While I was waiting for the mould to cool down and set I turned up a new acorn, when things start to go wrong inevitably even if the plug isn't damaged, the cleaning up often takes longer than making a new one.
As you can see the primer fused itself to the hot rubber which wouldn't have been so bad if the surface was even and not full of bubbles.

Attempt 2
The grain on any wooden plug needs to be sealed so plug 2 got treated to a coat of thin Cyno (ZAP) which goes off to form a very hard sandable sealer that can be rubbed down to with 600 and 800 grit wet and dry paper. Once sanded smooth the plug was dried out with a hot air gun to get rid of any moisture in the wood. Although there was a bubble free pour for attempt 2, the plug would not release cleanly from the rubber mould, so I abandonded this method in favour of an ingot pour. I will post those photos tomorrow I have just seen the time.

Sorry all, that took longer than I expected, I had a Chimney to remove, a floor to lay and walls to board and plaster, then Chris Golds got in a bit of a hole with the spinners on his latest model; an Avro York (Lancaster variant). That required a few hours with the lathe plus drilling and tapping 36 x 2.5mm holes.

All those jobs are done so all I have to do is get this build log up to date before I fire up the home build charcoal furnace that I put together at the tail end of last week.

I know progress is a bit slow but here is more the learning and development process for the bronze shoe for the bowsprit, I am posting it here to hopefully encourage others that if a scale Whatnot isn't available for a particular model then we have all been gifted with the ability to experiment and hopefully if we persevere we will end up with a passable Whatnot.

A bit more fiddling and a bit more thinking led onto a V5 mould this time with a casting sprue attached to the casting. It was a real faff trying to attach the sprue to the shoe.

Thats Very crafty work there !

Typical excellence form your shop.

Costing up the required commercial tools has an electric burnout furnace coming in at £1200, plus another £700 for safety crucible furnace and another £600 for a centrifugal casting machine. £2500 to cast a single shoe seems a tad on the heavy side so here goes another experiment.

Required,
2.5l paint pot
terracotta flower pot to fit hole
cement
glass filler beads.
Vasa 55 EDF unit
300 brushed 12 motor
2 tin cans, a stick and some charcoal.

Not many folk will get EDF into the Scale sailbots forum!

Originally Posted by Tim B.

Thats Very crafty work there !

Typical excellence form your shop.

Thank you Tim, I think that posting the progress of the small detail of the model is actually helping. It is surprising how much extra effort and re-working goes into things knowing that the Macro lens is going to show up small imperfections that at this scale are almost invisible.

I know that I have benefited over the years for magazine articles and hopefully by posting how I have ended up with my results someone else will be able to save a few hours or $ attempting things for themselves.

There is a modelling god! I had a call from a chap in East Devon who saw this thread and put me in touch with a man he knows who does bronze casting for a living. I needed a nice piece of seasoned Oak for a threshold so had a day out.
Axminster Power tools, Devon Hardwoods and Devon Metalcrafts.

Devon Metalcrafts will add 10 of my wax patterns to their next cast which will be once they return from their summer shutdown. I know I only need one but the economics of the offer were that one is the same price as 10.

Originally Posted by Robert May

Devon Metalcrafts will add 10 of my wax patterns to their next cast which will be once they return from their summer shutdown

And are they still on holiday ???

Originally Posted by Tim B.

And are they still on holiday ???

Sorry Tim, it seems as soon as I am observed building the Waveney it is assumed I have nothing better to do.

It seems the house is not big enough and needs extending so I am just digging out foundations, ready to build walls, cut a roof build a chimney and install a Log burner!....... All by Christmas

Busted !

You might consider my method, I use a life size cardboard cut out of myself with a spring loaded arm that appears to be pulling weeds, carefully placed in the yard ...

well sorry i don't know about this. So please forgive me.


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