Friday, 19 April 2019

What I didn't know a week ago -

As mentioned previously I have been looking into the feasibility of creating some Royal Horse Artillery crews for my 40mm collection over the Summer. There is no doubt that there are many great figure sculptors out there producing small independent ranges, we are all spoilt for chose these days. It is not actually that expensive to have a master figure sculpted and moulds made, with Griffin being top of the list for the mould making/castings process. However, when looking for something like the RHA crews in 40mm scale, it is obvious that there is never going to be any great commercial demand for such figures. I am currently exploring the production of some bespoke figures with a fellow 40mm collector, for my part I am looking for the following:

  • 2 gun crews each consisting of an officer with telescope and 4 crew.
  • A single Rocket battery base consisting of an officer and maybe 3 crew.
By making a couple of the crew figures open handed it should be possible to create the 10 gun crew figures from 3 gunner masters plus the officer master, and the rocketeers from the officer and the open handed figures. Thus, I need a total of about 14 figures only. 

Being from back in the days of metal dollies and solder I was unaware of just how far the technology of 3D resin printing has come, and recent research has really sparked my imagination, and so prompted by my partner in this little venture we are now exploring the possibility of going down the digital rout to create our gun crews. Here's what I didn't know a week ago!

Masters can now be digitally created on a computer, and the resulting SDL (?) file can be used to print out the master in resin on a 3D printer that can then be used to make a mould. Having seen a few examples of just what can be achieved I have to say that I am very impressed with the technology, and a test sample of a RHA officer has been commissioned to see how it turns out. More will follow as things progress.

A few related links:

Griffin Moulds. - Rubber and silicone mould making and centrifugal casting.

Digital Sculpts Sweden. This is the guy who is doing the test RHA officer.

Graham Cummings has been experimenting with his 3D printer on his excellent Scotia Albion blog, well worth checking out these links if you are interested in the technology.





Meantime I'm painting a battalion of Les Higgins French infantry for 'Tony, very nice little castings they are too, and working on finishing off basing the 40mm cavalry in 4's on 120mm frontage for DBA/ C&C. The results are slightly chunky looking, but these are weighty figures and need a thick base in order to pick them up safely. Pictures will follow hopefully tomorrow.

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