Scouts on Backend Engineering Strategy Tools

Casting Part 1 — Scout Badges

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When I was a kid and scout we cast the scout emblem in tin — naturally we had to do this again with my own troop.

I’m lucky to have a fellow scout leader who does casting professionally. I modelled the master in resin and he made the silicon moulds from it.

For the tin, I went to second-hand shops and gathered everything tin I could find to melt down. Ordered crucibles and pliers online. We melted the tin by putting the crucible in the fire, then the kids could do the pour into the mould, demould, and finish.

First real casting project — a success.

Master

Modeled in Blender, printed in resin as the master for the silicon mould.

↓scout_emblem.blend ↓scout_emblem.stl

Moulds

Silicon moulds made by my fellow scout leader from the resin master.

Silicon moulds made from the resin master.

The Pour

We set up a practice station first — gloves, face masks, and pouring water into a PET bottle before anyone touched real tin. Once they had the motion down, they moved to the actual pour.

Done in small groups: two leaders, two kids at a time. Went smoothly.

Result

Finished tin scout badges.

Casting Part 2 — Belt Buckle

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Aluminium casting of a scout belt buckle. The buckle geometry was reverse-engineered and built parametrically in Blender Python — see Scout Buckle — Parametric Design for that side of the project. This page covers the casting execution.

From Model to Mould

Notes to follow — taking the parametric model into a casting-ready form. Draft angles, wall thickness, sprue placement.

The Pour

Notes to follow — aluminium, setup, result.

Status

Work in progress.

The original — a scout belt buckle picked up at a visit to the Scout Museum in Gothenburg, the model we are reproducing.

Original scout belt buckle from the museum visit.

A fellow scout leader kindly donated a few used fire extinguishers — more than enough aluminium for this project once melted down.

Resin Badges — Packat & Klart

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Resin-printed ‘packat & klart’ badges for the scouts heading out on their first overnight trip, i.e. ‘Hajk’.

We had a meeting where we went through what one should bring, then ran a competition where the kids got points for guessing what was in the pack I brought along. They got a badge if they did well — they all passed. Success.

First attempt at producing physical scout items rather than sourcing them.

The Badge

Modeled in Blender, exported to STL, printed in resin.

↓packat_klart.blend ↓packat_och_klart.stl

Print

Printed on the Anycubic Photon Mono 2 in Craftsman resin for the extra detail. In hindsight standard resin would have been fine at this size.