Factor40's Public Display

[Hiflt4@juno.com]

Gun forward imo... Hes not a ninja

[Munkey Joe]

[factor40]

Ok, so here's a shot of the poses as they stand right now. Note I have an updated sgt. pose and I threw in 3 "leftys". Why don't more company make left handed models? Anyways...

[mangozac]

That's a really nice variety of poses! Plus I assume they'll be chopped up a little for casting, allowing you to give some subtle variations through arm repositioning

[factor40]

[mangozac]

You can always chop them up after printing. I was only thinking arms and gun too.

In terms of casting, removing the arms potentially makes the mould simpler, so there may not necessarily be much difference in production cost. IMO the benefits are worth it.

[lone dirty dog]

Just been checking your blog out and have to say like the look of what you are doing especially the head sprue, the greatcoats are looking good so far although I think they could benefit from extra detailing before going to production.

I think the idea of making them multi pose would be a better for sales, this way people would have more uses for the sets even thought the original casting cost would be higher overall your sales opportunities would be open to a larger market.

I have bought some stuff produced this way by zealot miniatures and he did a 40k type priest miniature and I have to say it came out well, the detail was crisp and clean and features was rather dam good it would be worth taking a look just to see what can be achieved in this scale.

[factor40]

I think I'd have to agree with you, Dirty Dog. I am just one guy doing this right now but I want to make something that people will enjoy. The Zealot stuff is awesome and they are where I'd like to be at some point.

As for the detailing, if you mean accessories and whatnot, that is coming out in a separate pack. I was hoping to leave some room for people to do their own customizing to these. I could go ahead and add a backpack, canteen, shovel, etc. but that will give people almost no options when it comes to working with them. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

What are people's thoughts on that? What else can be done to these to make them more detailed. This is the kind of feedback that really helps.

[mangozac]

I agree, accessories on a separate sprue is the way to go. That way you can buy just the stuff you need and you don't end up with a glut of unnecessary bits.

Details on the minis themselves are all of the little things: buttons, pockets, badges, pins, clips, etc.

[Hatemonger]

[factor40]

H8, you make good points and that's what I am thinking about currently. If I go the route of multi-part models, it restricts me in what I can do with poses and whatnot. Look at the plastic "Canadians" from "you know who"; lots of options to mix but only a few poses for the legs and zero posing ability for the torso.

Using static pieces forces design in a certain direction and, while there isn't a right or wrong way to go at it, I tend to prefer more dynamics in the figures. It would seem you'd miss out on the chance to have your figures doing things like jumping over an obstacle, or launching himself into air from a rock, or any other dynamic action that would make them fun to look at, paint, and use in a game. That's why I think FW went with the DKoK the way they did, those poses present quite a sight on the battlefield and they're fun from a hobby aspect as well. From what I've been able to surmise, FW had to separate the arms in order to make the casting process go smoother. You can probably answer that one better than I, however.

One angle I am considering is that it if I can get these made for less money by making them in few or no pieces, I can theoretically afford to offer more sets of troops. Imagine kits like...1 squad of troops advancing, 1 squad of troops firing, grenadiers with launchers and throwing poses, snipers, special weapons. Each of these kits would have 4-5 figures with unique poses, suitable to supplement your main squads as you see fit.

Anyways, I've yapped enough for now. Thanks for your input

[factor40]

I finally got my heads from Moddler, they do very good work. However it makes me rethink the possibilities of using 3D printing on this scale. Here's a few pics to illustrate:





As you can see the prints come back perfectly clean. They are the best quality I've seen yet in all my tests with these. However, as shown in the second picture, there is still a noticeable lack of real detail. It might be a matter of tweaking the 3D model but I'm not convinced at this point. I've contacted another 3D printer that uses a machine called the Envision:Ultra that is supposed to give even better results than this. We'll have to wait and see.

[mangozac]

Is that "furriness" from the prints or was your airbrushing less than perfect? It's a shame about the results but it must be possible: Mark from Dreamforge is doing it: .

Like you say, it's probably a combination of a couple of things: certainly finding a higher res printer (or perhaps getting used to sandblasting the prints smooth) but more importantly making all features more pronounced. Hatemonger made some very sage remarks in his first paragraph.

[paulson games]

From what I've seen there's a company called Fineline Printing that produces stuff in micro-green which is the highest resolution available. Something in the magnitude of 30x smaller than what moddler does, the problem is it's very exspensive a single sprue would run upwards of $300. Worthwhile if you know you have a hot product that will sell but a pretty heavy investment for parts that you might be unsure of.

[Hiflt4@juno.com]

factor40"nFrom what I've been able to surmise, FW had to separate the arms in order to make the casting process go smoother. You can probably answer that one better than I, however.

The arms cross the body creating a cylinder the mold would have to be inside of, which means cutting the mold and carefully reconnecting it to maintain it distance from the body and would quickly tear or droop. Honestly I would reccomend leg/torso/head combos like dkok as a single part and arms seperate *3parts*. or poses with the uppertorso that have the arms and guns flush agenst the body either in an aiming pose and a marching type pose with the weapon sholdered and legs seperate.