Squish Molding An HO Scale Locomotive - Part 1

Duplicating this locomotive body is not easy! It has tiny holes, sharp edges and thin walls plus no reasonable way to place the sprue and vents. We'll try it with a squish mold, but the odds are not in our favor!
This video is the first of two parts. In part two I make resin castings from this mold. Here is that video: • Casting An HO Scale Lo...
The train model 3757 is made by the Märklin Company. For more info about their products visit:
www.marklin.com
The actual train this model is based on is a BR 103 locomotive.
The footage comes from the KZbin channel Sebastián López. Check it out at: • BR 103 113-7 Stuttgart...

[@RobertTolone]

Totally forget to thank Christiaan for sending in the project. I scratched my head for months while this thing sat on my desk waiting for me to get up the courage to try it. Turned out to be a really fun project to work on!

[@buzz_4stroke192]

You're doing a great job so far. It's very entertaining, educational and can't wait for part two! No thanks at al, reading the comments the project is already a succes. The model you are referring to is a clear version of the Marklin 3657 that is a model of the train in the begin of the video. Does it mean you are trying to do a clear resin pour ;-)

[@robboone5657]

Can't be said enough how helpful it is that you include both successes and failures in your videos! Even if a situation isn't ideal, creativity and determination can get the results you want.

[@RobertTolone]

I want people to not get discouraged when things go wrong. Because things will definitely go wrong! With luck mistakes won’t be catastrophic; most will just cause some extra work.

[@itsio7188]

I couldn't agree more

[@allansvensson2283]

It is not waste of a week. It is documentation for generations to come!

[@RobertTolone]

I hope so!

[@RocketPunchHero1]

Another excellent video, Mr. Tolone.

[@aldenkaiser248]

Your wealth of knowledge humbles me regularly. It’s like being back in my old shop teacher’s studio. Thank you for this, and everything

[@TNUC_JOSH]

Best KZbin channel ever! Love all the videos! Thankyou for all the great tips and tricks!

[@johncollins719]

Using a 1-2-3 block as a spacer on the tablesaw😉 I use them sometimes to square up corners when doing small glue ups.

[@consumer365]

Thanks for the another great vid Robert.

[@BrutalDongshart]

Robert, I have only a small amount of experience in creating molds and resin casting, but I'm getting more serious about it and this channel is invaluable to me. You often tackle things in a different way than what I would do in a given situation (great example in this video: building a single box and then cutting into two parts), and opening up my mind to alternatives I'd never think of is something I really appreciate. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience.

[@RobertTolone]

Thanks for watching Brutal!

[@mazinz2]

With the blue rubber underneath after you pulled off the clay, it gave your train a total space ship kind of look (more or less due to the coloring)

[@G33X]

I was worried at first when you went to pour the second half of the mold, having not seen if you put mold release on the parting lines of the windows and holes. I'm excited to see how the castings turn out with this mold, and I just might have to try this method with some of my own projects! I'm glad to have found your channel, too! I do some molding and casting at my day job (though the pieces are waaay too big to fit into a pressure pot) and the insight you provide has helped me learn how to make better molds in a shorter time than I probably would have without it! Keep up the awesome work!

[@foxtheunicorn]

I have no business with resin molding but I really apreciate watching you videos. I dont know why but I love them. Thank you for bringing out weekly content :D

[@ssl3546]

this is certainly a video to humble the audience. at no point did I suspect what you were going to do next.

[@TAJAM_PEDIA]

I found it, THANKYOU sir. You give me information and insfiration

[@surgerystudio7654]

That was a great idea!!! Im going to try that on a mold I need to make. Thank you!

[@nemesis851_]

Liked video BEFORE the result It’s a video about learning !!

[@johnkelley9877]

THis was great. I always learn something about casting from your channel. Thank you for sharing your skills.

[@RobertTolone]

Thanks for watching!

[@GazelleAutomations]

Just mesmerizing to watch!

[@RobertTolone]

Thanks! I subbed your channel; loved the Thunderbirds chair build! Very high quality on all your work.

[@GazelleAutomations]

@@RobertTolone Thank you! As fans of your work, we're very flattered!

[@oldgitsknowstuff]

Brilliant video ! Well presented, interesting and informative. Lighting is excellent, nice tidy backdrop....not the familiar 'untidy workshop or kitchen unit with the washing machine running or extraneous outdoor noises. Well you have me hooked anyway and I've subscribed to your channel. Well done.

[@chartle1]

that messed up part is not a bug but a feature. It looks like gives you some registration pins. 👍 I was thinking if putting some in the corners might help with your very precise line up. But to quote the Hunger Games! "And may the odds be ever in your favor." 😀

[@sebatero]

Excelent work! Many thanks for share my video. Best regards from Chile!

[@RobertTolone]

Thank you! I hope my viewers will check out your channel. Sorry, I realized that I made errors spelling your name. I have fixed them.

[@vicyhago]

Thank you for your explanations, not being able to make a similar piece during the pandemic caused me to lose a client and a lot of money. I made many mistakes that today Dear teacher, despite not having been able to solve it (yet) you have helped me. I think that the train must be sunken in the first part and that its edge is not the parting line of the mold. Thanks once again.

[@leonardtropea6099]

Just subscribed! I love this guy he is like the Mickey Rooney of crafts.

[@EV4UTube]

Wonderful job! If I was presented with this task, I would have declined the job. Now, I have better insight into a functional process.

[@RobertTolone]

I would have declined it too. I’m a lot more willing to experiment on my KZbin channel that I ever am with my client’s dime.

[@SuperVoodude]

Despite all the previous montages of mold making, this may be the first train-ing montage :P

[@RobertTolone]

😀

[@TandaMadison]

First, the chunkies trick is a wonderful way to save on expensive rubber. I've been keeping all my chunkies since I first saw you do it. Second, I'm now inclined to sing, "chunkies, chunkies" when I do... I suppose I'll just have to live with that. Good thing I have the shop to myself. Hahahaha. Good stuff, can't wait to see how the pour comes out.

[@wollibar5263]

Great stuf, interesting moldmaking, as you never showed us before, all model makers will love it like I do. Thank you very much!!!

[@NeilStansbury]

This is super exciting to watch how you set-up and handle these complex molds!

[@mr.miniaturesmodels8465]

This looks challenging but taught me that not all mold projects are boiled down to two pours (on a two part mold). I look forward to seeing how you execute the resin pour. Most squish mold users make a very big mess when combining the two parts of the mold after they’ve poured their resin. Maybe you have a secret technique that’s a lot cleaner.

[@RobertTolone]

Use as close to the required amount of resin as possible to minimize squeeze out.

[@mr.miniaturesmodels8465]

Comment from the future: I just watched the follow up video of the resin casting. By weighing your original, I see how you mitigate the squeeze out mess. (I know, I know- you have always weighed your originals)

[@danthemakerman]

I really hope this train pour stays on track.

[@glowpon3]

I'm working on a project and I think this is the technique I will have to use. My project is a rubber mask and I think if I do it this way, and use a removable plug inside the head, I should be able to remove the mold and still hold tolerances like he did with this. Hopefully part 2 worked and so will mine.

[@DangerFieldProd]

This is what I love. Experimenting! I can't wait to see the casting result! Another smaller example would be to make a suction cup mold and see if it still functions as a silicone cast.

[@KarlLambrechts]

Very useful video, thanks! The fact that I (and some of us) did notice you forgot to show the part where you applied release agent on the inner mold for the windows, gives me enough trust i'm ready to go for it :-)

[@RobertTolone]

I went back and looked at my footage from this project. I filmed it but did not include it in the final cut of the video. Should have though; it would have explained the process better.

[@KarlLambrechts]

@@RobertTolone Is there a movie from a resin cast from this mold? (I looked but did not find)

[@RobertTolone]

@@KarlLambrechts The casting video will be out next Friday, March 4th.

[@KarlLambrechts]

@@RobertTolone Looking forward :-)

[@kukochan]

Always enjoy your videos, even the ones where things don't go exactly as planned. It's good learning resources.

[@securityrobot]

That demonstrates the techniques involved quite clearly, so it’s a win for me!

[@farmerdave7965]

Brilliant !

[@classicmetaldude]

AWESOME!!!

[@bassistcz]

That's a very interesting mould to see you make. Very cool project.

[@ajfreeze215]

Great video! Thanks Robert! I bought a bunch of stuff to make molds, but seem to be lacking the stones to move forward......maybe this weekend!

[@joek600]

This is a very interesting project and a pretty suspenseful too! I always use Lego type bricks for 2 sided molds.

[@wookiebw]

Super informative, as always. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge, it's much appreciated!

[@roger.agburn]

I have the same train, still from my childhood. But it's smaller (size N). :D Lovely video, Robert!

[@gordonwiley2006]

A problem a one piece mold can't solve? What channel did I tune in to?! I am excited to see how this turns out, quite a tricky one.

[@RobertTolone]

Haha, even I resort to 2-part molds from time to time!

[@arichutfles9550]

I was so worried you had forgotten to put release on the windows before pouring the inside of the engine!

[@RobertTolone]

I neglected to include that step in the video, but I did it!

[@professorplum7025]

Do a video on post finishing, and fixing bad molds please!

[@RobertTolone]

That will be included in part 2 of this trail model project.

[@davidlash9245]

Chunkies! Chunkies! Chunkies!

[@ArcticFlies56]

The old saying, “we learn from our mistakes” maybe yes, maybe no. This project must not be taken for granted because using a paint brush to protect the parting line is like making a wish. There has to be a more foolproof way to protect the parting lines. Maybe you should have used BeesWax. I think it would have been easier to apply because you could see if you missed any spots. Painting release which is transparent is asking for trouble.

[@RobertTolone]

In this case trouble found me!

[@pietcement9603]

First of all, thank you Robert for all your vids! I've been viewing them all for my ultimate goal: making my own resin cast! I had never done that. So I spent hours and hours of thinking: how would mr Tolone do it? I wish i knew! and since I live in europe I couldn't just send you my project (i often thought if i should). so after months of deliberating what to do i finally got the nerve to try it. So i got some lego parts (i use that to build my mold casing as a friend gave me that tip) and got to work. it took me three poor's to make the mold but the result was super! never dreamed i would be this great. So finally this afternoon (about 2 hours before you released this video) I pored the resin. it did not go to wel as the resin jelled up on me much to quick (i think under a minute). So I will try some more on the next few days. But then it happened; you released your new video and it was hilarious! because your new video is about that one thing I'm trying to do: casting a HO scale locomotive :) How big are the odds off that happening :) I cant wait for the next part! as a note: I've used scotch tape to mask off the windows (from the inside) and holes which works superb! and Im glad to see that my mold looks an awful lot like yours! i guess your a good teacher! keep up the good work, i love these video's! Edit: fixed some typo's and added little remark

[@debrajol3585]

Hi there Piet, I’m not trying to be a grammar or spelling teacher (I truly dislike grammar & spelling trolls 🤯) .. I am commenting about your word ‘poor’. In this instance it is spelled ‘pour’ like painting pours or resin pours. The only reason I mention it is because you may be doing searches for information and that one word being misspelled will probably end your searches in frustration. Most people comment on spelling/grammar rudely, not realizing English isn’t everyone’s first language.. most times it doesn’t matter at all. ~~I’d like to suggest another good KZbin mold creator for your journey. His name is Eric Streibel. He’s similar to Robert in that he can make just about anything & he shares his troubleshooting. Have a great day, or night 🌹🌹 Ps.. poor, that spelling defines people that have no money or even bad judgment. “When I grew up we were extremely poor.” Or “they made poor judgement”. It’s a deficit in meaning.

[@pietcement9603]

@@debrajol3585 Hi there as you accurately noted, English isn't everybody's first language. In my case its not and even though I speak several, writing fluently is a different matter. Some words are harder then others. Reading your comment I realize that sometimes we tend to write phonetically , at least I do. Then on the other hand, I challenge you to comment in other languages and see how well you do :) having said that, I'll try to remember writing pour, not poorly :) as for the journey, my mold and pours have turned out rather nice. Much because of the video's by Robert and others. So thank you for your help.

[@andy-in-indy]

I think I missed the part where you put mold release over the widow and through hole areas. 😉

[@RobertTolone]

No you didn’t miss anything. I didn’t show that step because (in my head) making it clear that they were parting surfaces meant that they would get release on them. But it was a mistake to omit that step.

[@ActionModeler]

A good look at the process, putting a lot of work into how you're making this. I don't like brush-on mold release, for this reason, get it wrong and risk wasting the mold and part getting stuck. I had an experience like this where I had to repair the mold and it worked but now that the part is removed it might be trickier. You could have poured more silicone in the broken voids along the body to level them and then shave the chunks off the top mold, heck if your good you could cut the chunks off the top mold then brush some silicone on the seam and "glue" them back into the body side mold. Also, you don't have any keys to help hold the center of the mold in place, wouldn't adding keys to the clayed block at windows have helped keep the inside mold from shifting? Maybe a squish mold but I learned from another casting it still benefits from vents between the flat seam so the extra resin can escape up instead of having to travel all the way to the outside edges. I even vent the bottom of the part so resin that went into the vent is available to refill when it's pressurized.

[@RobertTolone]

Any repair I could do would leave far more casting cleanup than those cut-mold parting lines will, so I’m not too upset about that. I deliberately omitted keys in the mold because the box is the key. I’m always trying to show different methods of work on my channel. And I’m planning to cut the bottom mold so as to facilitate resin squeeze out.

[@Vagolololo]

Can't you put a film of cut-out plastic film instead of liquid mold release? That or treat the rubber with something to improve the wetting action of the mold release. Can´t wait to see the castings!

[@RobertTolone]

I was very surprised when I got a release failure. This technique is almost always successful. But obviously, not 100% foolproof.

[@maverickstclare3756]

The name's Cliff. Cliff Hanger.

[@RobertTolone]

Hello Cliff! A lot of people around here hate you!

[@glenfisher728]

G'day Bob , another interesting project . Couple of questions . No registration keys for a two part mould ? Also what I've found with squish moulds is to cut small vent channels in the bottom mould that go off to the sides, that way the excess resin can bleed out without hopefully flash forming . Where these vids made over the holiday season ? Can see you're not in your workshop ? All the best and hope all is good .

[@RobertTolone]

In this case, the box is the registration system. We’ll see how well that works! I will be cutting channels into the bottom mold. I’m currently in my temporary shop but will soon be back in LA.

[@OchoMiniatures]

wait a 2 part mold? you don't do those often, another great video!

[@RobertTolone]

If you notice, my two-part molds almost always have a straight parting line that requires no clay-up. If a part needs a clay-up parting line I switch to a one-piece cut mold almost every time.

[@OchoMiniatures]

@@RobertTolone so if you ever do a clay up mold I will assume you are in captivity and sending signals 😜

[@RobertTolone]

@@OchoMiniatures That is correct. Either that or I am attempting to commit suicide using boredom, frustration and irritation. I hate claying up a mold almost as much as I hate cleaning castings.

[@truegret7778]

Wow - that is by far the most challenging, in its own way, mold I have seen you do. Will you be doing a video of casting this mold? I am curious to see what material you use. Thanks again - great content, as always.

[@RobertTolone]

The cast video is next week. For me, it’s an even bigger nailbiter than the mold video.

[@christiantouzard4013]

Did you put mold-release on the rubber from holes and windows when you poured te top half, or did you just go straight ahead without it? Because I was wondering if the mold-release was necessary on that part, or if you just cut them apart with a blade when you split the mold.

[@RobertTolone]

Yes, I put release on the small parting surfaces in the holes and window openings. I should have made that clear in the video.

[@sapper12b71]

I wonder why it is that sometimes he uses very complex mold forms I actually builds them out of wood etc and then sometimes he can just use polystyrene? I mean I realized that my lack of knowledge is why this is a question to me but from what I can tell I don't see the difference between one thing to the next of why you need a big complex wooden build compared to styrene and clips is it just the amount of rubber?

[@RichardThompsonCA]

Love your enthusiasm Robert! Quick question, could that mold be fixed? Maybe by putting the part back in and patching with new silicone?

[@RobertTolone]

It’s far better to let the mold close itself back up as it is. The only damage should be a slight parting line around the stuck rubber. I’m hoping it will be easy and simple to clean up because the cuts did not cross areas with much detail. Still I was deeply annoyed when I had to cut the mold free!

[@WShawn]

This is helpful, thanks. I've been working on a hand prop (PKE meter) with similar challenges. I'm curious as to why you didn't have to brush release onto the exposed rubber filling the windows and other holes (in the male part) before pouring the outer (female) rubber? And would it have been better to just blast it with a mold release spray?

[@RobertTolone]

I did brush mold release on the little window parting lines. I didn’t show that step in the video - which was a mistake because many people have commented about it. If I were to make the mold again I would probably mask off the interior rubber and spray on the release. Although this is the first time I have ever had this problem of the brushed-on mold release failing me,

[@WShawn]

@@RobertTolone Thanks for the reply; I appreciate it. Your videos have been very helpful (and very-well produced). I was getting a poor yield trying to pour resin for this prop I'm building; I'm now thinking this "squish mold" approach would work much better. Cheers!

[@TheOtherClips]

Did you need more pressure than the tape provided in order to prevent the gasket from seeping under?

[@RobertTolone]

It might have helped but I was afraid of putting to much pressure on the part. This is often a place that gives me trouble because silicone rubber can seep into the most microscopic cracks. So I was not surprised that the rubber seeped in. Anyway, it cleaned up fine.

[@luqmanrashid1651]

Hi. Out of curiosity, have you ever tried making an exact copy of a typical 4×6 lego brick from resin?

[@RobertTolone]

I have not cast a Lego brick. The problem in your question is the word “exact”. In silicone molding and resin casting there is always some tiny percentage of shrinkage. Very often a cast replica will be slightly smaller than the original. Just enough so that the casting will not fit with the original bricks. People run into this problem all the time when trying to make a casting of a part that must fit with other existing parts. The cast replica simply does not fit.

[@diannasolis3643]

Hi! I wanted to ask how we can submit projects for your KZbin channel to mold and cast? I love your information but I still have not been able to figure out how to do this two part mold

[@RobertTolone]

Reach me at [e-mail]

[@MarkATrombley]

What were you using for the paint-on mold release?

[@RobertTolone]

Good question. I should have said in the video that it is MR-150 silicone release agent from silpak.com. You can buy it liquid in cans but I buy the spray cans and then just spray some into a cup which I did off camera to avoid gassing myself out. It is primarily used as a silicone to silicone release.

[@theopiron4368]

im new to this, didn't it need venting holes?

[@RobertTolone]

You can put vents in a squish mold. But if you design it properly the air should be pushed out with the excess resin.

[@777fiddlekrazy]

*******Hey Rob!! what brands or distributor for Silicones and Resins???******* Thank ya sir!

[@RobertTolone]

My regular supplier is www.silpak.com

[@rvs8425]

Robert, can yu tell me what brand oil clay you use? Thank you!

[@RobertTolone]

I buy it from www.silpak.com. I don’t know the brand because it’s just shipped in a plain box… Any sulphur-free oil clay should work fine.

[@rvs8425]

@@RobertTolone Thank you!

[@jaytoigo1027]

Hey Robert what brand of rubber to rubber mold release do you use? I've used Vaseline. I prefer to use a rubber to rubber mold release made by alumilite. Comes in a little bottles and it's a brush on liquid. I've never had any sticking with it although I've had other brands stick. Great video by the way

[@RobertTolone]

I use MR-150 from www.silpak.com. I have found it to be very reliable and was surprised when it didn’t work 100% this time. Vaseline works but I’m not fond of the residue it leaves behind. You have to be careful to clean it off afterwards.

[@leventozcan4595]

Reverse engineering, hope Märklin doesn't bring a law suit😅

[@RobertTolone]

The only thing they could sue me for is that I forgot to charge them for all that free advertising! 😄👍

[@flipvdfluitketel867]

First

[@damianpark236]

rob another ripper .