How do Pendraken do multiple cast moulds?

[Last Hussar]

Idle curiosity - just that some of your figures which should be the same appear to be slightly different to each other.  Specifically at this moment I am painting WSS Imperial Curassiers, and the position of the riders legs appears to change slightly between casts - sometimes I can get a spot of paint in behind for the blanket, sometimes I can't.

Could just be my crap painting.

[Leon]

Not sure on that particular figure, could be a slight variation in the original masters.  There's no way the position of a leg could change once the mould has been made.

[Last Hussar]

I realise that!  Do you have multiple masters to make the moulds from?  Or do you have just one mould per figure (surely not!)

[Gandalf]

A quick summary:
The sculptor produces a "dolly" which is used to made a master mould
Casts are taken from the master mould until enough are available to make a production mould.
There are roughly thirty figures in a production mould eg 3 lots of 10 Spanish Civil War or 30 Franco-Prussian War, 30 American War of Independance etc.

[Matt J]

The same master is used to make multiple indents in the mould.

correct me ifI'm wrong....

http://www.tekcast.com/Intro-to-Spin-casting/c1/p5/Spin-Cast-in-6-Easy-Steps/pages.html



(I work in the jewellery trade the casting process is different but the principles are the same ie the master is the key, good master = good product)

[Gandalf]

Good link.  That would have saved me a bit of typing.  The principle (and probably the equipment) is exactly the same.  One of the biggest contract casting companies for wargames figures began as a jeweller.

[Matt J]

no different equipment.

Jewellery casting is wax loss casting and we tend to use vacum rather than centrifugal casting now-a-days. I thought the process was the same myself until I looked into miniature casting. I couldn't understand how pendraken knocked out the castings so cheap, a jewellery casting is 35p minimum just for the labour.

[Leon]

There's a lot of companies who use a contract casting company, charging £2-3 per spin...!  

[Last Hussar]

The WSS Austrian Curassiers definately have a bit of variation in the leg position.  This is not a bad thing.