In over my head?!?

[ScarredKustoms]

OK well yesterday was my 8th wedding anniversary and my wife being the wonderful woman she is bought me. This:


1/32 scale Revell F15 D/E Eagle The largest plane kit I've ever owned

as many of you may know I have been looking to get a 1/32 scale jet fighter to kit bash with this:



1/25 scale AMT Kenworth T600A that I have had in my stash for over 10 years and have started couple times.

Looking to kit bash them make something like this:



Here lies my problem. I am building this model for a couple reasons but the main reason is for a character vehicle in a graphic novel that I am writing. Going to take pictures of the model and convert those images into the images within the comic. Having said that I also want to make a garage kit of the finished vehicle and release a resin kit as a product to go along with graphic novel.

I would like to hear you're guys/gals opinions on how you would go about doing this. I know how to make the molds etc. I just curious as to in what order you would do it. Build the complete vehicle then purchase same kits again and make molds of relative parts. Or make molds of the various stages of assembly. or make molds of all the parts before putting anything together. This is my first time doing something like this. Just wanted to get a little feed back before I dive in head first.

Once I start building this vehicle I will start a thread. Think I am a little intimidated by the size of the F15 lol

 

[ScarredKustoms]

I have thought about this. With the amount of modifications I am planning very little will be left unmodified of the original kits. Maybe the tires :-\

 

[Grendels]

I don't go there very often, but I have seen people posting scratch builds that they later turn into resin kits over at starship modeler. One of the others that hangs out there might be able to tell you more.

 

[Junkie]

You basically going to build a master. This is the master 'pattern' that will then be cast. I'm not an expert but I've read lots - story of my life.

I've seen some garage kits (GK) that have many parts, others few. You need to learn about the casting process, it's limitations and methods of dividing your pattern into sub assemblies and individual parts that will serve casting best. You can first build a prototype - work out the design and then repeat the process to make your pattern or do it the first time.

IMHO and in my experience with casting it is in and of itself an art and requires a certain level of skill to be successful (on a consistent basic)- that plus the right equipment such as a pressure chamber.

I'm not trying to discourage you, not at all. Just know going into this that there's a decent learning curve. There are guys out there that just build patterns, guys that just cast etc...Perhaps it would be more cost effective for you to just build the pattern and work with a caster.

I would make sure all parts are modified. Don't want to get into a position of recasting.

 

[ScarredKustoms]

Thank you all for the input. I do a lot of mold making and casting. I think I am going to build the first one as the prototype and figure out the least amount of parts as I go just to keep cost down on the mold and casting side. Like I said before going to be alot of modifications to pull this off I started sizing things up last night and it really will be a cool piece once it's all said and done. I might end up not even doing a GK of it. Just thought it would be a great item to offer to go along with the comic. I guess I will wait to see how well the comic goes over before I get to ahead of myself :-\ :-\

 

[Jeep]

I am coming into this a little late, sorry the topic was hiding from me. The problem I see with using this as a pattern or master for making a mold and casting duplicates in resin is its sheer size which makes a correspondingly large mold and large casting. It has been my experience that it is very difficult to make back your cost back with out making large numbers of "kits" Worse, depending on what rubber you are using to make your molds the molds it self will start to degrade and wear out. It was also our experience that not all the parts we dropped out ended up being good castings, and that was after a lot of failures tuning the air vents in the multi part molds.

What I am getting at is not just the problems with actually casting and mold making for even limited production but the sheer size of your model based in 1/24 and 1/32 donor kits is awful big to do a project like this with intend of maybe duplicating the finished project. It may take many pounds of RTV rubber and resins chemicals just to make one, not to mention the size of the pressure vessel that might be necessary.

 

[Junkie]

Thank you all for the input. I do a lot of mold making and casting. -

OH! Forget what I said then.

 

[ScarredKustoms]

Thank you all for the input. I do a lot of mold making and casting. -

OH! Forget what I said then.

It's all relative ... Casting parts like this is an art form in itself. Like I said think I will build the prototype, get the photos I need of it and finish the novel and see what kind of response it gets before I sink any money into buying silicone and casting resins for this project ... I don't think I will use that much silicone if I do 2 part brush up molds with support shells. Figuring out exactly where I need to vent will be the tricky part. could always go really cheap and just do it in vinyl and just make a shell of a model... Then again getting ahead of myself.