Misc: the Saga Takes an Unfortunate Twist

Casualties of war... a load of busted micro-drills.

Oh dear... oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. 

My first moulding and casting experiment has been pretty disastrous. The casts were, with one iffy-ish exception - ironically the duff old erdpfahl (see two pics down from here) - appalling. I think this was caused by several factors. The chief one being crap mould design. I tried to pack too much into one mould, and I didnt go about the mould design and construction carefully or cleverly enough.

More casualties of war... first resin castings, a dizzzaster!

Sadly this means my two bigger moulds are most likely costly junk. Certainly the ammo mould doesn't work, as witness the above picture; contrast the part to be cast, bottom, with the casting itself, above/middle. I've yet to try casting the multi-part 88mm gubbins mould. But the second half of that cured in such a way that prising them apart was all but impossible, despite my use of the mould-release liquid that came in the casting set. So the mould is likely to be both damaged, as well as being crap to start with! I will cast with it, at some point. But I don't have high hopes for the results.

All the bits I cast: only the erdpfahl is tolerably ok.

One thing to come out of all this is a substantial re-design of the 88mm sundries, as can be seen in my next post. I've unpacked all the various bits, and wound up with four sub-groups. I've also taken more care with the forms, adding bigger and more plentiful pouring and venting openings. I'm hoping with better care and diligence this next time, I can get better results.