Amatuer Looking to Get Minis Line off the Ground

[lastspartacus]

I assume pot life is the amount of time you can work with the resin before it cures. Any other favorites? I assume the negatives to shorter pot life is it can cure before you are ready for it to, but is the only negative to longer pot life a longer wait time for finished product?

I'll look at that split mold you suggested, the only negative is a slightly lower mold life, correct?
The skim-over confused me a bit but if so many swear by its ease I will go back and read about it, assuming you get just as good quality out of split molds.

What do you guys use for and to attach your sprues before molding?

Also: Define 'undercuts'. There should be a lingo legend

[Hiflt4@juno.com]

Correct the pot life is the delay untill the reaction that starts the cureing happens, basically it needs to be in the mold and have all your work done before this time is over.

An undercut is a a section of the part that does not have direct access when looking down on it

Ignore the part at the bottom, undercuts are harder to apply mold release and cause additional ware on the mold when removeing the part.

Split molds are great for tapered items with little or no undercut such as gun barrels, the advantage is the mold alignment is very easy its a good way to learn the basics and only takes 1 pour of silicone. But will not work for every part.

[mangozac]

I never found the lifespan of the split moulds to be any worse than that of multi-part moulds. The split moulds are more than adequate for models like BFG miniatures and the ships that you want to do. In fact, as mentioned elsewhere on here, Forge World uses split moulds for the majority of its stuff.

You just use a bit of styrene rod, or even bits of old sprue from styrene kits for the attachment of the part to the sprue block.

Here's a shot of how I make the sprues these days:

As you can see, those master parts are themselves resin copies and thus have the sprue cast as part of them. They are glued to the side of a bit of 2mm styrene sheet which then has some clay built up either side of it to create a triangular prism. You want the volume of that prism to be at least 2 times the volume of all of the parts on the sprue.

[Hiflt4@juno.com]

Do you have the mold from that frame to show how and where to cut the mold?

[Munkey Joe]

[mangozac]

[lastspartacus]

Here is a question, as I have been spending a lot of time looking at the best way to get my masters made. I hadn't really considered 3d printing for my minis over hiring a sculptor, but I wanted to mine the exerpience of the forumites here.

Can 3d printing get you the detail you are looking for in a quality miniatures line? And if so, is Shapeways or Moddler better, or some other company I haven't heard of? And what can I expect to pay, roughly, for a tabletop mini sized print.

[paulson games]

A 3d print that's suitable for casting/reproduction will likely run you around $250-$300. (for a 30mm tall model) Plus whatever additional you have to pay the digital artist. It has some advantages over hand sculpts but cost certainly isn't one. It's much cheaper to have traditional sculpt done.

Shapeways and Moddler will only work for a few types of models, stuf fthat has lots of flat surfaces work best, but organic models like faces or human bodies tend to come out pretty poorly and needs tons and tons of clean up work by hand.

[lastspartacus]

Yikes. Sculpting looks much more appealing now.

[mangozac]

The price is continuing to come down (and I expect will drop a lot further in the next couple of years). 3D printing of master parts is becoming much more common these days, but as Paulson says it's not really any more economical. Although if you are doing the 3D modelling yourself (rather than hiring someone) than it can work. Of course if you're a big miniatures company with your own 3D printer it is very economical!

[lastspartacus]

I read in a previous post to go for a c.a. technologies pressure pot if I could afford it over the standard 2.5 gallon harbor freight one. Why is that, I meant to ask.

I heard from a couple of you guys what kinds of resin you prefer, what about the rest of you, and why?

[factor40]

Harbor Freight is the perfect embodiment of the old saying "you get what you pay for". I have seen them selling their pots for as low as $70. Thinking to myself, "to good to be true", it turned out that it was. I bought 3 different pots and they were all defective upon opening the box. I never even used them. A 4th pot that looked OK, blew a fitting while under pressure.

I am convinced they are knowingly selling substandard items that other companies won't touch, almost like an outlet store. I wouldn't say you should make the decision based on my story, just be aware that many people have issues with some of their stuff.

As for resin, I use . I apply vacuum & pressure and it has about a 30 minute cure time. Works like a charm every time.

-Steve

[lastspartacus]

I dunno, your story was pretty convincing in itself, thanks

Makes spending the extra cash for the c.a. sound more correct.

[mangozac]

For the record, it seems that there isn't anything inherently wrong with pressure pots in the range of $100 - that's what myself and many people I know here in Oz are using. The Harbor Freight ones might be just that bit too cheap, hence why Steve has had so many issues. It could have just been a particular batch too (hopefully they have found a new supplier if they have had a lot of trouble with that model).

[factor40]

Zac is correct, there is certainly the possibility of bad batch(or something similar). I will not purchase my next pot from them but I won't rule out giving them another try in the future.