Hey gang, I have been working on the Pacific Theater miniatures. The game/expansion is to be a standalone OR you can mix and match. But Incursion PT will have over 63 unique sculpts!!! Incursion, SNAFU and ASSETS tally 144 miniatures but only 55 unique sculpts! That is what has been taking a lot of my time, well artwork too, there are lots of steps here, checks, resizing, print again, cast one at a time, resculpt in metal a little more detail, break apart pieces for production molds… well, everything, lots going on.
Here is where we are and added some casting steps for those interested…
Casting demo
Casting miniatures actually starts with concept art… someone has to envision what uniqueness we need on the table. After that, a hand sculptor like Andy Cooper of West Winds, Patrick Keith of Bombshell Babes (from the SOTR and 1st and 2nd edition days) would make a master. Nowadays many are sculpted in 3D (computationally) in OBJ/STL or other formats. These get 3D printed but you have to use a special resin to survive vulcanization, the part of taking natural or synthetic rubber and making it hard and durable enough to caster pewter in. Ok now onto production casting! Which goes like this:
Step 1 – turn on the furnace and get that solid block of pewter melted, around 500+ F and while you wait talc up the rubber mold, it helps to prevent the metal moving into the mold while air escapes the mold and the metal from sticking to the mold.
Step 2 – take your mold and place it in the spin caster, turn on air compressor ()which will raise the mold and lower platen (basically a clamp plate) up to meet the upper platen (the other clamp plate).
Step 3 – hit start to start spinning the platen and the molds and now the fun part, grab a ladle and scoop up some of that beautiful (and heavy) liquid pewter and move over to the casting unit and pour into the sprue and fill up the cavity. Mind you you have to worry about pressure of the clamp, not too tight, not too loose and the RPM at which you spin plus spin direction, a little black rooster, some rum and a little dance…
Step 4 – and you fill the mold! Let it cool off first, pop out some hopping zombies or Japanese troopers, its fun time!!!
Step 5 – sorting. Why my molds only have 1 part on there, sorting is real easy
Step 6 – ok, one of my favorite parts about metal spin casting, its 100% recyclable. Anything that did not come out right or the sprue, runners, gates… all recyclable
Ok that’s the process… how about some photos of what I have been up to?
See more blogs and new minis (and more coming soon) at: http://www.tabletopboardgames.us/blog/
