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I'm hitting the gaming industry hard(ish) but have hit a wall myself. My goal is a pirate game with plastic kits from the onset, but with the cost and complication of injection molding are making me reconsider.

I don't want a metal-model miniature game like every other one, but that may be the case. Would that throw anybody off from trying it out?

I've always enjoyed the modeling aspect of this hobby, and I feel like plastic kits will be the right direction for the game, but what costs would I be looking at?

Thanks for any help, everybody.

Ever consider resin?

Is it easy to cast small 28mm scale components in resin? I've never given it too much thought. What about sprues? Wont air bubbles still be a problem?

Thank you for the fast response!

edit: Grammar

I remember seeing this article a while ago from someone who was casting a custom made model and was doing a progress log. Have a look cos i think he addresses some of the bubble issues and stuff in there.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/120/301577.page

TQSplinter wrote:I remember seeing this article a while ago from someone who was casting a custom made model and was doing a progress log. Have a look cos i think he addresses some of the bubble issues and stuff in there.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/120/301577.page

Thank you for that! I've read through he thread before, but I guess never saw this last page or two.

HaLLuCiNaTiOn wrote:I'm hitting the gaming industry hard(ish) but have hit a wall myself. My goal is a pirate game with plastic kits from the onset, but with the cost and complication of injection molding are making me reconsider.

I don't want a metal-model miniature game like every other one, but that may be the case. Would that throw anybody off from trying it out?

I've always enjoyed the modeling aspect of this hobby, and I feel like plastic kits will be the right direction for the game, but what costs would I be looking at?

Thanks for any help, everybody.

I also are in process of my own game/s and also need to make some models - 'enjoy the modeling aspect of this hobby' and I enjoy the designing,most game play/mechanics of them.Need any help.

HaLLuCiNaTiOn wrote:I'm hitting the gaming industry hard(ish) but have hit a wall myself. My goal is a pirate game with plastic kits from the onset, but with the cost and complication of injection molding are making me reconsider.

So you have been quoted for some injection moulding then?

HaLLuCiNaTiOn wrote:
I don't want a metal-model miniature game like every other one, but that may be the case. Would that throw anybody off from trying it out?

Nope. Metal is good if the sculpts do it justice.

HaLLuCiNaTiOn wrote:
I've always enjoyed the modeling aspect of this hobby, and I feel like plastic kits will be the right direction for the game, but what costs would I be looking at?

Thanks for any help, everybody.

Im confused now! I thought you just said the costs were putting you off? I think you'd do better by actually getting in touch with an injection moulding company tbh mate. Beyond wild guesses I doubt the Dakka community can help you (unless someone actually does this for a living obv). But it aint gonna be cheap.

How may people are in your company? Are you the sculptor?

You can't just make any sculpture into an injection mold. Any sculpts you have now are going to have to be redesigned (probably over and over again), to fit with injection molding. you'll need the sculptor/designer or another technically minded person to work with the people making the mold.

Then you are also going to need a sprue/mold designer to layout the parts and sprues. This can be provided by the molders but the more you can provide the cheaper it is going to be. Mold designer may run finite element analysis flow simulation to help with the layout. Once this is done the tool can be made. Sometimes this is done in house at the molder, but sometimes it is not (depending on the molder).

At this point at a decent size molder a manufacturing engineer will get involved to start running the tool and coming up with an appropriate molding process. It is likely at this stage you'll have to make revisions to the tooling, which means a trip back to the tool maker. This can happen several times.

How long this this process takes will depend a lot on how technically proficient the people on your side are, what kind of technology you are using, and the same on the molder's end.

So how much will this cost? I'll lay out the most common case. If you are going to hire a consultant to work for you who is experienced in molding and part design and can act as a go between between the designer/sculptor and the molding house ($5-$10K depending on how many parts and complexity). The tooling may cost between $10K - $50K depending on size and complexity. (I'm assuming here it's a simple two sided mold) This will include the mold design, the process engineering, and the actual tool construction. The price should also include revisions they have to make to make the tool work. It's important you make sure this is included. With the price of the tool you'll get a limited number of parts for you to check out and qualify the tool. If you want to make changes here assuming they parts meet the terms of agreement you will have to pay for any tool modifications.

You'll likely be locked into whichever vendor you choose for either a period of years or for a certain number of parts. You won't get good prices on parts until your orders are in the 1000's.

So in summary if you haven't done this before, your best bet is to find someone who has and pay them to help you. I would budget ~$50K for the whole deal, but it might be less depending on what kind of complexity you are talking about. You should also budget on plenty of visits to both vendors as well.

Everyman and his dog wants to do plastic, be unique, go pewter!

Seriously though.

Cost and time wise it will be better to get metal minis out at first. And only if no other company is making minis that suit your theme. I'm sure a lot of mini makers out there have generic mini lines that can be used for your game system at first. Plenty of companies will assist you in sculpting a range for you too.

Leave plastics until you are sure your system is popular enough to support the investment.

Orki wrote:So you have been quoted for some injection moulding then?

I have, but that is merely for the actual molding, not the designing of the sprues, the model sculpting, etc.

Orki wrote:Nope. Metal is good if the sculpts do it justice.

I agree. Malifaux is a great example of this.

Orki wrote:Im confused now! I thought you just said the costs were putting you off? I think you'd do better by actually getting in touch with an injection moulding company tbh mate. Beyond wild guesses I doubt the Dakka community can help you (unless someone actually does this for a living obv). But it aint gonna be cheap.

Yeah, i understand the costs will be great. Thanks for the input, mate.

I was going to suggest Ambull's thread, but someone got to it already. With resin and GS the only limit is your own patience. I'm a firm believer that anyone can build some really great stuff if they just take the time to really do it right.

In all Honesty if I were in your position I would probably go with resin or metal to start with just to test the market or even just for the prototyping phase and go to the conventions and ask for people's reaction/opinion once you believe there is enough demand for 2000+ kits try to get the money together and go plastic if your uncertain that you'll be able to move that many kits then I would be very cautious of shelling out the money to go plastic.

I think this depends a lot on your expected sales quantities. If you expect to sell 1000, go for resin. If you expect to sell 100,000, go for plastic. Metal would be somewhere inbetween.