M3 Castings

[Malcolm Towrie]

Andrew, just found this interesting post. I work at a military museum and I have some questions.
Are these one-off castings?
If so, how did you find a foundry that would do one-off castings?
What did they cost? (Perhaps a PM if you'd rather not say on here?)
Do you have the original parts? If so, did they use the original parts as a pattern or did they make new patterns? If not, how did they make the patterns?
Are you sending it out for machining? If so, I'm curious what that would cost.

This isn't idle curiousity! I'm often wondered if this was a feasible (i.e. affordable) option for us for unobtainable parts like this.
Thanks, Malcolm