Hand-casting Toy Soldiers in White Metal (Foundry Basics and a lot of fun)

摘要

This paper goes through the process of scratch-building white metal toy soldiers. Albeit in their simplest possible form, some of the basic concepts involved in real-world mold making and casting are to be found here. First, a master pattern (the toy soldier itself, often divided in body, head, arms, weapons and accessories) is built from scratch using any suitable modeling material. Once the master pattern is ready, one or more two-part molds must be made. Creating each half mold involves preparing a simple pattern plate by embedding the master in a wax or plasticine bed up to an ideal parting line, building a wooden flask around the pattern plate, and pouring room-temperature-vulcanizing silicone rubber into the flask. Once the mold is completed, white metal is melt on the kitchen stove and poured into the mold. Dozens of castings can be obtained from a well designed silicone rubber mold. Finally, the castings are primed and hand-painted - a time-consuming, yet rewarding task...