Bentley part 1

As mentioned in my other thread I've decided to build my own 1/32 scale version of the Bentley Embiricos.

A fascinating car with a remarkable history. Designed by Georges Paulin this car epitomizes the French Aerodynamic streamlining of the 1930's. The streamlined cars of the thirties are my passion and over time hope to see some of these race around my slot track.

Produced in 1938 this Bentley soon went on a series of tests and publicity runs. Which included a run at Brooklands in 1939 clocking an average speed of 114 mph for a one hour drive. Just how advanced this car was, was established at Le mans in 1949 - a decade after the Brooklands run - it was entered and came sixth.

My slot version of this fascinating car starts out with a box of this:

Truly excellent stuff that does exactly what it says on the box.

I baked some of this stuff in roughly the right shapes for body, rear, and front wings and got to work on shaping:



I decided to construct the car from seperate parts because I felt this was the only way I could reproduce all the compound curves and lines of the wings indentically for both sides as sepeartley they were much easier to compare before attaching to the main body:









After completing all the primary modelling work (no details such as louvres/shut lines etc) I made a mould.

Firstly I placed my master a piece of glass (from an old picture frame) and raised it approx. 1/4" using the super sculpy (not baked), this will provide me with a edge when it comes to slush casting a body.



Next thing, build a mould box, lego is great for this. It can be built to any size and reused afterwards. I left about 1/4" -1/"2 all round. I used hot melt glue to seal the base of the box to the glass.





I also taped the outside as the silicon tends to find any loose bricks .

Then time to mix the silicon and pour. I poured from 1 corner only and let the silicon find its own way around the master to prevent any air from being trapped.



The silicon was left over night to set-up. Once set the lego was removed and the complete mould teased from the glass and turned over,



The master was then removed revealing a silcion mould ready to make my resin 'slush' cast,


Note: the edge I now have to prevent any major spillages when I come to slush cast the resin.

An important note on sluch casting is to only mix up a small amount at a time, I was mixing 6 grammes (total) at a time. Then literally slush the resin around your mould until it starts to cure. Mix and add more resin gradually to ensure an even wall thickness all over your mould and then leave to set up. Do all this over a old box or newspaper as spillages still happen .



After about 30-40 minutes it was ready to de-mould and I now have a new master to work on:





That's as far as I've got for the time being. Next I'll be adding all the detail, window frames, grill, shut lines and louvres etc to this master. Then taking a 'two part' mould.

Regards,
MAF