Home made castings - some practice going on here.

I have been trying to 'fix' up some of the weaknesses in Airfix kit mouldings , one of the major areas of concern to me has been the quality of the engines/cowlings of kits like the Beaufighter, Hamden, Sunderland and my current project, the Halifax, so I have been trying to mould my own bits.
A few years ago I bought a kit from the Adelaide Casting Supplies (ACS) company at ModelExpo and using this I have reproduced some nice engines from other kits FOR MY OWN USE ONLY. I decided to use the Hasegawa Bristol Hercules for my Halifaxes and future Beaufighters and the Airfix/MPM Wellington Bristol Pegagsus for my future Wimpy and Sunderland builds ( as well as Bristol 138, Stranraer, Shark/ Wallace, Walrus, Rippon and Seal). I started by mounting the parts in a suitable, slightly flexible clear plastic tub, along with a set of Shackleton exhausts for a future project, and then spraying them with a releasing agent.

A rubber mould in pretty pink ACS material was then cast

and then filled with resin from the ACS kit.

I think the copies look really good and I am learning how to eliminate bubbles with judicious tapping and probing with a toothpick. The extra bits are the magnetos.

The Halifax cowlings were drilled and sanded out and the Hercules sanded to fit - I think they look a million percent over the originals


The Pegasus also looks good as shown with the original


Note that I cannot sell these as they are commercial products, but I have made a couple of dozen for my own models - Give it a go people - its fun and very satisfying.

I am also producing some of my own parts which do not contravene product laws and have begun to make castings of the two different Dyak engine/cowlings for the QANTAS Avro 504 that are covered by the Hawkeye decal sheet for those particular aircraft.