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Environmental impact

Hi new 40k player here. I am a Marine undergrad at UVIC and I was wondering if anyone knew the resources/ processes involved in construction of models, materials and paints?

Thanks
-D

edited by Reds8n

You get plastic, polystyrene so lots of styrenes from a styrene tree and stick them together with glue.

Then you melt them and squash them into a mould cut from
aluminium.

Jokes aside, aluminium has a high raw extraction cost to the environment although it can be recycled. Also the sprues can be recycled too.

No idea.
One quick bit of advice I have is not to mess with the font colours on this forum too much though.
Black text is almost unreadable in the scheme that I'm viewing dakka with.

Indeed.


Fixed the colours etc , but please just use the standard ones in future.

Ta.

This video I found is about Italeri kits (so like WWII type stuff mostly) but it's pretty much the same general process for the plastic minis.
Video starts in earnest at about 1:15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HidTBIYB-Fg

You create your base sculped, make a metal mold from it (usually Aluminium) then pour your plastic, resin, etc. into the mold, let it cool and take out your model.

There might be differences when GW do it but generally your impact on the environment is extraction of Aluminium (molds can be reused though) production of plastics (can be recycled these days) and melting of plastics (not too much energy needed). Overall there isn't too much of an impact on the environment.

 Soteks Prophet wrote:
You get plastic, polystyrene so lots of styrenes from a styrene tree and stick them together with glue.

Then you melt them and squash them into a mould cut from
aluminium.

Jokes aside, aluminium has a high raw extraction cost to the environment although it can be recycled. Also the sprues can be recycled too.

I'm interested in where sprues can be recycled, if that is you mean back into raw materials. I throw them away sadly at the moment but would like to do something with them. -using them for modelling isn't something useful to me, despite how good the sprue-crons are. I had posted up a while ago about this but no one could help sadly.

The impact is similar to most plastic crap you can get at the supermarket. It's shipped from the UK and not from China, so the impact of transport might vary depending of where you are.

 eskimo wrote:

 Soteks Prophet wrote:
You get plastic, polystyrene so lots of styrenes from a styrene tree and stick them together with glue.

Then you melt them and squash them into a mould cut from
aluminium.

Jokes aside, aluminium has a high raw extraction cost to the environment although it can be recycled. Also the sprues can be recycled too.

I'm interested in where sprues can be recycled, if that is you mean back into raw materials. I throw them away sadly at the moment but would like to do something with them. -using them for modelling isn't something useful to me, despite how good the sprue-crons are. I had posted up a while ago about this but no one could help sadly.

Where I leave, we can't put it in the trash can where we put the other recyclable stuff. I think it's because the quantities thrown away by households are too low to make recycling worth it (as opposed to some other plastics). I know of recycling plants that accept polystyrene deposits, but the typical hobbyist doesn't produce enough I think.
The only think I can think of would be to set up a special polystyrene bin at a FLGS, where everyone would deposit their stuff. Then once in a while someone could drop it at a special plant. Maybe then the quantities could be enough.

For your sprues you could always ask around fellow hobbyists to see if anyone else wants them

Thanks to all for forum advice and info. I look forward to participating in the hobby with you all.

Get a nice sturdy old fashioned meat grinder with the crank handle and grind em up into rubble bits for scenery or bases! Problem solved.

Plastic casting technology is fascinating stuff. Some notes:

Molds can be steel or aluminum.
Waste plastics after casting are generally re-used. It's a VERY low waste process, unless you count the end customer throwing out the sprue.
The plastics are melted mostly via friction of the screw that drives the plastic towards the mold.

Keep your sprues and use them to make necrons.

 n0t_u wrote:
Keep your sprues and use them to make necrons.

Or terrain. Bits of sprue make great beams/girders.