Re: [DSII] Genre

At 04:24 PM 2/23/99 +1300, Andrew Martin wrote:
>Nyrath the nearly wise <nyrath@clark.net> wrote:
>>Michael Llaneza wrote:
>>> IMHO the best thing GW ever did
>>> was the plastic Epic-scale infantry. Plastic is expensive to set up
a
>>> production run for, but dirt cheap over a long production run.
>>
>> I was always curious about that.
>> An uninformed layman would think that metal miniatures
>> would be more expensive to produce than plastic ones.
>>
>> I guess plastic is less forgiving a medium to work with.
>    It's actually based on the set up costs. Lead or pewter metal
moulding
>requires less work to start up than plastic moulding.

Work's a bit of a misnomer; mainly money.

>    Plastic moulding requires a steel mould to made and this takes a
lot of
>work and time to make, so making the set up costs very high. 

Actually, that can depend a lot on what kind of tech you've got. 
Hooking a
CNC up to a computer and doing some CAD work gets you a negative quite
rapidly, really.  But then all your time's going into getting the CAD
layout correct....

>On the other
>hand, the mould lasts for a very long time, so that the per item cost
over a
>long run will be low.

Very, very, very long time.  Unless someone drops it or jams it in the
press (used to hold the halves/parts together).  Then you're in trouble.

>    Metal moulding only requires a mould that is easy to make, so
making the
>start up costs low. In most cases of figure moulding, the mould is
destroyed
>to remove the moulded items. 

Well... the rubber molds aren't completely destroyed, usually, but do
start
to wear.  They'll especially wear if you take advantage of rubber's
ability
to bend, which does let you add more detail (i.e. a fold in a robe)
that's
off the parting line, but that'll go away faster than normal.

Steel molds, on the other hand, have to get pretty fancy to add things
off
the parting line of the two main halves, so I really doubt any
miniatures
company does that.  Which is why you make multi-part kits for plastic
items.

>Each batch of metal miniatures requires a new
>mould which is easily made from a master miniature. Hobby books show
how to
>mould miniatures using the sand casting method. 

...not the most efficient method for casting in metal.	Though
investment
casting would be *great* for high-detail, single part metal kits. 
They'd
just cost a couple hundred per mini.  (I've wondered if I could get away
with hand-dipping a mocked-up wax miniature where I work, sending it
through the burnout line, then taking it home and casting it.  But I
don't
think I could get away with that. ^_^;; )

>I sure Jon Tuffley can
>explain more about metal casting, if he wants to.

And if you want *really* fancy, add ceramic cores for internal detail
and
leach 'em out later! <grin>

>    Miniatures being usually low volume items, metal moulding is the
way to
>go for most companies. If you're making and selling a lot of miniatures
like
>GW, plastic moulding is the key to making a lot of money.

...after the initial investment.  Big trick there.  Gotta wonder where
the
break-even point is....

(Hmm, okay, it's getting late.	I'm goin' ta bed... sorry for the
rambling,
just wanted to comment for whatever reason. ^O^ )

G'night,
					Aaron