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Hello. What's the general cost to starting your own miniatures company for accessories. Howm any vacuum chambers do you need. And where can you get molds made for the resin? Where can you buy bulk resin in Canada. And how much money should I have to start? Is 15 thousands enough?

I'm already a 3D designer and already have have software PC etc.

Thanks for the help.

Tricky questions as it all depends upon scale.
Have no idea of how much it will cost you, depends upon what you are getting, supply cost etc.etc.
You can start with one vacuum pot, three is more reasonable but you will end up with loads. They seem to multiply...
I would strongly advise against paying someone to make your moulds for you, the rate one goes through them it just is not worth the cost. Much better to learn how to do it yourself (its pretty cheap after all, just requires lots of prcatice and lots of early mistakes).
Contact either Smoothon or Alumilite via their websites and they will put you in touch with either the local distributor or their trade department, both sell an array of resins, colourants as well as the different RTV needed for mould making.
15k is ample I would have thought unless you are looking at starting massive, I started with 4kGBP budget and got my initial batch of resins, silicones and two pressure and one vacuum pot as well as a small pewter set up (second hand).

 ingtaer wrote:
Tricky questions as it all depends upon scale.
Have no idea of how much it will cost you, depends upon what you are getting, supply cost etc.etc.
You can start with one vacuum pot, three is more reasonable but you will end up with loads. They seem to multiply...
I would strongly advise against paying someone to make your moulds for you, the rate one goes through them it just is not worth the cost. Much better to learn how to do it yourself (its pretty cheap after all, just requires lots of prcatice and lots of early mistakes).
Contact either Smoothon or Alumilite via their websites and they will put you in touch with either the local distributor or their trade department, both sell an array of resins, colourants as well as the different RTV needed for mould making.
15k is ample I would have thought unless you are looking at starting massive, I started with 4kGBP budget and got my initial batch of resins, silicones and two pressure and one vacuum pot as well as a small pewter set up (second hand).

I've seen companies use Metal molds before that perfectly fit the vacuums chambers and stacked. So I'm curious as to why not metal vs a substance that's only works for a limited time? I'm curious as to what other things I'm going to need to do for this. Cost of living waste disposal etc. And shipping. Thanks.

Thanks again

The Allfather wrote:
. So I'm curious as to why not metal vs a substance that's only works for a limited time?

I haven't seen metal moulds used for resin, so couldn't say what they're used for specifically in this instance... but as a rule, metal moulds mean you can't have any undercuts on your parts, as the mould can't flex to allow the cast part to be removed. Silicon moulds allow for more complex casts.

So metal is only viable if you are casting very simple parts, or are breaking them down into multiple parts to take care of the undercut issue, as is done for plastic injection moulding.

It also requires specialised machinery to make the moulds, whereas silicon can be done on the cheap in your garage.

A few further thoughts to consider:

1) Scale of operations. What you need to start up with is going to vary based on what kind of scale you're looking to go into and what kind of market you're hoping to get. So one accessories company might only have one machine and serve a very niche market whilst another might have multiple and be serving a much wider range of customers.
Personally I would expect hard figures on this to bevery hard to find and very variable so I'd design around a basic level of production that could be scaled up easily. This might mean buying less machinery to start with and holding some of the investment for later to give you room to expand to meet demand.

2) Advertising. This is critical. Basically this is what (along with your product and the quality of product) is going to make or break you and also define if you serve a niche or a mass market of customers. You need to budget for this. Simple things like a website and logo - through to things like sending samples to key youtube reviewers; to review blogs etc.. It might mean buying some photographic equipment (tihs does not have to be expensive) to get solid product photos; or paying a commissioned artist to paint up demo models* (showing accessories on their own, but also accessories in use on models).

3) Launch product range. This is also key and only something you know. A wider range of products at launch can mean that you can serve a wider market; but would also potentially increase production pressures. It might be more sensible to pick a main line of accessories and release a good selection, but not a vast number. So that you can - again- scale up to suit demand but also have some buffer to react to feedback from customers.
More products are going to net you more sales potential and I'd wager many accessory sites rely on both solid sellers and niche products that are solid choices, but don't sell all that often.




*I'm aware a lot of companies today just show the 3D rendering on their website. As a customer I find this very annoying when its the only display. A 3D rendering has no sense of scale or size to it and also doesn't show the actual product at all. I'm far more likely to pay out for a website that shows parts in the real material as well as when they are shown on or next to regular models to give a sense of scale. Heck if you're making alternate heads for models at least show one set of alternate heads upon various bodies - give people sense of how well your product fits as an accessory and item.

The Allfather wrote:

 ingtaer wrote:
Tricky questions as it all depends upon scale.
Have no idea of how much it will cost you, depends upon what you are getting, supply cost etc.etc.
You can start with one vacuum pot, three is more reasonable but you will end up with loads. They seem to multiply...
I would strongly advise against paying someone to make your moulds for you, the rate one goes through them it just is not worth the cost. Much better to learn how to do it yourself (its pretty cheap after all, just requires lots of prcatice and lots of early mistakes).
Contact either Smoothon or Alumilite via their websites and they will put you in touch with either the local distributor or their trade department, both sell an array of resins, colourants as well as the different RTV needed for mould making.
15k is ample I would have thought unless you are looking at starting massive, I started with 4kGBP budget and got my initial batch of resins, silicones and two pressure and one vacuum pot as well as a small pewter set up (second hand).

I've seen companies use Metal molds before that perfectly fit the vacuums chambers and stacked. So I'm curious as to why not metal vs a substance that's only works for a limited time? I'm curious as to what other things I'm going to need to do for this. Cost of living waste disposal etc. And shipping. Thanks.

Thanks again

The only metal I can think of being used for a mould for resin is used as a rigid frame to ensure that the mould doesn't splay (basically a plate with wing nuts and threaded screws on it that can be tightened to the desired amount). Otherwise one uses RTV silicone.
For disposal cost, definitely worth speaking to a local place that already has the infrastructure in place to do this by local Government Ordinance, in NZ that was my local petrol station where I had to buy the manager the occasional pint to allow me to use their waste bin!
The most important bill (assuming a home setup) is your own wage, do not underestimate how much time such a business will eat up. If you are not getting payed for it then its not worth the effort, if you are content not making money then do it as a side gig. Besides your wage you need to think of rent (if applicable), local fees (if applicable), material costs, power, water (if applicable), shipping as you said but also materials to ship and the time to do so, sickness, emergency, currency fluctuations if selling overseas, credit/debit/ebay/paypal fees. etc.
All of which you need to factor in to your selling price but also need a cash reserve for. If you are using payapl for example and have a minor dispute and have no cash reserve then it can cause issues with your suppliers further draining funds and then one spirals into a horrible morass of having bills one cant pay whilst trying to find funds to buy materials to sell goods to get one out of the hole. Better to just have the reserve in place, and ring fenced, to avoid such problems.