I have been missing in action for almost a month now. the first 2 weeks were taken up by a deep painting funk. the 3rd week I was laid up in bed sick with a chest infection. not normally a big deal, but i have asthma, so when something gets into my chest it knocks me off m feet for a few days.
then last week i was finishing up a 28mm SYW painting commission for one of the guys at AGNM. I was down At the AGNM workshop on Saturday dropping off the figures, so I picked up the other French vehicle that is soon t be released, the AMR-35 ZT-3 tank destroyer. this is a lovely Casting. It's one resin piece with 2 metal fittings(gun barrel and Exhaust system at the back). Casting was nearly flawless. there was one small bubble on the bottom of the cast on base. Since it absolutely does not impact the look of the vehicles, who cares!
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| French ARM-35 ZT3, soon to be released from AGNM |
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I have also been working on my French truck over the last month. I picked up the resin and RTV rubber form Toronto, and then had to wait a week to get back down there to grab the mold release which i had forgotten. the mold turned out well, although i probably made the walls a little thick. I have been having a bit of trouble getting the bits out of the mold.I think i have it fixed, but it's still a pain. and since they are resin, they are also fragile.
I was thinking about returning to my old way of resin ccasting with Alumilite for 3 reasons: Alumilite has a bit more tensile strength, it cures faster(cure in 5-8 minutes which is a big deal when you get about 2-3 in 10 casts don't turn out, and they take 25 minutes each with Smooth cast) and the old way of casting, i end up with a bit of thin flash, which ever so slightly thickns th parts, making them slightly less fragile. I haven't yet decided. I suppose the other option would be to get them metal cast, but i by no means have the money to contract out the casting. Anyway, on to the pictures.
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| First casting of the French S-20 truckFront view |
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| French S-20 Truck rear view |
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| S-20 Truck between a Panhard 178 Armoured Car and an S-35 Somua tank, both from AGNM. |
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I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. there are a few minor things. in 1 or 2 places i missed the rapid prototyping texture left behind. there are actually more places, but on the seat backs it almost looks deliberate, kind of like a texture for the fabric covering. given that it is my first attempt, I'm pretty happy. Now all i have to do is get a bunch of complete kits ready fro sale. when i am ready to sell them(probably starting in a week or two) I'll be charging actual shipping costs.
