Re: ISO sci-fi terrain and random rambling

As much as I'd love to see the 15mm range in 25mm, the detail material
you 
would need to make a decent mold is quite pricey for 25mm scale.  A
solid 
25mm tank I designed was about US$600 for the hull alone.  By hollowing
it 
out I managed to get it down to about $350.

Still, might be a possible route if there was enough interest.	I
wouldn't 
mind seeing some of the 15mm vehicles in 6mm either. :)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tamsin Piper" <Tamsin@tamsinpiper.demon.co.uk>
To: <gzg@firedrake.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2011 12:44 PM
Subject: Re: ISO sci-fi terrain and random rambling

>
>>
>>For building 25-28mm vehicles (for casting), what sort of material is
best
>>for the bulk body of the vehicle? I've wondered about wood blocks or
UHD
>>plastic (but I don't think many adhesives will stick to this stuff to 
>>adhere
>>the details)... but I really don't know.
>>
>>They'd be larger bulky pieces, to which detail would be affixed, but 
>>they'd
>>need to be able to be at least grossly shaped and seems like you'd use

>>huge
>>piles of sculpy (more than seems sensible) if you went that route for
the
>>main shape component of a 28mm vehicle (it's bad enough how much resin

>>you'd
>>use to cast them - I'm looking at interior block insertion to reduce
resin
>>use and maybe even adding Alumalite microbaloons to cut the resin
volume).
>>
>>Any tips or thoughts on these fronts appreciated.
>>
>>Tom
>
>
> A possible cheap option for the filler on your masters would be to
> cut a slightly undersized styrofoam block (or several in the basic
> shape of the vehicle and do the sculpty/green stuff over that for the
> detailing.
>
> If you are making several variants on the same basic hull shape, it
> may be worth getting the styrofoam CNC milled at a local model
> supplies store or engineer.
>
> Another alternative - if you are good with 3D modeling software -
> would be to do your designs on your 'puter then upload them to
> Shapeways and get the prototypes 3D-printed by them. An advantage of
> doing this is that you can  do the design once at say 25/28mm then
> just adjust the scaling for 15mm or 5/6 mm. Hmmm, I wonder if we
> could persuade the T-man to do something like that so we can get the
> 15mm range as 25mm?
>
>
>
>
>