Photos of the almost guys

Got an e-mail this morning from someone who likes seeing the details of mold making, so I thought I would post some pics of things that did not quite make the cut the past few weeks and the reasons why.

  First off we have my long range project the stalker tank. In this pic we can see that the left front fender was not cut out. This was simply a careless oversight on my part.  In this case the parting line at the front fender was off slightly resulting in part of the model not being cut out. What happened is that the bottom of the fender was floating into the top side mold. It pays to run a simulation on your cutting and really watch the tool path.

  Here is a Federal main battle tank. Looks OK, but the treads have some sort of angle that makes them really want to hang up. This means I can not make this yet. I have to polish and file the treads until they stop sticking. This tank is supposed to be a foe of the earlier trencher tank but right now it is MIA.

Here is a pic with a trencher turret. I think it makes a nice opponent. Maybe it will work someday. On a positive note the women 28mm troops are looking good. Almost got the backside mold finished and will start on the face side then. 
   With any luck the next post will have pics of these troops painted up and I will start working on the heavy weapons sprue.

Recruits are taking shape

  Wanted to post a few pics for those curious about the process of home mold making.   I am starting to think it would be much better to have someone do this part, but then I would miss out on all the fun. I by fun I mean frustrations. It is still way cheaper to make your own. For less than the cost of a single mold you can have equipment and software to make all the molds you want. It is getting the knowledge that is elusive.

Here is a block on the mill after roughing in the cavities for the sci-fi troopers. I used a .125 ball up to this point, a really big tool for our size objects.

Here is a body further detailed with a .060 ball mill. It is actually recognizable with boots and legs if you look closely. The head attaches closest to you from this angle.

This is a .012 bit, the smallest I could ever see the need to use. I will only use this for areas needed fine detail. These first women I am trying to make are fairly simple, just raw militia in a jump suit and carrying your basic small arms. If they turn out, which I think is a big if, I am going to make a sprue of heavy weapons for them.

  And this is a strange bird who built a nest in my shop rags right beside the CNC mill. It sets there looking at me and seems to be confident in its camoflage, even though it built a nest on bright red rags. I do not even know how it gets in and out, but it must make its way through a roof vent or beside the big doors. I have decided to allow it to stay, even though the 4 eggs are sure to lead to a quartet of annoying screaming chicks and a pile of crap covered shop rags.   And that is what has been happening at the shop. I still have to get that other tank mass produced, but the ejection is being a real pain. I tend to get frustrated and then set things down for a while. Once I get some fresh energy I will tackle it. I have to admit I am a bit focused on getting a few squads of these hapless female cannon fodder on the battlefield.  Squads like this are great, because sometimes they get lucky and take out a Chaos lord or something, giving you bragging rights for years. "Hey, remember that time my squad of housewives armed with rolling pins killed your 10,000 year old demonicly empowered, runic armored, power sword wielding berserking lunatic? Boy was that great."  

Snakes again

  Been working quite a bit, and as usual spreading myself too thin. I spent some time working on 2 new tank molds, I hope to have them up soon. I have also been battling snakes. This is my little "Zen" garden I built outside of the barn. I find it a nice place to relax. Sadly, snakes feel this way also and I spend most summers battling to rid myself of them. This year a very elusive monster comes slithering out of the water and suns himself on a rock. I have a small pellet gun with a range of about 8 feet it seems and he always gets away. I will prevail at some point.
   Besides working on more 15mm tanks, I got some work done on 28mm sci fi troopers. I hope to be cutting this mold next. This is my most challenging mold so far. I had trouble with the hair, so I left them shaved. They are after all female militia, the planets very last line of defense.

  This type of mold requires a complex parting line- like this.

  Still learning as I go, but if I can get this sorted it will go a long way towards making available all the minis I ever wanted but no one else made!   And, as if my plate was not full enough, I have really been delving into 1/32 slot cars. And there are quite a few not being made... so.....

  The old Cyclone is on my to do list.      I will keep pushing away and boring folks with info about how to make your own stuff on a shoestring budget in your back yard.

 Have a nice weekend.   :)

Getting hit a lot-but in a good way.

  I noticed an unusual spike in hits when I checked the blog. In the stats section it indicated that most of them came from a forum called Dakka Dakka. I have been on there a few times looking for rumors when the new version of WFB was being released. Thanks to whoever posted a link there.  To answer a few questions; battletech bases would be easy, I just need to know the size. I have also been planning to do a base for 3.5" action figures with a small post to stand them up on for display.  The trencher tank measures 2" long and 2" wide to the outside of the sponsons, the roller is 2" wide and 1.25" tall.  And I have gotten several requests to do 6mm stuff. Will put it on my list.
   I am planning on completing a range of alternate history WW1 vehicles in the near future, so that will be my primary goal. Infantry in greatcoats and masks to go with the vehicles is also something I want to do. To make things even more hectic, I do plan to release a scattering of 28mm multi-poses if possible.
      Cutting out the stalker today I took time to paint up a few of my little tanks. The one in the middle has the driver hatch open. It looks neat but I do not think it shows up too well.   

   Right now I am boxing up some stuff.  I have filled all orders and will ship the last in the morning.  I am however completely out of tanks and have to make more in the morning.
  Here is a pic of the stalker prototype. The tracks are a little different on the new one. It comes with a short barrel if you want to make a normal version. I like the one shot-one kill armor destroyer gun.

  With any luck I will be able to get the right stuff in each box, not get killed by the plastic machine and have the stalkers in the store next week.

Rolling with nitrogen

OK, so I am posting 2 days in a row. Maybe I am getting caught up in this whole online social networking thing.   Here is a pic of the roller tank, now in the store. It was a bit easier than the trencher so I priced it a bit less. By a bit easier I mean less cut fingers and cursing. I realize I have got to have the most shade tree mechanic operation on earth, but you got to do what you got to do.
   I had some issues with the nitrogen. It is pretty good stuff, but getting the ratio down is tricky. Also, the stuff sometimes keeps on swelling even after it comes out of the mold. I got a pile of pregnant looking roller tanks setting in a pile. If for some reason you might want a swollen bodied roller, send me a message with your order and I will throw in an extra body while supplies last. I had to go back through all the tanks and pick out the bad ones. Grrrrrrr.
   The good part about the nitrogen is it seems to allow me to create larger solids than previously without shrinkage. I had to fight with the alignment again, but I think it is acceptable.
   I think I will cut a new tank on Tuesday. With the new 90 pin die and a bag of nitrogen I am feeling stupidly optomistic.
   Will post more when something happens.

New tank ready, second coming along too.

  Well I finally got around to posting on my blog again. I have a lot of things in the works. First off, thanks for the heads up on the billboard, I removed the crossbrace because it was snapping too easily when trimming the sprue.  I made up a few tanks today, going to add them to the store. Had some issues with the one side of the track slipping out of alignment a bit. However, the rest looked fine and I trimmed it up with my pocket knife in a few seconds so I am going to go with it. Would hate to spend another few weeks cutting a new mold for something trivial. I am going to work on it a bit and see if I can close it up some.  The little guns on the side sponsons need a bit of a trim to slide in easily too. All in all, I kind of like it.  It takes a bit to make because I have to run it in manual mode.    This tank is run using a nitrogen additive to prevent shrinkage. It is pretty neat stuff. The gas bubbles expand during the heating process and help keep sinkholes from showing up. It has a few tricks to using. When setting in the barrels it seems to keep expanding and squirting out, so you got to RUN this stuff because it wants to come out ready or not.
    I have been wondering about what is a good price for a 15mm tank, given how much it takes to make them. I am going to sell them in a platoon of 3 for $10 via the webstore. I had not realized how much the various fees would run up on E-bay and the web site costs, etc.  The ones I list on E-bay I am going to charge $11 for to help defray the cost of E-bay fees.
   Not sure how that is going to work out, but it is still 3 tanks for the price of one Flames of War tank. It is even less than Old Glory too.
   I got the wheeled roller tank setting ready to go soon. I ran some prototypes of it the other day and plan to make a production run for inventory in the next few days. The tank destroyer with the huge gun will be up next for a new mold and then an APC and self propelled massive artillery piece. I might make another sponsoned main battle tank too, because I had another design that looked pretty neat.
   I am also getting mildly excited about my slot car angle and plan on making stuff for that too.

  Anyhow, that is the latest from the barn workshop.

Bases

  Today I made about 100 of these sprues and added them to the store for sale. Kind of a simple design, but for some reason this mold gave me a lot of fits before I found one I could get to flow evenly. In the end a simple straight runner with parts spaced along the sides worked best. With 25mm rounds finished I have all the base sizes normally used for gaming done. Now I got to start working on the guys to stand on them!  That is a bit of a tall order, but I like challenges. I have been working n a brainteaser from the back of Omni magazine since march of 1983. Not continuously of course, that would be obsessive.
   These were made with the old fixed pin ejectors. I am running a new trencher tank mold for the adjustable pin die assembly. Unfortunately, the CNC started making a bit too much noise so I shut it down to do some work on the drive asembly. If everything would just work right all the time things would be more pleasant.
   After trying for too many times to find someone to design models, I think I am just going to knuckle down and do the work myself. I have everything down except hair and hands. The hair could be solved with some snappy hats and perhaps mittens will make an appearance in a distant galaxy. Actually, it would be best if I knew how to do each step of the process, so time to get busy.