SRMW Threadwell Textile on the S&S RR

[S&S RR]

So, this morning I went on to Bob's website and copied the reference pictures and verified the spelling for the name of this kit. I have seen it spelled 5 ways in the last couple of days and I was responsible for 2 of the misspellings. I'm and Engineer and spelling is not one of the things I do well.  I miss having Candy here to help. So anyway, I wanted to get it right for the title of the thread.  Here is the label.

[S&S RR]

The first step in the build process for me was to make some molds of the castings.  I plan on doing a kit bash building with the main structure and also know I will need a number of the rock retaining wall castings to complete the scene on my layout.. So I unpacked the hydrocal castings and carefully placed them in the mold boxes to make some molds.
Here is a picture of the molds that I made.

[S&S RR]

The top mold is for a trackside shed project - that is a mold of the casting from the stone shed from George Sellios'  I. M. Dunn kit. I have a plan for it in the Eagles Next yard area of my layout.

[Janbouli]

Following along , all you builders must have AC at your workspot.

[S&S RR]

Following along , all you builders must have AC at your workspot.

Jan


Yes - in my case I'm very fortunate to have a central air conditioner for my home. Thank you for following along with the thread.

[S&S RR]

The molds turned out beautiful - with the only one issue - I broke one of the castings getting it out of the mold. I had about 2 hours into repairing it when I decided that a resin casting from the molds would be a much better way to go. The problem with hydrocal is that it just keeps getting harder and more brittle as it ages. The castings in this red box have been around for many years. The casting that broke actually shattered - the edges of the crack had to be repaired by gluing many pieces of detail (especially around the windows). I was in the process of fixing a couple places with putty when I decided to use the resin castings.  If you follow Bob's kits he switched from hydrocal to resin sometime between the Treadwell kit and the Salyes Mill. The resin is so much easier to work with. So, I decided that I would make molds of all the castings before I lost a casting to an opps. The cost of mold material and resin is a lot easier to deal with. I will be using resin castings for this build and all future builds.  I just ordered the materials I need to make resin castings for Delabarre Tool and Die which will be a companion structure to this one on my layout.

[PRR Modeler]

I'll be following.

[vinceg]

John, I'm really looking forward to seeing the final scene. I'm a big SRMW fan and the shape of the terrain at your site will nicely complement the natural design of those two killer kits.

Could you share your molding and casting process? I also have a zillion red box kits (only missing a couple) and after hearing you talk about protecting the castings by molding them, I'm thinking I might like to do the same thing.

[sdrees]

This will be a fun project to follow.

[Janbouli]

Could you share your molding and casting process? I also have a zillion red box kits (only missing a couple) and after hearing you talk about protecting the castings by molding them, I'm thinking I might like to do the same thing.

Yes , that would be great, would really like to see it done by someone who obviously knows his way.

[fsmcollector67]

Could you share your molding and casting process? I also have a zillion red box kits (only missing a couple) and after hearing you talk about protecting the castings by molding them, I'm thinking I might like to do the same thing.

Yes , that would be great, would really like to see it done by someone who obviously knows his way.

I too would love to see what materials, and how you make the Mold boxes...

[ACL1504]

John,

I've made a few molds of the smaller wall in the SRMW Blackstone Paper Mill. I made the copy in Hydrocal. However, for all the Magnuson walls I've copied, I used resin in the RTV molds.

The structure below is from Blackstone, the building on the end of the mill, and all walls were cast in Hydrocal.

I do agree that resin seems to be the easiest to demold. I've had great success with both resin and Hydrocal.





You can have your thread back now.




Tom

[S&S RR]

I'll be following.

Curt


I'm glad you will be joining us.

[S&S RR]

John, I'm really looking forward to seeing the final scene. I'm a big SRMW fan and the shape of the terrain at your site will nicely complement the natural design of those two killer kits.

Could you share your molding and casting process? I also have a zillion red box kits (only missing a couple) and after hearing you talk about protecting the castings by molding them, I'm thinking I might like to do the same thing.

Vince


I will be making molds for the remainder of the castings in this kit and for Delabarre Tap & Die in the next couple of weeks and will post pictures and describe my molding process.  If you want to take a look at the index for my S&S RR build thread I have posted pictures of the molding process I use in the past.  Just in case you wanted to see it before I post it on this thread.

[S&S RR]

This will be a fun project to follow.

Steve


Thanks for following along.