Randy's Whitcomb done

[up1950s]

[Mark5]

rough looking (the casting). impressive effort though - especially the handrails .

[Matthew Roberts]

Amazing, is it too big to be called a "critter"?

BTW, I love the W&LG paint scheme and name. ;D

[up1950s]

Thanks , but the red stripe on the W&LG was Ed K's , our mod here idea . Without that red stripe it was as lifeless as cold lava .

[Matthew Roberts]

...well, still great!

[bsoplinger]

Thanks , but the red stripe on the W&LG was Ed K's , our mod here idea . Without that red stripe it was as lifeless as cold lava .

I remember seeing the first loco you redid after Ed made that suggestion. It really did make your scheme pop out. Looks nice on that critter.

[randgust]

I ended up completely replacing the Whitcomb molds this summer while I couldn't really cast anything anyway.  One nice thing about resin casting is that you're not really stuck and the 'tooling' such as it is, can continue to evolve.

I had trouble in a couple areas with the first molds - the bottom edge of the frame kept bubbling, and the 'sticking' in the louvers just would not go away.  The louvers on the master are actually photoengraved brass with a .005 styrene backing, and the mold rubber actually got between those, resulting in a lot of damage to the master on the first mold pull.  And the resulting parts kept fighting me out of the master as well.  I don't think I'll ever do that approach again for louvers.  And the cab molds were redone to build some more material at the cab edges, .010 proved to be just too fragile.  I had to go back, redo the master, and remake the molds to fix it.  Weeks. 

The 18-ton Climax still holds the title for the 'absolute worst' part to mold - the tiny headlight on the bracket.  It took me five molds before I finally found a way to make it right and get it out of the mold without damage and defects.

Another thing I've had to learn to just accept is that you can't resin cast in PA until I can get the room temperature at 70 degrees or below at 60 percent humidity or below.  Period.  Don't even bother with an open mold.  The bubbling magically goes away below that threshhold.

Gee, I can hardly wait to learn photoengraving!  Hello, 911?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Randy, I applaud your dedication to this stuff for minimal, if any, financial gain.

You get one of these:


And one for Richie too for a really cool model:


Richie, when are you going to build something for all these cool projects to live on?

[up1950s]

Thanks Ed . That layout would seriously hold up the model making and force me to have fun Ed . Not going to do it in this house , and unknown when if ever that we will move . In the mean time , it's the first of 2 of Randy's Class A Shay's . First the square tank version , then the round tank version . My hope is you guys will do more videos and post them , I get a kick out of watching then run . 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Do you have room for a door? Just go for it man. Jump in.

(Unless, of course, you don't have room for that.)

It doesn't have to be a permanent "forever" layout. Just something to have some fun with.