I picked up another casting the other week which deserves a place here, being teh last of the three to pick up the castings I got the scabby one

This is a pic of the cast surface - almost flaky, infact a dig with a screwdriver and pieces could be prized off in flakes. Looks like this was probably the upper surface of the casting which was also cored

And this is what was under his skin after the first cut, this continued for 5mm depth with bits flaking off to leave craters upto 3mm deep.

Anyone got any ideas on the cause?