(I am consolidating all of the information concerning how the masters for this kit were made, molded and cast into one topic, here. I will continue to add information until the entire process is documented.)
Back in early 1955, Walt Disney took a good look at what he was building in Anaheim and realized something was missing. Tomorrowland seemed like it needed something to give it that TOMORROW look... Something big.
So, in March of 1955-- only 4 months before the opening date of Disneyland -- he had a 79-foot tall rocket designed and built, to stand outside of the "Rocket to the Moon" attraction. Actually, they already had the design. That was done for Disney's "Man in Space" series for the DISNEYLAND TV show. But Walt decided to take things one step further and make the Moonliner a reality. Unfortunately, he had to settle for making the rocket at Disneyland as a 1/3 scale model!
It was made of seam-welded aluminum over a steel frame. It stood a foot short of the FAA 80-foot requirement for aircraft navigation beacons (it didn't need a blinking red light on top...) And it was sponsored by Trans World Airlines, which actually included the rocket in a series of postcards about the different aircraft TWA flew. As a kid, seeing this rocket was stupifying. Did it really fly?
The Moonliner stood in Tomorrowland until September of 1966, when Tomorrowland was closed for a complete make-over. Put simply, it was scrapped. Tomorrowland has never been the same. Walt was right. TL needed something BIG to grab the imagination. Today, the Moonliner is again a presence in Tomorrowland, though not quite as impressive as it once was-- but it is still beautiful.
While the model you see here isn't completely finished, what follows is the story of how the model was made.
The master was turned on a lathe and windows and leg recesses milled in place. Detail was added to the leg recesses to match what was indicated on the blueprints. Once the master was finished, one futher step was necessary to create the cockpit as a separate, brass casting. This way, the cockpit could be shown as open space, instead of just painting the windows black as on other, smaller models. The following photos will explain how this was achieved...
The problem is that the real Moonliner had a canopy that was 'open'. That is, it was framed like a real aircraft of the time, with metal and glass. With a model of this size, painting in the windows as solid black, as has been done with other models in the past, would have been untrue to the original. So, the first step in this process is to make a mold and casting of the cockpit canopy as it sits on the fuselage now. Here you see that mold and casting.
The next step is to remove everything that will become the final part. This means I have to carefully remove the 'canopy' portion of the casting, so I wind up with only the 'space' it contains on the inside.
This is the final result. On the final version of the fuselage, the canopy will be completely missing, only the rear portion of the fairing will remain.
The part is now waxed and polished. Resin has been mixed and what is now the 'buck' for this part has been placed into the mold with the resin. What happens is, the buck takes up all the space in the mold except where the canopy is. What you see here is the result of this, a new canopy molded into place where the original detail was removed.
Here you see the canopy has been popped off the buck. A little clean up with a knife blade and--
The final result. This part now becomes the master for making brass castings.
This will take you from mounting the model to pouring the first half of the jacket.
The pattern is mounted to the smaller block with a screw from the underside. This block represents the space where the flange of the mold core fits-- don't worry about that now. This block is mounted to a 'background' plate, used in place of just using the table. The right-hand image shows the start of the parting board. A line is traced around the master and that area will be removed.
The parting board is made using a close cousin of Foamcore called Gatorboard (also known as Gatorfoam). The difference is that the surface is not paper, its more like masonite, so it holds up to this kind of thing much better. It is also expensive and hard to find. Good alternatives are corrugated cardboard, Masonite or any really thin plywood. You can use any number of things, as long as it remains stiff and flat, it'll work.
On the left, you can see that the master has been covered by plastic wrap. This will keep the clay from sticking. On the right, the parting board has been cut out and mounted to the base.
As you can see here, supports have been added to the back side of the parting board, allowing the master to sit level. Also, walls have been constructed to contain the resin when it is poured. A wax release agent has also been brushed over the parting board, walls and base so that the jacket won't stick. Any gap between the master and the parting board can be ignored as it will be covered with the clay.
This and the following 3 photos show how the clay is cut to the proper thickness for this project. Since the clay represents the volume of rubber that will make up the mold, it defines how thick or thin the rubber will be when the mold is finished. In this case, we need the rubber to be about 1/2 an inch thick. String is used to cut the clay. Starting on the back of the block, the string is pulled slightly into the far corners, seating it. The free ends of the string are then brought to the front and exchanged from one hand to the other.
When they are pulled taught, the string bites into the clay--
--and continued tension will draw the string through the body of the clay, cleaving a slice cleanly--
--as seen in this final shot of the sequence. I should also add here that this is not ordinary ceramic or pottery clay. This is called WED clay. It contains lanolin so that it won't dry out as quickly as regular clay. And, yes-- that is WED, as in Walter E. Disney.
Covering the master with the clay.
Edges are trimmed straight. This makes it easier to mate subsequent pieces of clay.
Pieces should fit as closely as possible.
Once the master is covered, the seams have to be blended and the whole thing has to be smoothed out.
The 'cocoon' is spritzed with water to wet it down and smoothed over using a piece of clay.
A rim and rib are added so the final mold will register properly to the jacket.
The jacket can be made using a variety of materials. Some people use plaster, some use fiberglass. I use a filled resin and cheesecloth. The cheesecloth is laid over the cocoon. The first batch of resin is poured and brushed into the cheesecloth using care to get all the bubbles out.
This photo was taken after the second (and final) coat of resin and cheesecloth was done. Note how the small block at the base of the pattern has been covered.
Here the supports have been ripped off and the parting board is removed. You can't really tell here, but the wax has really done its job as the parting board literally fell off.
Now I've added strips to the perimeter of the jacket. These will do the same job as the ones before, to contain the pour of resin and create the mating flange. This step ends with brushing a coat of wax onto all exposed surfaces.
Putting on the clay cocoon goes the same as it did in the first half. On this side I've added an additional 'rib' for registration. Actually, its more for identifying which way the mold mates to the jacket without having to really think about it!
Here I'm using a countersink bit to make registration dimples.
You can see I've added 4 of these dimples to each side of the jacket. These assure side-to-side alignment of the two halves of the jacket.
Two layers of resin and cheesecloth have been built up, just as before.
Now the resin has cured (about 4 hours) and the perimeter strips have been removed. What is left is some very sharp edges on both sides of the jacket. They are removed using a belt-sander.
A chisel is used to pry the two halves of the jacket apart. Since nothing is really sticking, its just the resistance of the clay that has to be overcome.
The jacket is now opened and you can see that the clay has also come away from the jacket, which is actually unusual. Normally, it sticks like a son-of-a-gun and you have to turn a hose on it!
Finally, one half of the jacket is put back into place around the master and you can see the void left by the clay-- which will be filled with rubber very soon!
The next step is to cut the end of the jacket so that a paper cup can be attached. Before proceeding further, the inside of the jacket is painted with a release agent (wax, vaseline, etc.). The rubber will not bond with the jacket, but using this release will make separating the jacket from the finished mold much easier. Also, holes are drilled in the jacket so screws can be used to hold it closed and secure it to the base.
The cup is glued into place with a hot-glue gun.
The cup is used as a funnel to help the rubber into the jacket without risking an overflow.
Before the jacket was secured in place around the master, a lot of holes were drilled in a regular pattern with a 1/16" bit. These allow the air to escape as the rubber is poured into the jacket from the top. Without these holes, there is a high possibility that air would be trapped in the rubber. Once the rubber has settled to the bottom, the rubber 'weeps' from these holes.
Since we don't really need the rubber running all over the place, a bit of clay is pushed into place over each hole-- but only after the rubber starts leaking out.
Pouring the mold is done. The cup is left full of rubber in the event there is some trapped air that makes its way to the top. Its cheap insurance!
Once the mold has cured (at least 24 hours), the bits of clay are removed, the screws holding the jacket closed are removed and a screwdriver is used to pry the halves of the jacket apart.
Finally, the base to which the master was mounted is removed. Now we have just the mold with the master still inside. Since this mold is very deep (long), pulling the master out is not a simple matter. The solution is to use a 1/8" diameter brass tube and press it through the rubber at the far end of the mold until it hits the master inside. This removes a small amount of rubber and an air nozzle can be used to inflate the mold, relieving the adhesion between the master and the rubber. The master can now be removed rather easily. The hole in the mold will have to be plugged with a small amount of clay each time the mold is used, to prevent leakage.
So, now the empty mold is seated into the jacket.
The core-mold (I went into this item a while back, but I'll get a shot of it and insert it for continuity in a day or so) is inserted. Notice how the base of the core seats into the top of the jacket as planned.
Resin has been poured into the closed mold through the gate (the large cut-out on the rim of the core) and, after curing, the final part emerges, assisted by a blast from the air nozzle.
All of these steps were repeated with the bottom half of the fuselage and the end result can be seen here:
Top and bottom, ready to go!
Back in early 1955, Walt Disney took a good look at what he was building in Anaheim and realized something was missing. Tomorrowland seemed like it needed something to give it that TOMORROW look... Something big.
So, in March of 1955-- only 4 months before the opening date of Disneyland -- he had a 79-foot tall rocket designed and built, to stand outside of the "Rocket to the Moon" attraction. Actually, they already had the design. That was done for Disney's "Man in Space" series for the DISNEYLAND TV show. But Walt decided to take things one step further and make the Moonliner a reality. Unfortunately, he had to settle for making the rocket at Disneyland as a 1/3 scale model!
It was made of seam-welded aluminum over a steel frame. It stood a foot short of the FAA 80-foot requirement for aircraft navigation beacons (it didn't need a blinking red light on top...) And it was sponsored by Trans World Airlines, which actually included the rocket in a series of postcards about the different aircraft TWA flew. As a kid, seeing this rocket was stupifying. Did it really fly?
The Moonliner stood in Tomorrowland until September of 1966, when Tomorrowland was closed for a complete make-over. Put simply, it was scrapped. Tomorrowland has never been the same. Walt was right. TL needed something BIG to grab the imagination. Today, the Moonliner is again a presence in Tomorrowland, though not quite as impressive as it once was-- but it is still beautiful.
While the model you see here isn't completely finished, what follows is the story of how the model was made.
The master was turned on a lathe and windows and leg recesses milled in place. Detail was added to the leg recesses to match what was indicated on the blueprints. Once the master was finished, one futher step was necessary to create the cockpit as a separate, brass casting. This way, the cockpit could be shown as open space, instead of just painting the windows black as on other, smaller models. The following photos will explain how this was achieved...
The problem is that the real Moonliner had a canopy that was 'open'. That is, it was framed like a real aircraft of the time, with metal and glass. With a model of this size, painting in the windows as solid black, as has been done with other models in the past, would have been untrue to the original. So, the first step in this process is to make a mold and casting of the cockpit canopy as it sits on the fuselage now. Here you see that mold and casting.
The next step is to remove everything that will become the final part. This means I have to carefully remove the 'canopy' portion of the casting, so I wind up with only the 'space' it contains on the inside.
This is the final result. On the final version of the fuselage, the canopy will be completely missing, only the rear portion of the fairing will remain.
The part is now waxed and polished. Resin has been mixed and what is now the 'buck' for this part has been placed into the mold with the resin. What happens is, the buck takes up all the space in the mold except where the canopy is. What you see here is the result of this, a new canopy molded into place where the original detail was removed.
Here you see the canopy has been popped off the buck. A little clean up with a knife blade and--
The final result. This part now becomes the master for making brass castings.
This will take you from mounting the model to pouring the first half of the jacket.
The pattern is mounted to the smaller block with a screw from the underside. This block represents the space where the flange of the mold core fits-- don't worry about that now. This block is mounted to a 'background' plate, used in place of just using the table. The right-hand image shows the start of the parting board. A line is traced around the master and that area will be removed.
The parting board is made using a close cousin of Foamcore called Gatorboard (also known as Gatorfoam). The difference is that the surface is not paper, its more like masonite, so it holds up to this kind of thing much better. It is also expensive and hard to find. Good alternatives are corrugated cardboard, Masonite or any really thin plywood. You can use any number of things, as long as it remains stiff and flat, it'll work.
On the left, you can see that the master has been covered by plastic wrap. This will keep the clay from sticking. On the right, the parting board has been cut out and mounted to the base.
As you can see here, supports have been added to the back side of the parting board, allowing the master to sit level. Also, walls have been constructed to contain the resin when it is poured. A wax release agent has also been brushed over the parting board, walls and base so that the jacket won't stick. Any gap between the master and the parting board can be ignored as it will be covered with the clay.
This and the following 3 photos show how the clay is cut to the proper thickness for this project. Since the clay represents the volume of rubber that will make up the mold, it defines how thick or thin the rubber will be when the mold is finished. In this case, we need the rubber to be about 1/2 an inch thick. String is used to cut the clay. Starting on the back of the block, the string is pulled slightly into the far corners, seating it. The free ends of the string are then brought to the front and exchanged from one hand to the other.
When they are pulled taught, the string bites into the clay--
--and continued tension will draw the string through the body of the clay, cleaving a slice cleanly--
--as seen in this final shot of the sequence. I should also add here that this is not ordinary ceramic or pottery clay. This is called WED clay. It contains lanolin so that it won't dry out as quickly as regular clay. And, yes-- that is WED, as in Walter E. Disney.
Covering the master with the clay.
Edges are trimmed straight. This makes it easier to mate subsequent pieces of clay.
Pieces should fit as closely as possible.
Once the master is covered, the seams have to be blended and the whole thing has to be smoothed out.
The 'cocoon' is spritzed with water to wet it down and smoothed over using a piece of clay.
A rim and rib are added so the final mold will register properly to the jacket.
The jacket can be made using a variety of materials. Some people use plaster, some use fiberglass. I use a filled resin and cheesecloth. The cheesecloth is laid over the cocoon. The first batch of resin is poured and brushed into the cheesecloth using care to get all the bubbles out.
This photo was taken after the second (and final) coat of resin and cheesecloth was done. Note how the small block at the base of the pattern has been covered.
Here the supports have been ripped off and the parting board is removed. You can't really tell here, but the wax has really done its job as the parting board literally fell off.
Now I've added strips to the perimeter of the jacket. These will do the same job as the ones before, to contain the pour of resin and create the mating flange. This step ends with brushing a coat of wax onto all exposed surfaces.
Putting on the clay cocoon goes the same as it did in the first half. On this side I've added an additional 'rib' for registration. Actually, its more for identifying which way the mold mates to the jacket without having to really think about it!
Here I'm using a countersink bit to make registration dimples.
You can see I've added 4 of these dimples to each side of the jacket. These assure side-to-side alignment of the two halves of the jacket.
Two layers of resin and cheesecloth have been built up, just as before.
Now the resin has cured (about 4 hours) and the perimeter strips have been removed. What is left is some very sharp edges on both sides of the jacket. They are removed using a belt-sander.
A chisel is used to pry the two halves of the jacket apart. Since nothing is really sticking, its just the resistance of the clay that has to be overcome.
The jacket is now opened and you can see that the clay has also come away from the jacket, which is actually unusual. Normally, it sticks like a son-of-a-gun and you have to turn a hose on it!
Finally, one half of the jacket is put back into place around the master and you can see the void left by the clay-- which will be filled with rubber very soon!
The next step is to cut the end of the jacket so that a paper cup can be attached. Before proceeding further, the inside of the jacket is painted with a release agent (wax, vaseline, etc.). The rubber will not bond with the jacket, but using this release will make separating the jacket from the finished mold much easier. Also, holes are drilled in the jacket so screws can be used to hold it closed and secure it to the base.
The cup is glued into place with a hot-glue gun.
The cup is used as a funnel to help the rubber into the jacket without risking an overflow.
Before the jacket was secured in place around the master, a lot of holes were drilled in a regular pattern with a 1/16" bit. These allow the air to escape as the rubber is poured into the jacket from the top. Without these holes, there is a high possibility that air would be trapped in the rubber. Once the rubber has settled to the bottom, the rubber 'weeps' from these holes.
Since we don't really need the rubber running all over the place, a bit of clay is pushed into place over each hole-- but only after the rubber starts leaking out.
Pouring the mold is done. The cup is left full of rubber in the event there is some trapped air that makes its way to the top. Its cheap insurance!
Once the mold has cured (at least 24 hours), the bits of clay are removed, the screws holding the jacket closed are removed and a screwdriver is used to pry the halves of the jacket apart.
Finally, the base to which the master was mounted is removed. Now we have just the mold with the master still inside. Since this mold is very deep (long), pulling the master out is not a simple matter. The solution is to use a 1/8" diameter brass tube and press it through the rubber at the far end of the mold until it hits the master inside. This removes a small amount of rubber and an air nozzle can be used to inflate the mold, relieving the adhesion between the master and the rubber. The master can now be removed rather easily. The hole in the mold will have to be plugged with a small amount of clay each time the mold is used, to prevent leakage.
So, now the empty mold is seated into the jacket.
The core-mold (I went into this item a while back, but I'll get a shot of it and insert it for continuity in a day or so) is inserted. Notice how the base of the core seats into the top of the jacket as planned.
Resin has been poured into the closed mold through the gate (the large cut-out on the rim of the core) and, after curing, the final part emerges, assisted by a blast from the air nozzle.
All of these steps were repeated with the bottom half of the fuselage and the end result can be seen here:
Top and bottom, ready to go!
