Large Scale Central

1800'3 era freight truck

I started a project this past weekend to try and make my own Civil war era truck… y first attempt was too wide. I used the journal boxes cut out of a bachmann passenger side frame and made a mold with the wood beam attached. It cam out great . However when I assembled it. It was like a five foot gauge truck LOL…

So here is what I did next…

Nice looking little truck. I see your casting in resin. Are you hoping to keep it resin or are you hoping to pour white metal ones?

5 foot gauge? You doing southern railroads? (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Dave the first set I made were too wide… They probably could have passed for 5 foot gauge tho…(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Devon Sinsley said:

Nice looking little truck. I see your casting in resin. Are you hoping to keep it resin or are you hoping to pour white metal ones?

Devon I have just cast stuff in resin. Never tried to use white metal which would be better I’m sure… What do you use to make the molds for the metal?. I haven’t added all the details to this truck yet …nuts, bolts …etc…

So after staring at this thing for a while it was brought to my attention that the journals should be squared off at the top… I was thinking this too. Thanks Shawn… (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif). Now I need to add some more details, Nuts, bolts stuff like that. I also am going to add wood grain to the wood parts using a razor saw or something to hopefully capture the look of wood in the casting…,Any more ideas pro or con… send my way guys…

Travis Dague said:

Dave the first set I made were too wide… They probably could have passed for 5 foot gauge tho…(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

That’s why I asked if you were modeling southern railroads. 5 foot gauge was somewhat common in the south, in the era you are modeling.

Yes, I was kidding.

I know you were Dave (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif). I am familiar with the different gauges during the Civil War. It made logistics complicated… I do appreciate your input… I am in the process of doing some modifications to the truck side frames and journals will take some more photos and update when I am done… I hope to get the details to look really good on this. I want these to be close to the prototype as possible and still be able to make a mold of it. Will probably have to do in a couple of pieces and some assembly …

Travis,

The trucks I was making I used just the regular RTV mold and it worked but it did degrade the mold rapidly. They make high temp RTV mold rubber. You would make it the same way. I have to get some so I can get back to casting metal.

Bolt and nut details added and ready to mold.

That’s a good use of Lego’s…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Its going to be difficult removing that from the mold.

David Maynard said:

Its going to be difficult removing that from the mold.

Why do you think that? It does look like too many deep undercuts to me

It came right out after I wiggled it around… getting ready to cast it in resin.

I was thinking about all of the sticky out bits. The mold has to flex/smooch enough to let them pass.

Boris was Badenuff to pop it out.(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

The truck on the left is the pattern and the right one is resin cast one piece…

master truck

resin cast one piece. some details did not come out (nuts and bolts) due to the mold medium i used. I like using Mold Putty RTV. I thought that is what I bought but it was Alumilite stuff. it is not as pliable as the Mold Putty product…

mast truck.

resin cast very sturdy…but lacks the details…

So this is where I’m at with these… I am going to go back and make another master truck that would need to be assembled and see how this works out. Only downfall is it would not be as strong as a one piece molded truck.

Looks good. Worst case you can do without the details for the mold and then just add them after.

looks great. Nice job

Well guys I am kinda stumped… I have tried to cast this in one piece, which came out of the mold fine. However it did not pick up the bolt details like I want. Shawn mentioned that I could add the details later, that would be ok to do. probably look better also. Now I really wanted to cast the side frames and add the bolster fastening it with screws to each end… (small ones )…I built another one tonite using this method. It came out okay but still isn’t as rigid as I like. So now what?.. I need some ideas… I also need to get around the axle end just riding inside the stryrene or resin cast hole for the end of the axle. In due time this will wear out and be useless. So I need to come up with a insert of some sort to act as a bearing… Was thinking of maybe a piece of copper tubing?. Or a large pop rivet end?. I am not giving up on this. I really want some 1860’s wood beam trucks for my Civil War cars to look period …

For those of you who made trucks before, maybe you can Share some ideas… ( Devon LOL) … I know this is possible to make and capable of doing it. Just want to be able to cast them instead of building individually out of stryrene… 1. for durability and 2. I need a bunch of them and a couple of other people I would like to make them for their stuff when they et going with the Civil War train project… I think a mold made of metal would be awesome . but it would take a lot of work to do that…What about a two part mold?. I haven’t made one yet, but would love to try it… Maybe it would make this project easier. Well enough chewing on you ears… Let me know what you guys think I could do to improve on my project. You are all a lot of help thanks!..I will post some pics of the three variations I have made so far and a description of em… Thanks again …