  I wonder how many times of done that in the last few posts.

[S&S RR]

All the other molds you see in the background are for another project.  I always have multiple projects going when I get out the hydrocal and/or resin.  I have to admit that I'm leaning more and more towards resin castings. I like the durability and since I've switched to acrylic paints and powders to color my castings I can achieve the same coloring results with either material.


One point I would like to make again - making your own mold and castings is not cost affective unless your going to make and use a bunch of them. I made four molds with the last batch of material. Total mold cost $30. You have to use up the material once you open it, so I pulled ahead a few molds that I wanted to make because of the step issue.

[fotoflojoe]

Terrific build log, John (Sorry for your molding master mishap...)

Not sure how I'm just seeing this thread after five pages.
Recently, I've started down the path of creating masters, making molds, and casting them in Hydrocal. Been spending *a lot* of time on CC Crow's website lately. Also hunted down a copy of the Mainline Modeler issue with the "Masonry and Stonework" article by Jack Work.


This is all tremendously interesting stuff, I'm following along with much enthusiasm!


-Joe

[S&S RR]

Terrific build log, John (Sorry for your molding master mishap...)

Not sure how I'm just seeing this thread after five pages.
Recently, I've started down the path of creating masters, making molds, and casting them in Hydrocal. Been spending *a lot* of time on CC Crow's website lately. Also hunted down a copy of the Mainline Modeler issue with the "Masonry and Stonework" article by Jack Work.


This is all tremendously interesting stuff, I'm following along with much enthusiasm!


-Joe

Hi Joe


Thanks for stopping by the thread - I'm on my way into the train room to pour some resin step castings to see if I can bring them into scale. I want to try resin first rather than hydrocal because I have to cut them with out chipping them.  With hydrocal that is more of a challenge than I'm looking for.  

[S&S RR]

The resin castings are poured and beginning to cure.  We should have something to work with tomorrow morning. I have also poured some casting for a future project in the same pour.  Planning ahead for Challenge 2.

[S&S RR]

I pulled the resin casting from the mold and we have a piece to work on.  I started the process of shortening the steps by pour the mold a little light so now all I have to do is spend a few minutes on the bench evening out the first step. Tomorrow I will see how well this resign cuts and we will see if plan A is going to work. I'm real happy with the way the brick pattern on the top surface of the steps reproduced. I know it's hard to see in the picture with all that white. Yes there is sanding dust on the casting from me getting started with the process and then remembering to take a picture.

[S&S RR]

The sanding dust is also all over my desk now because I brought it out of the work room with me.

[S&S RR]

Tonight, I'm happy to report that the out of scale steps challenge has been solved and this build is back on track.  Through the next few posts I will show you the steps I went through to fix it. 


I want to say thanks again to Mark Dalrymple for his good eye. If you go back a few pages you will see his post as I was taking the castings out of the box.  He basically asked me to measure the steps. Which lead to pouring castings and todays cutting and sanding.

[S&S RR]

At this point I have shown the steps I went through to pour the new resign step castings. Now I need to cut them apart and resize the steps to 8 inches HO scale from the current 12 inches.