Warhammer 40k

Halge said:
Okay, so a couple of question if you don't mind. You may have already explained it in one of your posts, but my ADD won't let me process more than twitter-length posts at a time so I might have missed it. If you did, maybe you could refer to said post(s).

1. What exactly is the purpose of the mold? More specifically, is it for casting multiple copies of the object, or just one prototype that you then put post-print finishing touches on, or what? Curious about what your endgame is, and what stage in that process the mold is. I've already figured you kinda play in a different league than most of us hobbyists, but I might learn something useful.

The idea of printing a mold is cool, and looks great on paper, and is something I've fiddled with (a tiny bit) myself, but I figure you'd run into all kinds of problems. Like the mold having inaccuracies, and the printing material not being suited for the casting material. I made a quick try with a printed two-part PLA mold, with the following results (tldr version: didn't work):

Melted tin alloy would, surprisingly, not melt PLA outright. At least not when poured at a temperature just above melting point. But it did fuse with the plastic, to the point that I had to pry it loose. I never poured metal into the actual mold (it took long to print, and I didn't want to waste it), just on a piece of scrap PLA I had lying about. While it didn't melt the plastic I suspect it deformed it somewhat, and anyway like I said it fused solid with the plastic. So no way you can use metal as a casting material in a PLA mold (but we all knew that already).

Two-part resin didn't seem to produce enough heat to deform the mold, but it did stick to it much the same way as the metal. I had sprayed the inside of the mold with silicone, but that didn't help one bit. Couldn't even get the cast out of the mold by prying with tools. Didn't help that a PLA mold, unlike standard rubber or silicone molds, won't bend or flex one bit.

Haven't bothered with Green Stuff yet because the mold was wrecked by the resin and I didn't feel like printing up another. Might experiment some more in the future, but so far my impression is using PLA as a mold (especially for repeated use) is basically unfeasible.

2. What kind of equipment do you use for casting? You wrote about doing injection molding instead of pouring, so I assume you have access to somewhat cooler equipment than just a pot stove and a casting ladle?
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The endgame is to be able to have a small side business where I can sell resin castings of my designs (I've got a bunch of ideas for various kits). The part that I'm working on now are not the molds themselves, but a set of masters that get molded in your bog-standard tin-cure silicone rubber. Instead of printing a set of master parts and then having to clay them for casting I'm going to print up a pair of blocks (one for each side of a two-part mold) that are the shape of the parts as if they were already in clay. Getting a good mold from master parts in clay is an art in of itself with a significant learning curve, plus you need to redo the whole process every time you need to run a new mold (you generally only get 15-50 pulls per mold, depending on the type of rubber and shape of the parts). If I do it this way with "master mold blocks" I never have to clay any parts and running new rubber is trivial. I've got a picture of an old prototype I did up in post #1731 that shows the blocks next to their resulting rubbers.

As for equipment, I'm still really basic. The "injection" is just going to be with a regular feeding syringe, it's not at all like hard plastic injection molding where you need high temp and high pressure equipment. It's very similar to just a regular pour, but because the resin flows in from the bottom it's supposed to fill the mold better and reduce the chance of miscasts. If this idea works out (I'm waiting on supplies to try it, should know by the end of the month) I'll be ordering the Phenom to see if it gives me a high enough print quality that I'd be comfortable selling the resulting parts. And if that step is a yes I'll be getting a vacuum pot and a pressure pot so I can properly degas and run parts.
 
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j123 said:
The head scientist on the moonbase that had issues with the guy who challenges beliasarius cawl and he up being part of his consciousness?


There's some fan theory that big e might be a dark age of tech invention and is the last of its kind (an army of big e's existing.... Wild stuff). Made with fabricated memories of his life and programmed to ascend humanity at all costs. It has some inconsistencies such as the fight with the void dragon in the 13th century, but it seems still within realm of possibility.


Failbbadon the armless a beast? Wut?
Click to expand...
- no a new character


-yeah its one that one of the writers champions a lot , theres a quote that started it where a beaten terran warlord mocks the title emperor of mankind to her custode captor asking if hes even human ,, have you seen him breathe ever ? What lab did he escape from

- yep but lorewise hes aa frigging monster in combat
 
I need a second set of eyes on this:

I've been stuck on this idea of making a miniature with a chainmail coif made of bullets (like Bullet Farmer from Mad Max) for a while. Made another attempt (see picture and link below).
710x528_31354490_16617282_1587506878.jpg


Merging the separate objects into one model has been hell on me and my poor AMD A4 3420 APU processor, and I'm loathe to walk away from the project without a finished product.
But at the same time, I can't quite decide if the miniature makes sense. When you look at the picture above (or if you take the time to check it out in the 360° function on this page), can you even tell what the various details are? Can you tell that the guy is wearing an ammo helmet/cloak, has a body made of skulls, has guns for arms et cetera, or is it all just a busy smear? Is the mini cool, or just derpy/incomprehensible?
 
Halge said:
I need a second set of eyes on this:

I've been stuck on this idea of making a miniature with a chainmail coif made of bullets (like Bullet Farmer from Mad Max) for a while. Made another attempt (see picture and link below).
710x528_31354490_16617282_1587506878.jpg


Merging the separate objects into one model has been hell on me and my poor AMD A4 3420 APU processor, and I'm loathe to walk away from the project without a finished product.
But at the same time, I can't quite decide if the miniature makes sense. When you look at the picture above (or if you take the time to check it out in the 360° function on this page), can you even tell what the various details are? Can you tell that the guy is wearing an ammo helmet/cloak, has a body made of skulls, has guns for arms et cetera, or is it all just a busy smear? Is the mini cool, or just derpy/incomprehensible?
Click to expand...
The ammo aspect is much easier to read in 3D than it is in that specific render, and I'm sure it would be even more obvious if it were painted. All the other details are easy to see as you describe them. It's pretty easy to follow on the whole.

I think the biggest problem I have with the whole design is that the skulls don't seem cohesive: they're all different sizes and there's nothing that I see that makes them all overlapping and intersecting make sense as a narrative. Like, there's no connective tissues or anything that suggests how it can move, and it doesn't look like armor (being formed from constructed plate, rather than being biological, would explain why there's overlap). I think it needs refining on the conceptual level:
Is this meant to be alive? Then it needs some sort of other tissues to hold it together.
Is it meant to be armor? Then it needs more obvious articulation points and/or hardware.
Is it meant to be magically animated? Then there shouldn't be so much obvious overlapping/intersecting.
 
JBSchroeds said:
The ammo aspect is much easier to read in 3D than it is in that specific render, and I'm sure it would be even more obvious if it were painted. All the other details are easy to see as you describe them. It's pretty easy to follow on the whole.

I think the biggest problem I have with the whole design is that the skulls don't seem cohesive: they're all different sizes and there's nothing that I see that makes them all overlapping and intersecting make sense as a narrative. Like, there's no connective tissues or anything that suggests how it can move, and it doesn't look like armor (being formed from constructed plate, rather than being biological, would explain why there's overlap). I think it needs refining on the conceptual level:
Is this meant to be alive? Then it needs some sort of other tissues to hold it together.
Is it meant to be armor? Then it needs more obvious articulation points and/or hardware.
Is it meant to be magically animated? Then there shouldn't be so much obvious overlapping/intersecting.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the skulls are a bit syntax error. I think I've mentioned in a previous post that I'm doing faux-oldhammer style miniatures for the time being, to try and learn the ropes. Figured a body made from skulls was kind of 80's "whatevs it's chaos anything goes"-esque. In my defense, I have seen weirder concepts from that era (half of them from Bob Olley).
Also, Ammo Man is just the latest in a line of minis with minor variations I've knocked out over the last couple of weeks. Started with this guy:
710x528_31271265_16584506_1586910622.jpg
Which kinda makes a bit more sense conceptually ("he's a chaos skulltaker lord, he takes peoples heads and fashions his armor out of them!").
Then I kept making a bunch of minis using the same body. It was seductively easy, basicallly it's like building snowmen but with skulls instead of balls of snow. Ammo Man is the fourth or fifth iteration. The original concept has more or less fallen by the wayside.

Think an additional problem with Ammo Man might be that the bullet cloak doesn't contrast the skulls. You kinda want flat surfaces to offset the busy ones, and with the ammo-on-skulls its busy on busy.
I'm printing Ammo Man as we speak, so I'll see how it feels irl. Probably won't be making any adjustment either way though. I don't feel up to reverse-engineering a model with that many polygons- my computer would need literal hours to complete the necessary processes.

Edit: Though I did entertain the thought of making his entire body out of ammo at one point. Sort of like a .45 cal leotard. Hmm...
 
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Well now, what do we have here? Is that...a successful casting test?! The mold design works and the injection method was quick and easy to do. The rubber I tried seemed to work out really well (hardness 30). It's one one of the harder casting rubbers but I had no trouble with de-molding, and you want to go as hard as possible because it improves your mold longevity.

mold_test.JPG

The test wasn't without issues, however. I did end up with some voids, but that's not surprising because I don't have a vacuum or pressure pot and I didn't bother to powder my molds. The rough surface from print striations didn't help things either. But those are all things that should be fixed if I end up doing this for real. Unfortunately I'm not happy with the plastic. I went with Smooth-Cast 321 and there were two things I didn't like: it was more viscous than expected (though this stuff has a limited shelf-life so I may have just gotten an older batch) and it is super bendy. See those long tubes for the injection channels? I could wrap them around my finger. Though, rereading the datasheet it seems like this might be a user-error issue: a "de-mold cure" and "final cure" are apparently two different things. The final cure may take up to a week at room temperature or needing 4-6 hr in a a low-temp oven. So it looks like I might want to try again and leave it in the mold then pop it in the oven for a few hours. The rubber is good to 400dF and the recommended "final cure" temp is 160dF so I don't have to worry about destroying the molds that way.
 
JBSchroeds said:
Well now, what do we have here? Is that...a successful casting test?! The mold design works and the injection method was quick and easy to do. The rubber I tried seemed to work out really well (hardness 30). It's one one of the harder casting rubbers but I had no trouble with de-molding, and you want to go as hard as possible because it improves your mold longevity.

View attachment 765467

The test wasn't without issues, however. I did end up with some voids, but that's not surprising because I don't have a vacuum or pressure pot and I didn't bother to powder my molds. The rough surface from print striations didn't help things either. But those are all things that should be fixed if I end up doing this for real. Unfortunately I'm not happy with the plastic. I went with Smooth-Cast 321 and there were two things I didn't like: it was more viscous than expected (though this stuff has a limited shelf-life so I may have just gotten an older batch) and it is super bendy. See those long tubes for the injection channels? I could wrap them around my finger. Though, rereading the datasheet it seems like this might be a user-error issue: a "de-mold cure" and "final cure" are apparently two different things. The final cure may take up to a week at room temperature or needing 4-6 hr in a a low-temp oven. So it looks like I might want to try again and leave it in the mold then pop it in the oven for a few hours. The rubber is good to 400dF and the recommended "final cure" temp is 160dF so I don't have to worry about destroying the molds that way.
Click to expand...
That looks great for a prototype
 
JBSchroeds said:
Unfortunately I'm not happy with the plastic. I went with Smooth-Cast 321 and there were two things I didn't like: it was more viscous than expected (though this stuff has a limited shelf-life so I may have just gotten an older batch) and it is super bendy. See those long tubes for the injection channels? I could wrap them around my finger. Though, rereading the datasheet it seems like this might be a user-error issue: a "de-mold cure" and "final cure" are apparently two different things. The final cure may take up to a week at room temperature or needing 4-6 hr in a a low-temp oven. So it looks like I might want to try again and leave it in the mold then pop it in the oven for a few hours. The rubber is good to 400dF and the recommended "final cure" temp is 160dF so I don't have to worry about destroying the molds that way.
Click to expand...
24 hours later and everything is way harder. The channel pieces now pop back if you bend them instead of permanently deforming like they did when I first took it out of the mold. Looks like doing an oven cure before demolding will be a must for any thin parts.
 
HelloJapan said:
what1.gif
Click to expand...

This thread is closing in on 2000 posts. Boy, dont you look silly now, 2017 Tom Cruise.

JBSchroeds said:
The mold design works and the injection method was quick and easy to do. The rubber I tried seemed to work out really well (hardness 30).
Click to expand...

Is that the same as the Shore scale? Been ages since I fiddled with molds, but I think I used a couple of different brands of silicone rubber with a Shore degree of somewhere in the low-to-mid 20's. Actually finding info on what Shore degree different silicones had was difficult when buying from ordinary hobby stores, for some reason. And the scale was a bit complicated, with hardness not just increasing by number, but also by different ranges (Shore A, Shore B and so on).
Anyway the ones I got were obviously on the softer end. They worked fine I guess, but they weren't as sexy as the brick-like molds you'd get from Prince August et al. You could clobber a home invader to death with a proper Karoliner mold. Mmh mmh, satisfying.

Have I asked you this before? I feel like I've asked you this before.
 
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Anyway, I made another mini that's warhammer-related enough to be posted itt instead of the 3d print thread.
I give you "Knifethrower".

Quite satisfied with it. It's simple enough, but it has the oldhammer vibe. Furthermore, it is my first attempt to make a proper cloak (or any type of clothing for that matter) and it didn't turn out too shabby. Think I learnt some tricks that I can use in the future. It has some kinks, especially round the back where I think I've given the flaring side an illogical shape.

The miniature can swap weapons too, so it can have as many variations as I can be bothered to make for it. And I've made a LOT (my aim is basically to give it all the weapons options you could have in Darklands ). Most of them are already made and in place, and the only work remaining is to prep the files for upload to Shapeways. Which is the tedious and sucky part. Trying to make promo material and spread the word on social media et cetera is another black hole into which you can sink an infinite amount of time and effort, by the way.

710x528_31496634_16684346_1588696831.jpg


710x528_31511754_16691579_1588808919.jpg
 
Halge said:
Is that the same as the Shore scale? Been ages since I fiddled with molds, but I think I used a couple of different brands of silicone rubber with a Shore degree of somewhere in the low-to-mid 20's. Actually finding info on what Shore degree different silicones had was difficult when buying from ordinary hobby stores, for some reason. And the scale was a bit complicated, with hardness not just increasing by number, but also by different ranges (Shore A, Shore B and so on).
Anyway the ones I got were obviously on the softer end. They worked fine I guess, but they weren't as sexy as the brick-like molds you'd get from Prince August et al. You could clobber a home invader to death with a proper Karoliner mold. Mmh mmh, satisfying.

Have I asked you this before? I feel like I've asked you this before.
Click to expand...
Yeah, this is on the Shore A scale. I used Smooth-On Mold Max 30 for this test [LINK]. The Mold Max line comes in 10, 20, 25, 30, and 40. This design has little to no undercuts so a softer rubber isn't necessary.
 
Bump
Apparently next big part of the so far disapointing psychic awakening will involve the necron silent king !
 
So I got copyright claimed by Games Workshop...

<{ohyeah}>

Started uploading print files for my miniatures on TurboSquid. About a week later half my uploads were suspended, and I got the following e-mail(s) from Member Services:

Hello,

The company Games Workshop has issued a take-down for all models that are associated with their brand. This prevents artists on TurboSquid from posting content depicting the company's brand.

They may not be re-posted on TurboSquid due to the Games Workshops objection. Please do not attempt to submit any content depicting this brand.

...

Thank you for your reply. I am very sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. The models are too closely resembled to miniatures from Warhammer and we cannot place them back online at this time.
Click to expand...

Now, I'm no Bird Law expert, but I fail to see how the following miniatures:
ammomanLOGOD.jpg RundestroyLOGOD.jpg skelwarLOGOD.jpg SkullordLOGOD2.jpg axemanLOGOD.jpg knightLOGOD.jpg raubritthelmetedLOGOD.jpg MedoffbareheadLOGOD.jpg ww1officerLOGOD.jpg chaosmeleesidefrontLOGOD.jpg

Or a number of similarly themed minis infringes on Games Workshop's IP, unless said IP happens to include things like:

-Basic human anatomy
-WW1
-The colors black and white
-Miniatures too amateurish to stack up to GW products in any way

Whatever man. Jesus, that fucking company is litigious. Feeling good about selling accessory kits, @JBSchroeds ?
 
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