Anyone try this?

[wm3798]

I've been fiddling with a scratchbuilt model of the WM station in Cumberland, and have come to a stand-still because of all the windows.


I've inquired about doing them as resin castings, but have been told that they would be too delicate and probably have a lot of flash.  Here's one of the templates for the first floor windows.


Last weekend, while going through my late father's hobby stuff, I came across some lead soldiers that he had cast.  The dyes are hard rubber, and were purchased, not home-made, but it made me think...  Could I make my windows from cast metal?

They would still have a lot of flash, but I would think that it would be easier to work with metal than brittle resin.

Anyone out there tried this?
Lee

[ednadolski]

Exactly how big are these windows?  Cast metal when it is very small isn't going to be all that strong either.  I understand that very small parts such as Sunrise's detail parts have to be made in a spin-casting machine in order to force the molten metal into all areas of the mold.   Shrinkage is another factor to account for if the dimensions have to be precise.

Are you sure there are no commercial parts that can be used or adapted?  If these are really small then laser-cut plywood or even photo-etched metal may be the way to go.   I don't know offhand if that would be cost-effective but check out: http://www.emachineshop.com for more info on custom jobs. They even have a downloadable CAD program so you can save money by doing your own drawings.  I suspect that the setup charges for laser-cut are generally less than producing a photo tool for etching, but I could be off base on that.

HTH,
Ed

[SAH]

Hi,

New to the group and my first post.  Great to see such outstanding modeling going on in N scale.  I followed the bread crumbs Ed left with his NS SD model post on another forum.  Excellent work Ed!

Could you cast the jamb, header and frame in resin or low temp metal and build the sash with styrene strip?  I'm curious about how you resolve the construction issues.  I'll have a bunch of large windows to build in the future. 

Steve Holzheimer

[wm3798]

I think I will end up doing the frames as castings then adding the sash bars.  Just have to grow the kahonas to undertake the project!

Lee