[Leon Pengilley]

Darkest Star Games wrote:

I’m not sure about the cost of the machine itself, but I’d bet it costs less than half what an injection machine for metal molds costs.

The last time they gave me a quote it was £45,000 per machine so way out of our budget.  Moulds were £300 each as well I think, so it’s a huge outlay to get setup and I’m not sure how long it would take to see any savings over traditional metal/resin casting.

The resin is also proprietary so they’ve got a monopoly on supply and can put the prices up whenever they like, which I wasn’t keen on.

www.pendraken.co.uk - Now home to almost 6000 products, including over 4200 products in 10mm, plus MDF bases, Vallejo paints, I-94 decals, Red Vectors MDF buildings, Raiden Miniatures, Militia Miniatures and much, much more!

[Leon Pengilley]

It varies quite a bit depending on what’s being moulded really.  Anything made with an armature and putty can go into a regular organic master mould, but these are made at a higher temperature and there’s more chance of your sculpts (greens) being destroyed.  Smaller figures tend to get damaged easier as well, just due to being thinner and not withstanding the moulding process as well as a chunky 28mm sculpt.

Sculpts made from plastic, wood, resin, etc would be done in a low-temperature silicon master mould as they can’t cope with the higher temperatures.  These take a lot longer to make but the sculpts will likely survive the process relatively OK.

You can choose to master mould everything in the low-temp stuff to save your sculpts, but the low-temp silicon is currently about 3x the cost of organic rubber so it’s a much bigger cost outlay when you’re making a lot of moulds.

Once the master mould is made, you’d spin it enough times to get the figures you need for your production mould.  The master mould is then put somewhere safe in case you need anything from it in future, and the master castings go into a drawer here in case we need to make a fresh production mould down the line.

www.pendraken.co.uk - Now home to almost 6000 products, including over 4200 products in 10mm, plus MDF bases, Vallejo paints, I-94 decals, Red Vectors MDF buildings, Raiden Miniatures, Militia Miniatures and much, much more!

[Leon Pengilley]

Mike wrote:

Hi. What are the plans for the fantasy range?

 

We’ve got new Amazon and Ratmen ranges which I’m hoping to have done by the end of the year, so those are the main plans.  There’s also some revamped Beestmen which should be released next month, plus maybe a few odds and ends here and there.

www.pendraken.co.uk - Now home to almost 6000 products, including over 4200 products in 10mm, plus MDF bases, Vallejo paints, I-94 decals, Red Vectors MDF buildings, Raiden Miniatures, Militia Miniatures and much, much more!

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