# Making Portal and Culvert Molds



## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

It has been cold, wet, raining a even snowing a couple hundred feet up the mountain from us. Yes I said SNOW that nasty 4 letter word! So I needed a indoor project, I'm still trying to get the rail bike done so I can get it sent off to Choo Choo in California if the weather would cooperate.
Well in a joint effort with Prospect193 to get him parts that he needs down there in OZ, and with some helpful inspirational ideas I came up with these portals and culverts. I always need portals and culverts and buying as many as I will need will for sure put me in the poor house so I thought I'd make my own mold so I can make a bunch on the quick and cheap! OK so the mold material and the initial master material are not that cheap, about $200, but with portals running $10 plus each I will easily get my investment back.
These are HO scale but the principle is the same for any scale!

Started with super gluing a ton of little blocks together along with my fingers,the work bench, and almost the wolf, I'm not a super glue fan!:retard:
I came up with these designs. I had 3 others made that just didn't look quite right. 
















Then I took the masters and carefully made a water proof box out of cardboard, making sure to glue all the holes closed. When pouring silicone if you have just a small leak in your molding pan your in big trouble with a big mess! The leak won't stop running till the material sets and that's hours later!
















After the silicone rubber is carefully mixed and poured into the mold, tapped to remove bubbles, and left overnight to set you simply peel the mold out of the molding tray and off of the master part!:sly: Note to self when setting master parts onto back of mold tray it helps if the mold material does not run behind the master totally encapsulating it in a now impenetrable silicone block!:hah:OK little boo boo,:dunno: just had to cut part of the culverts master out of the mold!















After a trim here and there I thought I'd better give them a test drive so off to cast the first parts using a simple plaster of paris. They turned out 100% not a single problem!:thumbsup: I love it when a plan comes together!
















Here is the the original master part the mold and the first cast parts!
Sweet! 
Anyone need a portal or culvert?


----------



## joed2323 (Oct 17, 2010)

that is very cool man. the culverts and portals are unbelievable, id buy them if they were for sale, i honestly think those are better then the ones you can buy in the store, wow:thumbsup:

Do you have molds for cement portals also or just the brick/stone

You get a a+ for being creative...

It does help when the weather is crap out to work on our layouts though, but wow snow, really? I almost puked when you said snow


----------



## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Neat, a local guy that is in our modular club makes molds of stuff, I thought it was very creative. Nice work!


----------



## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Yep the snow got me too, I had to look three times!
OK I'll make you a concrete portal, I'll have pic's up later for you to check out!
And yes I will sell casts off of these molds, Why not, love to help out!


----------



## xrunner (Jul 29, 2011)

Cool! What did you use for the little blocks?


----------



## Prospect193 (Nov 30, 2011)

They look awesome Sean!!! Thanks so much for doing them for me!!!


Send me the bill!!!!

hehehehe!!!


----------



## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

They are made out of VCT tile.


----------



## xrunner (Jul 29, 2011)

NIMT said:


> They are made out of VCT tile.


Aha! Very good.


----------



## Carl (Feb 19, 2012)

Great work. I too and remember the cold days in Spokane and Bonner Ferry, Idaho. Of the course, the Gulf Coast is steamy hot with a very few rain drops in the evening.


----------



## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Sean,

Excellent work, especially the original/master patterns.

What is VCT tile ???

TJ


----------



## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Tj,
VCT = Vinyl Composite Textile
It's the flooring in a lot of commercial buildings!


----------



## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

Sean,
Once again you have floored me with your inginuity and creative skills. :worshippy::worshippy:
Although I'm on summer hiatus from building my layout, I still keep up with what's happening on this forum.  Lots of cool stuff!
And PLEASE keep that friggin' snow out there! It's headed for the high 80's in Mid-Michigan this weekend.  Great weather for cruisin'! :laugh::laugh:
Bob


----------



## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Sean,

Ohh ... so you had sheets or squares of VCT, and then cut that into tiny rectangles?

Looks nice on the origs, and probably worked well for a non-porrus surface for good mold release.

Nice thinking,

TJ


----------



## kingred58 (Apr 8, 2011)

*how to...*



NIMT said:


> Tj,
> VCT = Vinyl Composite Textile
> It's the flooring in a lot of commercial buildings!


Such a cool look. Is that HO or N scale?

Any chance you could (or maybe already have) give us a quick how to on making and assembling your VCT bricks?

Impressed,
Kingred


----------



## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Those are cool molds. One suggestion. For the pan, you can buy the large disposable pans for cooking, they're also water-tight with no effort.


----------

