Very cool! Your ACe turned out very nicely. Great work! Now, who'll be the first to paint it MRL? Sgt Tim, Thanks for your work on this project--and good luck in that Texas gig. Sounds like it will be good for the finances.
Nice work as always, Dave. I just hope Tim can make some shells from your master, because I sure want one for myself.
Dave, That is one BEAUTIFUL locomotive. Very nice work. I envy you for your time and talent. Keep up the great work, and keep sharing.
Hellavuhjob Ground breaking talent. Almost as great as the second coming of RAMBO with S. Stallone. SGT. Tim sir you are to be highly commended for your efforts. Robert Ray sir, you also are to be commended. Those decals look real good. In fact I would like to purchase some sets for U.P. CSX and NS. I hope you will be making those roads. If not I will just revert to that old standby, N scale Microscale decals. Sgt. Tim with your heavy heavy work load try not to get overwhelmed. we don't want you in the hospital from exhaustion.
Stunning work David and I'm sure everybody is waiting for the shells. BTW there are some other nice Items on your table.
Not My Kudos!!! Wow!!! Dave that Rio Grande paint scheme is Awesome!!! I have to say, as I study the SD70ACe shell you so expertly assembled, I am amazed at your fine craftsmanship!!! Most Excellent Work!!!! Hobo Tim
Great! I want one! The question is shall i make MRl ( witch is my 2 preferred Line) Or the UP SP heritage unit?
SD70ACe Update #1 Tonight, after finishing two TTX Maxi III's (and boxing them up for shipping) and finishing 9 lighted Mi-Jacks and 3 Non-Lighted Mi-Jacks I have just completed the first step in making a RTV Mold, the "Base". The Base is nothing more than a thicker piece of styrene sheet plastic that is the main base then a build up of modeling clay along with the part to be molded. The SD70ACe consists of 3 plastic pieces and so I have just finished making 3 bases. All I need to do now is glue temporary thin styrene sheet sides and mix up the RTV and pour. It is a little more complicated than that but you get the point. Here are three photos of the Mold in Progress. There you have it, the up to date progress of the SD70ACe shells. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please note, I will not accept any pre-orders for shells as I do not know yet if making cast copies of the shell will turn out right. After close inspection of the rear area of the shell I have a major concern in the side grills. My fingers are crossed. Price? Please don't ask as I don't know yet. Again will depend on how well all castings and etching are. Speed is of essense here. If the first attempt fails I will try for at least one good cast master. The plastic master will be immediately shipped back to David as the owner is getting mighty impatient for his D&RGW paint scheme!!!!! Thank you!!! Hobo Tim p.s. More progress photos to come!!!!
Off topic, but kinda inclusive to the topic for those planning on making decals for this shell: Tango Papa still has Alps inks! I just ordered $500 worth. White's are up to $18.75 now, and although they are OKI, they have the same barcode. All the OKI inks except Opaque White, Red, Green, Blue, and the Kodak Orange and Green, use the same barcodes, but to use the colors I just listed, you have to peel and stick a barcode from a regular OKI or Alps color to use them.
Update #2 Here are progress photos as of 7:35pm EST, Monday, 2-18-08. I have mixed up 20cc's of RTV rubber and am carefully applying it thinly to the model surfaces. I eventually applied 2-3 thin coats on top of each other within a 10 minute time frame from the same batch of RTV. After about 10 minutes the RTV starts to set up. Next I built up the sides using a accumilated abundance of styrene sheet strips I use for this very purpose, Mold Sides. Once the sides are glued to the base and no pin holes are present, where the RTV will leak out, I mixed up some more RTV and poured over the models. I then used a vibrating action to aggitate the molds so any trapped air bubbles would ride to the top and pop. I am hoping these molds will produce some very good looking shells parts. Remember, this is the first half of the 2 part squish molds I am making. The next part gets interesting. You have to allow for air bubbles in the resin a way to get out. You'll see in the next set of photos. If all goes well I should have the molds prepped and poured tonight. Tomorrow they will cure before I start pouring resin in them. Till the next update!!! Hobo Tim
Update #3 The first part of the 2 part squish mold is set and ready for part 2. Here I have taken the styrene sheet sides off exposing the mold. I need to carefully remove the mold from the styrene bottom WITHOUT REMOVING THE PARTS. This is a delicate job as the clay can easily rip out the master being molded. Now that the molds are seperated from the styrene base I need to clean all of the clay out and any RTV flashing. Shows the mold cleaned and ready for the part 2 prep. More to come......
Update #3.1 The next photo shows the masters prepped for the pour. Just need to re-attach the sides. The sides added and ready for the last step before the POUR!!!!! The last step before mixing any RTV and pouring is to coat all exposed surfaces of the RTV rubber with a "Rubber-to-Rubber" Mold Release. If you do not use this stuff just throw your mold in the trash or good luck cutting it apart!!! More to come......
Update #3.2 And the last photo shows the RTV just poured into the molds for the second part. Notice all of the pegs are above the RTV poured. These are for venting the resin and also allowing resin to refill the mold when pressure is applied in the pressure pot. More to come on that!!!! Now it is time to go to sleep!!!!! Hobo Tim
