A WWII scenic diorama

Lovely stuff.

Looks like we could have a subsection now.

Check on my plaster former, still very damp. May need a visit to the oven to help it dry out a bit quicker.

More later

Toto

 

well,

the shed it was tonight and the first task I had to look at was this ......

it was still quite damp and thats been about 24 hours. So .... my secret weapon came out .....

and then it was casting time .....

and my first cast .......

lovely detail .....

and another ......

I was happy with that but it did take an age to dry out enough to be able to release from the mould. about half an hour where it should be 15 mins.

So .... I thought the mix at 40 grams plaster to 20ml water needed to change to reduce the water content and let it dry quicker ...... with mixed results.

the next full panel did come out fine but I was too tempted to start joining panels together rather than letting them dry out properly. Needless to say I damaged the joining brick courses.

On to the smaller panels ...... again with mixed success.

here they are on the vibrating table getting the air vibrated out of them .....

and off the table to free the table up for the next mould ....

and about a 60% success rate. All but the thinnest moulds working out as they broke up when trying to release them.

So ....... a bit more playing around with mixes and curing times.

more of the same tomorrow. i will get there. tonight was the first attempt and a bit of a practice round.

the detail when they do work out is first class. I will need dozens of these, not to mention the various other moulds that I have to try out.

Its been good fun and I am looking forward to doing more.

catch up tomorrow.

cheers for now

toto

 

Hi Gary,

Amongst the best I've seen. I have various types which I will show as I make them. The detail is remarkable.

Toto

 

I have bought a harder plaster from tiranti's as P of P is not very good. Especially on the more fragile pieces. I will try the salt suggestion Ron.

The pieces are so small. It'll take me ages to get enough cast, especially the cobbles but .... I find this quite therapeutic. I'm playing around with pigments and acrylic paint for colouring in the cast as the drying times seem to vary. Once I get a happy medium, I'll stick to that.

My former had all but dried out ..... until one end got a rinse when I had a leak in a plastic tub which spread over the work top area. Needles to say, the former is now somewhere safer and nearly there again.

That's the good thing about casting hundreds of tiny pieces, you can jump into it between the more major tasks.

I'll get more photos up ..... it could be Monday though as I have a lot on tomorrow, ..... ill explain later.

Domestics rule ok.

Cheers for now ... toto ..... from the casting room .... erm I mean shed.

 

Never saw that one coming.

 

So ...... not a lot of updates over the last couple of days .... and .... you lot will be thinking I'm slacking. ...... not.

a few domestics but in between ..... lots of casting. its relentless as the parts are so small and, certainly, as far as cobbles go ...... you need hundreds .... if not thousands.

you get 80 in a cast.

my former is dry .... again and I was looking to start the brickwork courses up the side and around the arch when I noticed that the brick bond that I had bought for the main walls were not ideal for the sewer project.

My main brickwork casts are in stretcher bond and the best bond for forming arches is done in flemish bond. Its no bullshit, it is demonstrated on the utube videos why this is the case and I missed it. so, while stretcher bond is ideal for everyday structures, houses, factories, etc etc, flemish bond is better suited for creating arches. I wont go into the detail of why right now but i will explain later once the flemish bond moulds arrive.

meanwhile, whilst i await the delivery of the above, I have been concentrating on cobble stones, kerb stones and iron work.

above is an example of a manhole, great detail, and even better is .......

its a two piece cast which give phenominal detail given the size. Well pleased.

so .... my next mould was underway .... but what is it ???????

scrape of the over burden and you reveal ........ kerb stones, with two difference radius curves and a " cheese " piece to help forming slabs etc around the curves.

and a collection of kerbs etc starting to form.

cobbles ...... by the hundred ( well actually 80 per cast ).

Now ..... several images taken have not saved ..... dont know why but i think either my current

work " camera or memory card which has not been changed in all the time I've had it has given up the ghost. there is no way I'm taking over a grands worth of DSLR camera into that environment. another bridge camera may be ordered soon.

Anyway .... some out of date photos that did save.

my boxes of different casts which are actually a bit fuller since these were taken.

and my barney rubble box of broken casts that did not make it ( most from my earlier attempts ) which can be used as bombed out rubble on my diorama. ( nothing goes to waste ).

some jars of pigment ( which does work better than paint ) and I have more smaller jars from my railway modelling collection.

and the casting bench complete with weighing scales and vibrating table as well as tubs of clean water to add to plaster, dirty water for washing brushes, scrapers and the like and a tub with clean water with release agent to coat the mould with prior to casting.

So, as I said .... not much in the way of progress photos but i am casting like mad to create the cobbles stones that I'll need for when the sewer is formed and the road is ready to go down. Same with kerb stones although that is not such a big task.

I have been having issues with some of the brickwork moulds. more so the narrowest versions which are quite extensively used for " turning corners " at window and door reveals. they are very good for this but I am struggling to get them to survive the process.

I stoped using plaster of paris and bought a better quality plaster from tiranti's but that does not appear to be up to the fragile nature of the cast either. I have now forked out for " Herculite " plaster which is meant to be a very strong hard curing plaster. I'm waiting for it to arrive hopefully by tuesday at the latest. If it works, I'll be using it for everything just to get a " one fits all " solution.

I'll update with how I get on.

So .... boring twaddle for the moment but things should start to get more interesting over the next few days ...... for now thought ...... its back to cobble stones and kerb stones for me ....... cobblers ...... thats what I say.

cheers for now

toto

 

Herculite plaster arrived today.

I'll try and get a trial of it done tonight on some of the trickier casts. Hopefully all will work well.

Apparently the setting time can be determined not just by the water / plaster mix but also by the temperature of the water. The warmer it is ..... the less curing time you get.

I need to see what range of temperatures they are talking about as this could be a significant way of speeding up the curing time / process provided it's not to the detriment of the overall strength.

More as it happens. .... still waiting for my Flemish bond mould to do the arches for the sewer former. Should be here any day.

Plenty to do meanwhile ....... cobbles. by the hundred.

Cheers

Toto

 

Enlighten me