|
|
 Posted - February 14 2014 : 02:23:41 AM
|
Here is my latest project, turning an old AHM C-Liner into a work of sculptural art. I am casting it as a trinket box in bronze/copper alloy using the lost plastic casting investment process.
|
Country:  USA ~
Posts: 867 ~
Member Since: December 21 2013 ~
Last Visit: December 08 2016
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 14 2014 : 02:26:05 AM
|
These things always had awkward pilots so I put my own spin on the design.
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 867 ~
Member Since: December 21 2013 ~
Last Visit: December 08 2016
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 14 2014 : 02:28:32 AM
|
Here is the body all sprued up with wax.
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 867 ~
Member Since: December 21 2013 ~
Last Visit: December 08 2016
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 14 2014 : 02:32:12 AM
|
These are the casting flasks all filled with investment plaster and the vacuum mold machine. They are ready to be fired in the furnace to the right. 
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 867 ~
Member Since: December 21 2013 ~
Last Visit: December 08 2016
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 14 2014 : 02:38:56 AM
|
Keep in mind this is an art piece and not a scale model so forgive me for my un-prototypical changes to the styling of the carbody. The roof hatch is going to be hinged with a release button located in the round roof vent behind the cab.
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 867 ~
Member Since: December 21 2013 ~
Last Visit: December 08 2016
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 14 2014 : 06:35:12 AM
|
How unique and cool! I would have never thought of doing this in a million years, even if I had the stuff to do it with. And the opeing lid with the buttton under the dynamic brake....pretty ingenious. Looking forward to seeing more
http://tycodepot.com/
|
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 14 2014 : 4:17:44 PM
|
Now thats something to use those 122 C-Liners shells for, that I saw on ebay.!
Unspoken expectations are premeditated failures.
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 825 ~
Member Since: December 22 2008 ~
Last Visit: March 16 2015
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 14 2014 : 4:33:35 PM
|
Really wild idea, Steve! Someone's getting creative.
I'll take the drive parts if you don't need them.
The Tyco Depot
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 3927 ~
Member Since: June 20 2007 ~
Last Visit: November 19 2015
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 20 2014 : 02:55:01 AM
|
Here is the latest progress after having cast all the parts in bronze. The next step is to get everything soldered together, stay tuned! 
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 867 ~
Member Since: December 21 2013 ~
Last Visit: December 08 2016
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 20 2014 : 5:15:11 PM
|
Wow I am loving that project. Casting metal like that is a complete mystery to me. Are you going to highly polish it afterward? Mounting on a set of tracks or will it sit by itself?
http://tycodepot.com/
|
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 20 2014 : 6:17:10 PM
|
I'm amazed at the truck castings. they look like perfect replicas. Did you need a 2 sided mold for them?
The Tyco Depot
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 3927 ~
Member Since: June 20 2007 ~
Last Visit: November 19 2015
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 20 2014 : 7:26:46 PM
|
| The final finish will be an aged patina similar to a pair of bronze baby shoes. The truck castings are perfect replicas of the originals because the original plastic trucks were used in the molds. In this process, wax sprues are attached to the originals and then (invested) in a special investment plaster. These are contained in flasks witch are then heated in steps from 300degrees to cure the plaster and then 900degrees to burn out the plastic. While the flasks are still at 900, the metal is heated in a crucible and then poured in to the cavity left behind by the burned out sprues. We use a vacu-form machine that sucks air form below the mold to pull the metal in to the mold for better detail. After 5 minutes, the still hot mold flask and casting are submerged in cold water and the investment plaster basically explodes out of the flask ( that's the fun part)! You then have a finished casting that must be de-sprued and cleaned up.
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 867 ~
Member Since: December 21 2013 ~
Last Visit: December 08 2016
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 20 2014 : 11:56:44 PM
|
Cool... a sacrificial master, and a sacrificial mold. I thought it might be a one-off casting.
The Tyco Depot
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 3927 ~
Member Since: June 20 2007 ~
Last Visit: November 19 2015
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 25 2014 : 11:42:02 PM
|
Here is the finished sculpture about 98% complete. Still needs a little tweaking and fidgeting but I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out.
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 867 ~
Member Since: December 21 2013 ~
Last Visit: December 08 2016
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 25 2014 : 11:48:19 PM
|
quote:Here is the finished sculpture about 98% complete. Still needs a little tweaking and fidgeting but I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out.
Originally posted by metalsmith1Â -Â February 25 2014Â :Â 11:42:02 PM
|
I'm impressed by what you did.
-Steve
"A lot of modellers out there who go to these train shows see broken HO stuff and go, 'This is useless' when, in reality, they can still be used for modeling whether it's as a prop on your layout or a cool project to make something old new again."
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 3533 ~
Member Since: February 17 2014 ~
Last Visit: January 11 2023
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 26 2014 : 12:35:02 AM
|
That is so cool. I love the push button dynamic brake hatch.
Kind of reminds me of the pirate head from Lost In Space. All you need are red LED's in the front windows. 
The Tyco Depot
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 3927 ~
Member Since: June 20 2007 ~
Last Visit: November 19 2015
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 26 2014 : 09:57:12 AM
|
quote:That is so cool. I love the push button dynamic brake hatch.
Kind of reminds me of the pirate head from Lost In Space. All you need are red LED's in the front windows.
Originally posted by NickelPlate759Â -Â February 26 2014Â :Â 12:35:02 AM
|
-Steve
"A lot of modellers out there who go to these train shows see broken HO stuff and go, 'This is useless' when, in reality, they can still be used for modeling whether it's as a prop on your layout or a cool project to make something old new again."
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 3533 ~
Member Since: February 17 2014 ~
Last Visit: January 11 2023
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 28 2014 : 01:31:29 AM
|
I had forgotten about that episode of lost in space, loved the show though. The robot from that show is still the coolest thing ever! It is interesting that the mask they used for a prop has such a Steampunk look to it at a time when Steampunk really didn't exist. It reminds me of the flying head from the movie Zardoz with Sean Connery from around the same time era. Weird movie!
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 867 ~
Member Since: December 21 2013 ~
Last Visit: December 08 2016
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 28 2014 : 10:05:18 PM
|
Lost In Space and Speed Racer were my 2 favorite shows when I was little, and that stupid head gave me the creeps.
I have a smaller version of the robot, but if you want a 1:1 replica, they're only $25K.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TRWJOojO5I
As for the pilot on the C-liner, the original Rivarossi Bakelite shell was a reasonably accurate representation of one with the coupler cover installed, like on this Pennsy unit.
/tyco/forum/uploaded/NickelPlate759/PRR%20FM%20C-Liner%20FF-16%20No.%209448%20LS%20Oblique%20E.19711%20b%20800x.jpg
When Mehano took over production they expanded it into that weird jutting coupler housing with their second revision of the shell, instead of making an accurate pilot with a coupler slot. The one you cut up is the first version with a pilot that was closer to the Rivarossi tooling in the late 50's.
Btw, those truck castings really look amazing. The detail looks crisper than it does in plastic.
The Tyco Depot
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 3927 ~
Member Since: June 20 2007 ~
Last Visit: November 19 2015
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - April 28 2014 : 01:01:46 AM
|
Here is the one that will be receiving the original power chassis.
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 867 ~
Member Since: December 21 2013 ~
Last Visit: December 08 2016
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - July 13 2014 : 10:47:54 PM
|
Nelson and Steve:
I didn't see this until July, but that mask shown in this thread looks like something from a 1920s silent movie called "Metropolis" by a director named Fritz Lang, an early science fiction-type film.
Either that, or it's from 1930s pulp science fiction magazine covers- but there again, it may be derivative from that film.
As Spock would say: "Fascinating"!
Siouxlake Ron
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 510 ~
Member Since: September 21 2011 ~
Last Visit: December 21 2014
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - July 14 2014 : 01:21:37 AM
|
Ron, I don't know if that robotic head was made for LIS, but it's well known that Irwin Allen plundered the 20th Century Fox prop closets for anything he could use, so who knows where it came from.
The Tyco Depot
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 3927 ~
Member Since: June 20 2007 ~
Last Visit: November 19 2015
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - July 15 2014 : 9:30:46 PM
|
Nels-
LIS's Robbie the Robot was built for a 1957 sci fi movie with Leslie Nielsen, Forbidden Planet.
The "aliens" mining Mars in "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" in 1964 were wearing recycled space suits from another 1950s sci fi picture.
Star Trek's Enterprise was derived from a 1950s sci fi magazine illustration of a very similarly-designed spaceship.
These props guys were always called on to save a dollar for the producers on the low-budget thrillers- witness that "same old D&RG steam locomotive" used in movies between the 1940s and "How the West was Won" in 1964- when they wanted a mid-19th century steamer, they strapped on a fancy smokestack jacket and showed "wood" in the tender; when they wanted a 1930s look, off came the fancy smokestack and coal was in the tender, etc.
Ron
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 510 ~
Member Since: September 21 2011 ~
Last Visit: December 21 2014
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - July 15 2014 : 10:19:22 PM
|
quote:Nels-
LIS's Robbie the Robot was built for a 1957 sci fi movie with Leslie Nielsen, Forbidden Planet.
The "aliens" mining Mars in "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" in 1964 were wearing recycled space suits from another 1950s sci fi picture.
Star Trek's Enterprise was derived from a 1950s sci fi magazine illustration of a very similarly-designed spaceship.
These props guys were always called on to save a dollar for the producers on the low-budget thrillers- witness that "same old D&RG steam locomotive" used in movies between the 1940s and "How the West was Won" in 1964- when they wanted a mid-19th century steamer, they strapped on a fancy smokestack jacket and showed "wood" in the tender; when they wanted a 1930s look, off came the fancy smokestack and coal was in the tender, etc.
Ron
Originally posted by siouxlake - July 15 2014 : 9:30:46 PM
|
I've noticed that.
-Steve
"A lot of modellers out there who go to these train shows see broken HO stuff and go, 'This is useless' when, in reality, they can still be used for modeling whether it's as a prop on your layout or a cool project to make something old new again."
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 3533 ~
Member Since: February 17 2014 ~
Last Visit: January 11 2023
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - July 17 2014 : 5:45:47 PM
|
Ron, the LIS Robot were not the same, though he was created by the Robby's Japanese designer. Robby was used in many movies and TV series after Forbidden Planet, including a few episodes of the Twilight Zone and LIS.
The LIS robot was known as Robot B9, tho everyone just called him Robot... except Dr. Smith.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfh-YY465HA&feature=youtu.be&t=4s
The Tyco Depot
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 3927 ~
Member Since: June 20 2007 ~
Last Visit: November 19 2015
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - July 17 2014 : 6:53:38 PM
|
hey siouxlake Don't forget about the Sierra Railway's #3 seen in countless movies, TV shows & ads since the 1930s
& is in HO as a Tyco Hooterville Cannonball at HIGH prices! 
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 14902 ~
Member Since: February 23 2009 ~
Last Visit: June 06 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - July 17 2014 : 7:10:07 PM
|
quote:hey siouxlake Don't forget about the Sierra Railway's #3 seen in countless movies, TV shows & ads since the 1930s
& is in HO as a Tyco Hooterville Cannonball at HIGH prices!
Originally posted by microbusss - July 17 2014 : 6:53:38 PM
|
One of the most famous examples of the #3 appearing in movies is it's role in Back to The Future 3 as #131.
-Steve
"A lot of modellers out there who go to these train shows see broken HO stuff and go, 'This is useless' when, in reality, they can still be used for modeling whether it's as a prop on your layout or a cool project to make something old new again."
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 3533 ~
Member Since: February 17 2014 ~
Last Visit: January 11 2023
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
Home
Forums
Events Calendar
Forum Admins & Mods
Register
