One good rake (say 20 wagons) then costs about £160, absolute best case. You would then take these "collectors items", wrench the body from the chassis, which you then ruin by wrenching the couplings off of; take the body, cut bits off to shorten it, cut and glue 560 tiny bits of microstrip on (a process of mind-numbing tedium for 28 on one wagon alone...). To cap it all you still need to buy and construct 20 whitemetal chassis (£40) and 40 corresponding wheelsets (£64).

£264 and a huge amount of effort for 20 wagons (and we haven't even mentioned painting and decals yet)? Sounds more like a punishment...

So in order to keep costs down and sanity up, I have dabbled with resin castings, the photo shows an "unadulterated" red cement body on the left. Next to it, the green salt body has had the strakes extended (and repaired) to make a master from which the cast body on the right was reproduced using two-part casting resin. Two moulds were made and gave a production of 25 acceptable bodies between them, as well as a number of rejects :(

The chassis are cast whitemetal produced by the 3mm society and the wheels are Kean Maygib 12mm gauge with pin-point bearings set into the whitemetal chassis.

Now then, remember my original aim was not to spend £160 on trashing "collectors items", right? So how did resin casting work out? In a word: expensive.

The lady at the other end of the phone at Notcutt heard my involuntary gasp down the line when she told me the total price for Moldsil two-part moulding silicone rubber and Polytek Easyflo 60 two-part casting polyurethane liquid plastic when I placed the order. "Yes," she chirruped in a bright and carefree tone, "an expensive hobby, isn't it?"

Moldsil: http://www.notcutt.co.uk/silicone.html
Polytek Easyflo 60: http://www.notcutt.co.uk/polyresins.html