How do they make resin cockpit or other upgrade sets?

Don Stauffer

Yes, someone actually does build up the pattern to make a female mold from. Usually  the mold is RTV, a rubber-like material that has some flexibility so that no relief angles are needed, giving better accuracy.  I assume someday in the future patterns might be made from 3D printers, but I know no resin casters who use them yet for patterns. Of course, with the high price of urethane resin, maybe they would forgo the casting and just make the production parts in the printer.  However, with the times I have seen quoted for existing 3D printers, that is tying up an expensive piece of capital for a long time.

Yes, but the prices are _tumbling_ on printers, and new models are coming out that can handle different-sized pieces.  The investment shifts from keeping a lot of silicone and resin in stock, and having to find a place to store and use the molds to keeping the powder and resin for the printer and keeping the files for the patterns backed up.  You can 'just in time' print a part when an order comes in. 

I would think a resin caster could use a 3-D printing system to move into areas they wouldn't think of with resin mastering/casting due to low demand.  Of course someone who really enjoys making the master wouldn't like doing it, unless they also liked messing with 3-D CAD programs. 

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas

Check out the Form 1 (formlabs.com). They're getting very close.

Costs on 3d printers ARE coming down, but resolution is ot there on the less expensive models.  There's a $30g unit at our local CC & it's resolution is 0.010".  For very fine stuff, it's not real great.  From what I've seen makerbot's res is 0.4mm.

Reid

+1!

Those were cool pictures.

Wow!  Thanks for the info and pix, ModelNerd!  That kind of makes my head hurt!

How are they made?

Like this...

1) A master pattern is made. Most companies nowadays use computer aided design (CAD) software to draw the parts:

2) Next, the part files are send out for 3D printing. Once the parts return, they are cleaned up and set up for molding. Here, small parts are stuck into a clay bed, with the fill tubes for resin injection in place (the vent tubes have yet to be added):

3) Then, everything is boxed up, and the RTV silicone rubber is poured. As you can see, the first halves of these molds were already poured the day before:

4) Once the mold is finished, resin can be hand-injected. Here are the parts, removed from the mold about half an hour after liquid resin is shot in:

Here is a complete set of aftermarket parts, ready to go:

That's it, in a nutshell. Some companies have minor variations, but the principal remains the same.

Taking measurements off the real subject isn't going to do much good, from what I've seen the AM guys need to match the cockpit or what ever part they are doing to the kit they want it to go into.   I see it all the time in threads on her how this resin item won't fit in a Hasegawa but will fit in a Tamiya for example.

John

Scratch-building a master  makes sense, when you think about it. I'd love to see the process step-by-step. The detail in this set I was looking at just blows me away.

The guys that publish a lot of our reference books do that to take pictures, so I don't see why you couldn't ask to do the same to make a model part. Never hurts to ask.........

Do the folks who create the masters travel the country taking actual measurements from the full scale items?  I'd love to be able to go somewhere and say "Hi.  I work for an aftermarket resin part company.  I'm going to need to sit in the cockpit of your F-94 so I can take countless measurements."  Then the museum or air base will say "Absolutely, Mr. Holmberg!!!  Right this way."

Siiiigh...

Eric

From what I've seen and read, the after-market guys make/scratch-build a supposedly accurate master, using all the references that can be found, and use that master to make a casting mold, much the same way as we modelers make a limited-use mold. They just make sure that all aspects of their product is very accurate before releasing to the public.

Saw on the news that you can make a usable gun in a 3D printer that Airport scanners  wouldn't pick up

Yes, someone actually does build up the pattern to make a female mold from. Usually  the mold is RTV, a rubber-like material that has some flexibility so that no relief angles are needed, giving better accuracy.  I assume someday in the future patterns might be made from 3D printers, but I know no resin casters who use them yet for patterns. Of course, with the high price of urethane resin, maybe they would forgo the casting and just make the production parts in the printer.  However, with the times I have seen quoted for existing 3D printers, that is tying up an expensive piece of capital for a long time.

yes 3-d printers are the way of the future.

Thad

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I would think the emergence of the 3-D printers we may see  a new flow of parts.  lots of 3d programs out there.

John

It's magic.

For 32nd I can understand that. But in 72nd scale, unless they have elves working for them, I would be amazed its the original is done that way. But I can't imagines how else its done.

I've seen wip on sites like hyperscale where the master is actually scratch-built by really talented folks, such as Jerry Rutman. His latest work is resin landing gear and wheel bays for the 1/24 fw190D-13 conversion. It was all scratch-built then used as masters for the resin mold. But, that is some huge scale stuff, and like you said. surely that isn't the only way and there must be other ways of getting all that gorgeous resin detail in smaller scale sets. I just dont' know how.

I have often wondered this myself chris. Sometimes I get a resin pit with separate sides and floor, but my latest one was a tub, with only the back open. I would be interested n knowing how this is done as well.