Re: [SG2] Seeking anyone with 20mm Blade Miniatures

Adrian Johnson wrote:

> The RTV rubber "home casting" kits you see in hobby stores is usually
a
> MUCH softer material than the oven-vulcanized rubber they use for
> production casting - and you can get EXCELLENT detail reproduction. 
But
> they don't last all that long.  I've seen some make over a dozen
models
> without a problem, but not much more than that - and by then the mould
is
> degenerating...
>

We use RTV rubber moulds (the cost of vulcanising equipment being way
beyond
our means) and the results in general are very good. I think we get
better
reproduction of detail than many commercial outfits (GZG excluded, of
course)
but we pay in other ways. Mould life isn't generally a problem, though -
some
of our moulds are three years old (1000+ castings) and are still going
strong.
It pretty much depends on how well made the mould is, how
'mould-friendly' the
master is (ie how many undercuts it has) and how careful you are when
removing
the casting from the mould.

>
> If the figs you are casting are rare/impossible to find, or are really
> expensive, then it is perhaps worth it - if they are reasonably priced
then
> maybe not - the cost of RTV is rather high, for the amount of figs
you'll
> get out of a mould.
>

It depends how many you want. One of our 7" circular moulds could hold
maybe
twenty 20mm figures and would cost around £20 (US $30) to make. The
cost of the
metal is peanuts (at a wild guess, maybe $0.10 per 20mm figure). If you
wanted
100 figures it would cost you $40, or $0.40 per figure - not a great
deal.

Tony