Ok - so I'm starting to think about modelling up tank proxies in CAD with a view to getting them 3D printed at shapeways and home casting them, just for kicks really.
I'm still just feeling my way through the CAD software and it's going ok, slow, but ok.
What I have less experience of is casting - specifically what the limits are of home casting, if any and what impact this would have on the level of detailing I can expect to be able to reproduce.
So I've been looking at some of the FW super heavy tanks as examples of good quality, complex and detailed models. And I'd like an opinion on the methods used to cast them.
Stuff like this:
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I'm really looking at places like the tank tracks and the deep undercuts on the sponsons. Would you just take a mould line horizontally along the side of the sponsons and about half way up the barrels at the back and would the flexibility of the silcon handle the rest or am I looking at something that will have been made using a multi part mould? I can see that the searchlights and stuff have been modelled in such a way that they reduce undercuts but figuring out how you'd get those tank tracks out of a mould is giving me a headache...
Anyway - I'm just looking for some knowledge/advice from those of you who have more experience. I'm sure I'd figure it out the hard way by burying masters in blocks of rubber but I'd rather avoid that if possible!!