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Hello dakka,

I have decided, after a long debate, to create a company/small business that will sculpt, cast and produce detailed sci fi miniatures.
However I am just starting out in casting in resin and need to know where to buy a good resin mold kit .
The miniatures will all be sculpted by me in milliput and greenstuff.

The releases I have scheduled are:
-Orc heads
-Shoulder pads compatible with your generic space warrior
-Sci fi heads
-Eventually complete resin models (Space warrior infantry, demons, squishy human infantry, orcs)

The releases will probably be in that order, but we shall see.

Also the site will offer commision painting which is avaliable now. Just drop me a PM to find out more about the commisions or if you know where i can buy a resin casting kit in the UK.

Hope that some of you will be customers soon

Cheers,
The_mini_painter

You may want to think about your company name there...

Someone beat you to it!

http://dragonforge.com/Painting%20service/for%20sale/gaming_bases.htm

For casting kits, look at Alec Tiranti (I used their stuff when I did some casting years back)

http://www.tiranti.co.uk/

will be interesting to see. post pics soon

LavuranGuard wrote:You may want to think about your company name there...

Someone beat you to it!

http://dragonforge.com/Painting%20service/for%20sale/gaming_bases.htm

For casting kits, look at Alec Tiranti (I used their stuff when I did some casting years back)

http://www.tiranti.co.uk/

Yeah - you'll have to change your name... unless you want to be another dragon forge =X

Its up to you though! hah

The market does seem rather heavy in Space Warrior Shoulderpads and Orc heads.

Perhaps you could venture into the realm of Space Elves and Space Bugs.

I'm sorry, but why is this is N&R? A guy is stating he is going to make a miniature company (whose name will need changing) and is making a website which does not exist yet. Both of which bits are tangential to the actual question of where to source Resin molding kits.

Got any proof of your 'credentials'? Mind flashing some of your goods?

Sounds pretty hardcore. Good luck!

LavuranGuard wrote:You may want to think about your company name there...

Someone beat you to it!

http://dragonforge.com/Painting%20service/for%20sale/gaming_bases.htm

Damn Might have to try 'The dragons anvil' or something along those lines...

Absolutionis wrote:The market does seem rather heavy in Space Warrior Shoulderpads and Orc heads.

Perhaps you could venture into the realm of Space Elves and Space Bugs

Yeh I will branch out eventually but most of the market seems to be in Space warriors and Space orcs :/

Perkustin wrote: Got any proof of your 'credentials'? Mind flashing some of your goods?

Sounds pretty hardcore. Good luck!

Some initial greens will be posted when the first are made and ready to be cast which should be soon. Prepare to be blown away...

Also if you want to look at some of the models I have painted at the lowest standard of my painting then check out my 40k gallery

Cheers,
The_mini_painter

Are your trolling us?



Best of luck, on the imaginitive adventure...

Dont mean to sound rude, but if you have never cast anything before, it may be a bit too soon before thinking about going into business selling minis.
just my 10p worth

LavuranGuard wrote:You may want to think about your company name there...

Someone beat you to it!

http://dragonforge.com/Painting%20service/for%20sale/gaming_bases.htm

For casting kits, look at Alec Tiranti (I used their stuff when I did some casting years back)

http://www.tiranti.co.uk/

I gotta say that I like those African American heads on the Dragonforge site. Thanks for linking it!!

Good luck with your venture. I started less than a year ago and it has been a ton of work and stumbles. But it can be rewarding. I strongly encourage you to "forge" ahead and do it!

BTW. I am currently doing things smart people tell me can not be done. If I had listened to the experts I would ......well I guess I would have more money and free time... but that is beside the point! Go for it anyhow.


I suggest going to http://www.resinaddict.com/forum/ They seem a helpful lot and I am sure they can answer your questions.

my advice for product. a lot of people already produce some damn fine orc heads, so maybe touch on something else. goblins maybe, or elves/dwarfs perhaps

The_mini_painter wrote:

Absolutionis wrote:The market does seem rather heavy in Space Warrior Shoulderpads and Orc heads.

Perhaps you could venture into the realm of Space Elves and Space Bugs

Yeh I will branch out eventually but most of the market seems to be in Space warriors and Space orcs :/

Perhaps so, but that's also problematic. The market does indeed demand both Space Warriors and Orcs, but right now we're rather saturated in it. If you offer more, you'll be directly competing with what's already out there and established.

If you offer other avenues that make you unique (Space Elves and Bugs), you'll find your niche.

Price is also a heavy dividing point.

Then again, this may simply be my bias speaking. I'm always on the lookout for good Guardsman robed legs.

I think that you should do the realm of real good female power armored marines. Not just green stuff giant breast on their chest but make a real cast. I think they would sell really well.

ooops sorry wrong thread.

Yeah, honestly, what is going to be so special about your power armored shoulder pads and space ork heads that is going to make me want to buy them instead of the dozens/hundreds of options that are already out there?

Besides that, how have you determined that this is the area with the most demand? Have you done any sort of market study? It sounds to me that you just looked at what the market was already offering and assumed that was what people wanted to buy, which isn't necessarily the case.

^ This.

I have no idea why every company and their dog have made space wolf thunderwolf models, there are literally 20 different versions floating around out there.

Oooh, nice bases there!

as long as the sculpting is better than your painting ?

harsh but its a busy market allready and if your going to invest cash into it then you are going to have to ether have amazeing sculpting or new ideas .

More bionic parts for genetically engineered space warriors would be nice, my Iron Hands are killing me.

Moved to Discussions as there is no product or site yet. Changed title as well to make it more accurate.

@ The_mini_painter
I’m also going to say that the head and shoulder pads market is over saturated at the moment, particularly, Space Orc heads and Space Marine shoulderpads.

You need to offer something different if you want to stand out or succeed. Take Maxmini, Micro Arts Studio, Kromlech and Chapterhouse. They all do more than just heads and shoulderpads (like weapons, original sculpts, vehicles etc) and thus they stand out more in the consumer’s eye.

Also a lot of the heads/shoulder pads I’ve seen on offer don’t really stand out from the existing GW heads/shoulderpads that can be bought cheaply from a bits store (apart from maybe the crazy Orc heads that Maxmini does). I think this is partly because a head or a shoulderpad doesn’t leave you with much room for creativity.

Therefore I reckon you should move straight away towards original sculpts rather than building hype towards it. A lot of the companies that I’ve seen do well have all offered some sort of niche product (e.g. pre heresy stuff, thunder wolves, guardsman, daemons, weapons etc). Perhaps try and focus on fulfilling one or two niches and go from there. Considering Pre Heresy and costumed Orcs (Pirates, Germans etc) seems to be two popular niches, perhaps these two can be your starting points.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I will take these into account and will probably go with 2-3 niches. Probably pre heresy space marines, themed orcs and guard.

Cheers,
the_mini_painter

The_mini_painter wrote:Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I will take these into account and will probably go with 2-3 niches. Probably pre heresy space marines, themed orcs and guard.

Cheers,
the_mini_painter

So you want to do what every long time professional conversion bitz company is doing, just without any experience.

Sounds like this:
"Hi, I want to become a Formula 1 champion. Does anyone know how to get a driving licence?"

Better contact someone like Chapterhouse Studio or Troll Forged to accept some of your sculpts for their range.

Kroothawk wrote:

The_mini_painter wrote:Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I will take these into account and will probably go with 2-3 niches. Probably pre heresy space marines, themed orcs and guard.

Cheers,
the_mini_painter

So you want to do what every long time professional conversion bitz company is doing, just without any experience.

All those long time professional companys started out from nothing.. it is possible, it just takes A LOT of hard work, and a steep learning curve, somthing OP needs to think about!

I've been running Anvil Industry for over 6 months now, it started from nothing, Ive been working 60 hour weeks for months and will continue to do so for years probably in order to properly establish the business!


Best of luck to you Mini_painter! Its hard work, but very rewarding!

Also, only Games Workshop can make pre heresy space marines, what you want to make is Ancient Galactic Knights.. or similar..

Cheers,

AH

Anvils hammer wrote:All those long time professional companys started out from nothing.

Yes, and all those started with alternative Space Marine and Ork heads and Nazi Guard with gas masks, no need for another company to do exactly these ... or thunderwolves, before you ask

I think your misconstruing things a bit here Kroothawk

Tackling a niche means tackling a small under used part of the market. If he really wanted to tackle the over done market, he’d be doing rhino Doors, SM shoulderpads, “not melta guns”, “not lasguns” and “not Cadians”.

I think the niches he has picked out are good starting points and whilst they are loosely in the same category as some of the other stuff other companies have done, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will be exactly the same. Pre Heresy, themed orcs and guard are fairly “huge” categories and don’t necessarily mean he’d start selling stuff already sold by Chapterhouse/Maxmini.

Also the important factor is that the above niches are popular, which is important to make sales. The problem with tackling an ultra obscure niche (e.g. Marinus Calgar moustache bits) is that whilst you might like it, in the bigger picture he’s not going to make very many sales. The market for pre heresy, themed orcs and guard-anything are pretty hot at the moment and are good starting points for a new company.