Can you tell what it is yet?

[Adrian Southgate]

I haven't done any sculpting for years, not since my scalextric car building days back in the 70's so this is going to start by looking a bit rough. There isn't a scale model of the legerra to do what I planned so I decided to make one, no idea what the scale is but I'll give the measurements to James and I'm sure he'll give me an answer.

The plan is, make a clay body, make a latex mould, make a cast resin body, finalise detail and recast using a new mould with the eventual aim of making one trophy that can be reused each year or possibly a new trophy each year dependant on the ease of casting them. If the legerra turns out ok then I might try a Melos or a phaeton next, depends on how it goes with this one.

Anyway, here is the first rough sculpture which is still a work in progress, total time spent so far about four hours. Needs more work but its a start. The only question is ... who wants to win one at Stoneleigh?

@ James, current length is 76mm, can you work out a scale from that? I'm just guessing but from the size of it i'd estimate 1/50th - 1/56th approximately

Feel free to poke fun at the misshapen bits, its a work in progress...
 

 

[James Doulton]

Poke fun? As if! Has the model got a hardtop? - they all have them, you know.

1/47 by my reckoning. So it should be 33mm wide and 25mm high.

A few years ago I made some 'castings' using polyester resin with brass filler so it looked and felt like brass. I used a company called Alex Tiranti, they are a supplier for sculptors etc. That'd be about the right colour for my Legerra.

[Adrian Southgate]

I was originally aiming for a soft top but it's turned out more like a hardtop.

Its only 30mm wide on the rear arches so possibly a little 'out' but 22 mm high and thats without playing with wheels etc.

Interestingly, I do have some part built 1/43 scale kits which may 'donor up' a set of rims and tyres, I'll be up in the loft digging through kit boxes tomorrow... :)

[Dave Adams]

ooh ooh are you going to be giving prizes at stoneleigh.....

[Dave Adams]

.........you know i really should read the post first.........

[Adrian Southgate]

I am a firm beleiver in acknowledgement of effort. The best way I can think of encouraging that is by the giving of 'concours' trophies to those who try. Not all the trophies I have planned are for 'pretty' though as we all know there's much more to any car than the colour of the paint and a set of bling wheels. I know neither of mine will ever win anything for having a clean underbelly, they get used too much for that, others will be the same. One of the trophies I would actually like to be awarded by Tim, to the car that he feels is closest to his original concept, I havent asked him yet though.

Its difficult with a two day show as well, so do we do this on the sunday during the AGM, before/after, or Monday?

Anyway, thats delving into club politics too much for this forum so let it be known we will be giving out some sort of awards at some point yet to be decided. Something has to be done to reverse the falling attendances problem at shows, maybe this will help if only a little.

[Adrian Southgate]

Had a family engagement today and stopped for lunch on the way home at the biggest garden centre I have ever seen. The restaurant is about the size of Alicante airport... Anyway. There is a craft shop so I bought some moulding latex.

My nice little sculpture currently looks like this...

Its a bit disconcerting covering hours of work with goo. That's just the first coat, its due a few more over the next few days. When finished I can use resin to make a master thats more resilient to stress than plaster / clay. This will get all the final details engraved onto it and then a polyurethane mould will get made to produce the final pieces in.

I will be casting the trophy in clear resin with minilites. I will also try to cast resin bodies in colour and should be able to supply those with a choice of white metal wheels, rubber tyres but as yet not planning to do interiors or 'top off' options.

[Steve Kerswell]

Have you done Daryls wooden spoon?? not for coming last, but the stirring, mixing spoon :-))) 

[Adrian Southgate]

I'm having it teflon coated 

[Adrian Southgate]

Stage 3 completed. I released the clay model from the latex and after cleaning all the dry powder off the inside I made a support for the mould and prepped it for a resin pour. I've decided to use green pigment in the resin. I can check the green pigment against the legerra for colour varience and it gives me a contrast colour rather than white which makes it difficult to see the scratches.

24 hours later this is the rough casting. I'm not over happy with it as the mould distorted in a couple of places which means a whole lot of cleaning up to be done. 

Just for the photo's I refitted the white metal minilites and rubber tyres. Here is one with the cast items instead.

The advantage of using cast ones is that I can drill the centres and mount them on the dremel then turn them down a bit to give a lower profile tyre. This can then be fixed permanently into the model to give a one piece master to work from.

I've got a lot of fine tuning to do before I can take a polyurethane mould of that.