A Kirkham, only smaller...

[bmwmech1]

Originally Posted by slider701

The other thing you could do, if you have a plastic model that is the correct size, is make a plastic or silicone mold/splash of that body. This will then serve as a mold for you to pour an epoxy or similar hard plastic to make a hard buck to use.

Take a look at the "Plastic Casting > Urethane" video in the following link:

http://www.acucast.com/multimedia/

I have never used these guys in the link above but they have a good video of how a rapid prototype part is made, from the SLA process of taking a CAD file and making an initial part through how they can make functional plastic parts for prototypes at a fraction of the cost of an injection mold tool.

I have used these guys in the link below and the cost is extremely reasonable, just no fancy videos on their web site.

http://theprototyper.com/

I have and will have to do some mold making/casting for this project, but I don't know if it will work for the body buck, although it's a great suggestion... when you're doing any type of hand/hammer forming in this size/scale, most of your shaping is accomplished through annealing the metal, to soften it and then hammering it to shape. Having the wood buck serves both purposes, since it is hard enough to stand up to the repeated hammering and also it won't melt during the annealing, if you have to do it on the form. That's why I thought a wooden buck would be so functional. I have a backup plan of laying up the body in fiberglass, but that's just not as true to the 1:1 as I'd like to go, given the option of both... thanks for the 2 links, I may end up using the second one for some stuff on this build even!


Garey