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Now that the project is completed it is time to evaluate the
entire exercise. There are several lessons and conclusions that I
have reached, and believe that it is important to share.
1. I under took too large of a project. I thought that I could
build quality models from masters and that it would be rela-
tively simple. The truth of the matter is that I should have fo-
cused on building one of the series of cars and honed my skills
on it. I tried to eat too large of an elephant.
2. I need to develop a better method of controlling my castings.
Just pouring the material into the mold did not give enough
control over the thickness of the casting. Some of the castings
had a convex surface that had to be sanded down. While I was
reasonably successful at doing this, it was extra work. This ex-
tra sanding also made some of the fitting of joints a bit dicey.
This caused problems in putting the pieces together to build
the cars.
I would rate the castings at about 80% of those provided by
Sunshine or Westerfield. I had hoped to do better.
3. The material that I used to cast the parts had too quick of a
set time. I should have purchased a casting material that had a
longer set time. Because of the quick set time I was not able to
use my jigsaw method of removing air bubbles from the cast-
ings like I was able to when making the molds. A longer set
time would have allowed for this process at a minimum.
4. I should have taken time to sketch or draw up the basic di-
mensions that I needed, as I did for the tab spacing. I discovered
that I had some errors in dimensions. The cars are a little short in
length. Planning ahead would have eliminated this problem.
Lessons Learned
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