[GZG] Turrets and bodies separate

["Thomas Barclay" <kaladorn@xxxxxxxx>]

I must say, I have several lines of tanks (possibly old CMD ranges or someone else's) in
1/300th where subsituting turrets is easy and you can change turrets and thus easily have
grav chassis, AC chassis, or tracked (theoretically, wheeled would be possible too).
That's handy. 

In 25mm, I can't think of any really good reason this could not be done too. Some have
started by letting you make orders for an AIFV, an FCS, or the like all from the same
similar appearance. I had conversations with David at DLD about this, but his casting is
multipart and very detailed, so its a bit of a different beast. 

Using single major part pour moulds, you'd still think standardizing on say 3 sizes of
turret rings (one for small turrets, one for medium turrets, one for larger turrets) would
be good enough. Use these for all chassis' and then you're set. You can mix and match
turrets and chassis. And, when making your moulds, just make smaller ones with 1 or more
turrets. Make 2 or 3 turrets of the same type in a mould, instead of a vehicle chassis +
turret. 

To avoid too much stock sitting about, just keep a small stock of each body or turret and
then pour more as needed. 

Rather than increasing your inventory (which, BTW, is a problem that even a simple POS
system ought to handle quite nicely, or web commerce solution), it might actually do the
opposite. Instead of having to make 10 different grav chassis, you need make six. But with
six different turrets, that's 36 combinations, instead of 10. You see my point - fewer
actual moulds and fewer actual different stock items, but more possible final products. 

Yes, this does require a bit of planning and discipline. 

The other option is make all turrets flat bottomed. You have to think that would agree
with pour moulds generally. Then make the three 'turret elevators' (the ring part that
would be moulded at present into the turret) separate. Then you can even go one step
further and sometimes, using a different elevator ring size, fit larger turrets to hulls
not normally designed for it. It might look odd, but if you've ever seen some historical
monstrosities, you know this is hardly unprecedented. That offers the benefit of somewhat
decoupling turret ring size from the individual turret. Then you'd buy a turret ring
elevator, a turret, and a chassis. 

I was very much of the opinion that if I ever get a place with a garage where I can do
some casting, this is the kind of thing I'd do. And I think it could be profitable for a
business doing it, for the aforementioned reason of having more models available while
still having fewer actual moulds and separate inventory items. 

Of course, what do I know.... ? (Adrian, Laserlight... no need to answer... or for that
matter, any of you who've met me... that goes double for Beth... *grin*)

Tom B
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