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Hello all,

Ever since I started Anvil Industry almost a year ago now, Ive been constantly investing in new equipment and refining my casting technique to improve the quality of my components.

Today I took delivery of a new vacuum casting chamber which cost almost a thousand pounds, but worth every penny as it will allow me to produce even better components and in higher volumes.

The purpose of this thread is to get feedback and opinions from my existing and potential customers about Quality Control, or what exactly you expect when you order wargaming products.

The poll contains two sections, A and B. for each, please select the opinion that most closely matches yours, and also please reply with as much extra detail as you can.

here is an image showing some parts created in my new vacuum chamber. Ive highlighted the few minor air bubbles which are difficult to avoid.



Its possible to pressure cast the molds to ensure a PERFECT part, but its significantly more effort, which means I cannot price the components as cheaply.

One thing Im considering, which no other manufacturer in the world does to my knowledge, is offering a GARANTEE that my parts are completely free of air bubbles and defects. If a part has a defect, the customer gets a refund of the price paid, and keeps the part.
This garantee would add around 15% to the cost of the parts. So is this a good idea or do you prefer to get better value parts and accept a few air bubbles as part of the deal?

As Anvil Industry (hopefully) expands its customer base and product range, I want to ensure that I offer exactly the right balance of high quality and great value for money, so your feedback is really helpfull!


Thanks in advance,

Joel Pitt

Anvil Industry.

I don't mind minor bubbles at all, I only mind when air bubbles obliterate detail altogether and we are still expected to pay premium to repair them yourself!

Slipstream wrote:I don't mind minor bubbles at all, I only mind when air bubbles obliterate detail altogether and we are still expected to pay premium to repair them yourself!

I agree with this statement. A few MINOR defects are almost expected. I think I would stay away from the 100% money back guarantee. It will cost you less to just send out a replacement. I'm sure you have the good sense to provide better QC than GW is currently doing. It should also be much easier because your volume is so much less than GW.

There are some companies that have great castings (imo) Scribor comes to mind. I have quite a few of his minis, and I have yet to be disappointed in what I get for my money.

Somewhere between the some and none. I expect few bubbles, but don't care if they're small and not messing up detail.

It rather depends on how much I've paid. I've bought some cheap resin stuff and it needed a lot of work. But it was CHEAP. You get what you pay for, or should. If it was cheap I don't care, but if it cost a lot, well I'm expecting less work. I've bought some pretty bad models and kits over the years and made them good, so it's not laziness. I just begrudge paying top whack for rubbish, and I guess most people are the same.

For the amount GW charge, I expect it to live up to the hype. I'm more than capable of filling a few bubbles, but I'm not doing any resculpting if detail is damaged... I do buy figures at GW prices but they are far superior to GW's 'finest miniatures in the world'. That's the real issue for me, I do like their stuff, but they don't compare well to other figure ranges I'm also interested in.

There's some really good stuff out there, some in resin, the hobby has never looked better IMO.

The bubbles in your picture look totally reasonable to me. They aren't in bad spots and they don't hurt detail. They're also MUCH smaller than the ones people have seen in finecast.

I would rather have those than pay more for something without those bubbles.

Rented Tritium wrote:I would rather have those than pay more for something without those bubbles.

Well how much is he charging for them currently?

Howard A Treesong wrote:

Rented Tritium wrote:I would rather have those than pay more for something without those bubbles.

Well how much is he charging for them currently?

I can't tell which model that is, but most of anvil's stuff is 3-5 GBP per model.

Given how many miniature companies there are out there now producing flawless resin, I think aiming for 0 bubbles is the only sensible way to go.

Charge what you need to charge... while there are some who will disagree, ultimately it's the quality of the miniature that sells it, not the price.

I dont mind a few small bubbles, they're not that big of a problem, but if i payed for a primium peice i would expect them to be bubble free (whithn resone one or two small ones is no big deal)

Thanks for feedback so far guys.

@Howard A Treesong, the total for the parts in the image if purchases as conversion bits, would be £3.30, if purchases as part of a full Steam Lord miniature, they work out quite a bit cheaper than that.

@Rented Tritium. 95% of what I sell is assorted conversion accessories, not many people purchase the Steam Lord Miniatures, which is understandable as at the moment there are very few options, somthing Im working to improve rapidly!

@Insaniak, my thinking is along the same lines, make perfect parts, which I have the equipment to do now, and charge what I need to to cover costs and invest in new product.

This entails moving from pressure casting, which is what I was doing, to filling split molds IN a vacuum and then putting the mold plate in the pressure chamber.. its more work, but the result is 99.9% perfect parts.

I try to be as open as possible about my pricing, Trying to produce the parts faster isnt a cost cutting exercise, its to free up time to spend developing new products, I have several years worth of products on the to-do list at the moment!

AH

are you dusting your molds with baby powder? (I suspect not)

Some bubbles are unavoidable however looking at your sprue very few of those bubbles are in high spots, which based on my experiece means they are bubbles ahereing to the mold surface rather than just catching in a high point. If you use a light dusting of talc/baby powder it will help eliminate those bubbles. Try it before resorting to expensive machinery for fixing those. I know I've mentioned it before on the RA forum.

The casts look good but will probably be flawless if you take a minute to prep the molds with powder. It doesn't take long at all and is dirt cheap to do.

paulson games wrote:are you dusting your molds with baby powder? (I suspect not)

Some bubbles are unavoidable however looking at your sprue very few of those bubbles are in high spots, which based on my experiece means they are bubbles ahereing to the mold surface rather than just catching in a high point. If you use a light dusting of talc/baby powder it will help eliminate those bubbles. Try it before resorting to expensive machinery for fixing those. I know I've mentioned it before on the RA forum.

The casts look good but will probably be flawless if you take a minute to prep the molds with powder. It doesn't take long at all and is dirt cheap to do.

thanks for advice.

Each casting plate is anywhere from 6 molds up to 20.. It takes an extra couple of minutes to pressure cast as well.. which is probably less time than it would take to talc all the molds each time! I will experiment though, certainly with some of the larger molds.

My hope was to be able to make flawless parts with just the vacuum casting, but I suspect that was a bit ambitious!

AH

Have to say I'm really impressed with both of you guys there. I think the finecast shenanigans is mostly a kneejerk reaction to change and spiralling GW costs. My personal level is that if core detail has been destroyed and the bubbles are obvious from three foot distance I'd be angry unless the price was cheap. If they are in places most won't see or aren't obvious until I'm close up I don't mind. Check the Necron Lord thing on Mathieu Fontaine's blog to get an idea of what isn't acceptable.