Hi folks


OK some of you know I have been making small resin parts in
the past and after buying a Corgi James Bond Lotus esprit with one rocket left,
decided to look into making plastic parts.


I’m not new to resin casting as I used to make repro parts
for model railways years ago but now the materials available are far more
superior.


I’ve spent today setting up the casting workshop and the
last of my materials I need have arrived


At the moment I have three main areas I’m setting up
including.


Resin parts including coloured


Clear parts such as glass units, including tinted glass


Plastic injection moulding all colours


Everything will be made from master original parts to obtain
the best fit and accuracy.


Resin casting is now ready to go and in the process of
making moulds, I will be doing mainly Corgi and Matchbox resin parts, and glass
units.


Some of these in the list are already available elsewhere
but either take ages to get or cost the earth. My aim is better pricing and 2
day delivery.


So far my mould list includes;


Glass units


Corgi Thames Caravan No 420, glass unit clear,  Corgi Commer Karrier No 455 glass unit clear
or blue tint, Corgi Bedford TK tractor unit or tipper, glass unit clear.


Corgi VW Karmann No239 glass unit clear, Corgi Oldmobile No
264 glass unit clear.


Matchbox clear units, to many to list here, in clear, orange
tint, green tint or  blue tint one of the
parts will be the Ford pickup top for the kennel truck No50 and the wild life
truck No57.

Also added to the list today, the Corgi Batmobile No 247 glass unit as this has already been requested.


Resin parts self colour for Matchbox tankers replacement
rear for models such as Tate and Lyle suger truck again working on the full
list yet to be published.


Corgi Oldmobile No 264 front bumper unit.


Dinky transit van glass unit.


Coloured resin parts;


Husky Guy coal truck loads, in black sand or grey for gravel


Budgie Leyland hippo coal truck load
black


There will also be custom parts for code3 models and
starting with 1:43, such as truck
bodies, racing seats and wheels


I should be ready for resin and glass units this month and should
have the website done and will only list what I have in stock so will update
you here.


Plastic injection moulding set up starts in the new year for
small repro parts in correct colours. Including of course the Corgi James bond
Lotus Esprit rockets in red


Matchbox adventure series rockets (also suit battlekings)
Matchbox ladders, Husky ladder and aerial for anglia van in yellow, Matchbox
Commer TV van tv sets and ladder set, dogs for kennel truck, lion for wild life
truck and Matchbox horse box horses in white, brown and black.


One of the parts I know you can’t get and will be making is
the yellow plastic basket for the Corgi Simon Snorkel fire engine and the Corgi
FC jeep hoist truck.


My mould blocks are coming from the USA
so until I have them the injection side is on hold until the new year


I have had some long chats with two ex-Lensey employees here
in Essex UK, now retired, and have offered advice and help.


As you can see I’m not playing with the idea I’m steaming
full on into it so any other suggestions for the list is welcome and of course
forum members will get a better price than listed on the website J


I am looking into white metal casting as I already have a
forge here so worth investigating but will keep you all posted and I am in the
process of looking at machines for casting, base on the centrifugal rotatary casting method.


All going well Essex Models and Miniatures will become one
on the list of suppliers in 2012

Doesn't seem copy and paste from word formats to well

I think you're my new best friend.

How do want to tackle this? Want us to make a list or do want to make your own available?

I am doing a list, but interested in parts hard to get or what people are after.

My Matchbox list covers many 1- 75 parts which so far runs to 150 items, some you can get elsewhere some you can't like the generic superfast engines, in fact most superfast parts are impossible to get.

One thing that has been suggested to me is Corgi Batmobile parts especially the glass units so have added to the list also Corgi tri deck carrimore trailer parts and Holmes wrecker

My list will be posted once the moulds are done but hoping to build it up over next year

This has been festering a while now and the Husky anglia van ladder started the ball rolling because it only comes in red which is the wrong colour and now have  a nice collection of Corgi James Bond red plastic rockets too

The list above is the one's I am starting with because I need them too

So yes suggestions are welcome RV

Without knowing what's already available, I'd say that something that's always missing from old diecasts seems to be stuff like the plastic canvas from models like Corgi Land Rover and Jeep FC150.

Not to mention all the 'extras' sometimes found with models. Stuff like figures, sleds, ski poles, suitcases, roadsigns, roadcones, benches, milk loads and so on.

Yep totally agree Tee, have few things sorted on loan to get master moulds from and will no doubt add more as time goes on.

Heya Scruff, something I've been tinkering on for a couple of years is back-engineering of the Barris Batmobile back to the Lincoln Futura.

The part that needs to be made is the canopy lid that covers the gap of the windows.

What would be ideal is a single piece closed window and roof so that other more experienced renovators can also have a go.

I've run into a couple of snags.

Looks very interesting especially the ability for injection moulding. Yes seek out what most like to repair which will be the biggest challenge to crack there Scruffy our dear TC friend.

Hi Scruffy,

here's one you might want to add. This be the backrest of the Corgi Camaro/Pontiac, although I think more 1/43 Corgi's can benefit aswell.

Just a note here on capabilities, I am going to be limited to size and machine capabilities, this is a general outline.

Resin moulding

Although resin casting can be done to any size, my larger scale production will invlove the RTM system (Resin Transfer moulding) this mean rather than gravity fed resin this is done under pressure giving a more guaranteed fill and better finish which means faster production without faults, my machine is limited to a mould size of 6" x 6" X 3" high but can have multiple parts on sprues, a bit like an Airfix kit, or larger parts in depth such as body parts, but to start with smaller parts are being focused on.

Time line, resin moulding starts in the next few weeks

Plastic injection

Again limited to machine size, this has the capacity to fire enough molten plastic to do small plastic parts on sprues but have found the one shot machine has limits so can't do complete larger scale interiors such as 1:43 scale corgi interiors, although if this works out the next machine has constant feed mean larger plastic parts can be made.

Time line, plastic moulding starts in Jan 2012

Diecast white metal 

This is based on the centrifugal casting system and produces parts on a star shaped sprue, size is limited to the disc size and as I don't have the machine spec yet don't know how big I can go yet but again the focus in on smaller parts

Time line, still open but looking at spring before set up

Some of my trail and errors in gravity or spin casting.

It cost a bit to make the replacement breaches for the Britains 155 mm gun, but I got there in the end.




I was using recycled Zamak which is a lot harder on the polyester rubber moulds than white metal that is for sure.

 

It's all a learning curve Gunner, if you had seen the amount of resin I have wasted or the amount of plastic gone back to be recycled your not the only one.

I've done casting in the past but on a bigger scale weight wise, and made money out of scrap metal by melting it down into ingots, I did do lead sand casting and still have some examples left, will have to get pictures, mostly sacrificial methods though 'one casting one mould' type of thing and had some super failures which meant starting all over again.

I'm actually looking forward to it will give me something to get my teeth stuck into