does anyone know about spin casting services?

[jami 415]

Hello everyone,

my name is Jami. I didnt see any threads for newbie introductions, so i thought i would introduce myself here.

Ive been painting miniatures since i was in Jr. High. Its one of the reasons i got into sculpture.

Anyway, i was wondering if anyone knew of a shop(s) that offer low volume spin casting services (about 50-100 pcs)
Ive been quite eager to get some of my own miniatures produced for the longest time.
Preferably in the U.S. but anything would work.

does anyone know of a place? I am most eager for help

 

[darkartminiatures]

I\'m using Griffin moulds for my \'Brutal\' mini line. They are based in the U.K but they do casting for a lot of mini companies.

Hope this helps

 

[Twosoc]

I\'d try Sgt\'s Mess
They do all our casting and they\'re really nice people.

 

[jami 415]

oh?

PLEASE tell me more!


do they have a website? Id love to check it out.

Im thinking i want to start out with about 5 designs at the 80mm scale. 20 pcs each= 100 total, with more in the future.

do they do low volumes?

one of my monster masks:

very eager to get into minis :bouncy:

 

[Dragon Forge Design]

In the US Id try Jeff Rodman with Fortress Figures, he does a lot of low run production and is familiar with working with many materials.
http://www.fortressfigures.com/Fortress_Figures/Welcome.html

For higher run stuff in the 1000\'s of castings Id contact Mike Noe at Ironwind Metals.
http://ironwindmetals.com/d/index.php

 

[kingdomdeath]

You might also want to look into Valiant, they are based in the sates.

www.veltd.net

You can never research this stuff enough!

 

[james9487]

Originally posted by darkartminiatures
I\'m using Griffin moulds for my \'Brutal\' mini line. They are based in the U.K but they do casting for a lot of mini companies.

Hope this helps

I used them too and they were very expensive. Also, make sure they sprue your miniatures together, otherwise you\'ll end up paying $1-$2 per copy of a regular 28mm miniature. I had some multi-piece miniatures cast and they used 5 or 6 molds for 2 miniatures, so not only did that cost a crapload for all the molds but they charge per spin of the mold, so you end up paying for multiple spins per miniature.

 

[jami 415]

WOW. thany you all for all that info. :flip:

ill have to contact them all and get more pricing information/volume minimums. etc.

hmm. questions questions;

how big/ how small can a miniature go?
i have a few ogre minis i think (ral partha) that are kinda big that i bought long time ago.
also, im seeing some collectible pigaso (sp?) models that they state are 120mm. the pictures look like they were devided at the waist, so im assumming a piece that is 90mm tall would be the limit for a single piece, but what about with wise? im assumming about 20mm.
one of these lil dragon ogres body ive got seems wider than that. its almost a full inch. :wow:


seems odd that they could spin cast something that big???

 

[Dragon Forge Design]

The larger the item the harder to cast. Im sure who ever you talk to from firms will advise you if you need to cut the models apart and where.

 

[darkartminiatures]

@james how many moulds? Well so far Stuart has been very helpful in terms of making each spin more efficient for me. He has however openly stated that he is more expensive than others but i still see his costs as very low for the amount of years experience those guys have. Time will tell i guess but thanks for the heads-up

 

[james9487]

Griffin Moulds has prompt and quality service, I\'m just a little bitter because I felt like I got ripped off (we negotiated the price down somewhat from the original invoice that I almost had a heart attack over). The lesson I learned was that you can\'t ask too many questions and make sure everything is understood.

I assumed that they would assume I\'d want the tiny pieces together on a sprue. I thought that was a no-brainer. *Edit* Actually I just checked and for two miniatures I was charged for 6 moulds (2 master molds and 4 production molds). So not only was I charged for all the molds, but remember that it\'s 3 pounds per mold spin, so for 360 total copies (180 of each), I was initially charged £651.50 (about 1000 USD at the time, I think), so I was supposed to pay over $2.75 USD per copy. Not QUITE a bargain.

-----Original Message-----
From: James fant [mailto:james9487@yahoo.com]
Sent: 14 May 2005 19:09
To: stewart@griffin-designstudio.com
Subject: Price Inquiry



Hello,

Could you send me an estimate for casting a 28mm human figure? How much for, say, 60 copies of it? Thanks,

-James



HELLO JAMES,

1 X 9” MOULD WILL COST £40.00. THE COST PER SPIN IS £3.00.

IF WE PUT ONLY ONE FIGURE ON A MOULD, THEN ONE FIGURE WILL COST YOU £3.00.

WE CAN GET 16 X 28mm FIGURES ON A MOULD.

REGARDS

STEWART GRIFFIN.

Also, I learned about the moldmaking process as I went, I didn\'t really know about master molds and production molds which makes me feel a little dumb, but I thought my question of \"how much for 60 copies?\" was enough; I was I wrong. And I still think they should have run it by me that they were doing that many molds.

I didn\'t know anything about moldmaking and from his response, I still think he makes it sound like 60 copies will cost (£40 for the mould + (£12 for the copies: 60 needed/16 per spin = 3.75; rounded up to 4 spins total at £3 per spin). So I was thinking £40 + £36 (adjusted for 180 copies) = £76. Instead it cost £325.75 and a heart attack.

 

[darkartminiatures]

Mmmm If your sculpts was sent to him at the same time then I\'m figuring that you only needed one master mould (containing the two sculpts) and one production mould with up to 8 of each mini within that mould (allowing for any seperate pieces (arms, different weapon variants or whatever). Unless you stated that you wanted to get tons of minis made within a short time then you should of only paid for the two moulds (a single master and one production mould)

I\'m still failing to see why he charged you so much. This is what total I\'m figuring out from your costs

6 moulds at £40 = £240.00
360 casts = £67.50
granted Stuarts email is a little vague as he should of also stated that you also have to pay for the cost of the metal based on the weight of the miniature.
I\'ll estimate around £0.25p per mini?
Metal costs = £90.00
Estimated total = £397.50
Plus Vat
postage to the U.S.

*Edited* Estimated cost per mini should be around £0.44p +VAT (can\'t include your start up costs for the moulds)

Did you get charged a Duty fee or something once it arrive in the U.S.?

Still doesn\'t come anywhere close to £651.50p Have you included everything? if so then I\'d get on the phone to him as based from what you have said you have been greatly over-charged

BTW when did you get the work done by him?

Thanks for sharing

 

[james9487]

Because it\'s 3 pounds per spin, so if each miniature has 2 moulds, you pay for 2 molds and 2 mold spins per miniature (or 32 total spins per 16 miniatures).

We negotiated the price down somewhat, I think he took off 1-2 molds and cut the price per cast down a notch.

Here\'s the original invoice:

CUSTOMER A/C No
Date: 19/10/05 Order No:VERBAL JAMES Invoice No: 0684

Quantity Description --------------- Unit Price--------------- Total
2 MASTER MOULDS --------------- £40.00 --------------- £80.00
4 PRODUCTION MOULDS ------- £40.00 ------------- £160.00
180 ROOK------------------------------ £1.10 --------------- £198.00
180 BISHOP ------------------------ £0.70 --------------- £126.00

CARRIAGE IS INCLUSIVE OF: £- £-
RUSSIA £- £-
UK DISTRIBUTOR £- £-
USA £- £-
£- £-
Carriage £87.50
PLEASE MAKE CHEQUES PAYABLE TO: Sub Total £651.50
GRIFFIN MOULDS LTD VAT £-
TOTAL £651.50

 

[darkartminiatures]

I remember those minis. Very nice I\'m not sure why he only put, in effect half a mini into each production mould. That sounds crazy If you haven\'t done so already you could ask for your moulds back since you own them.

I\'m awaiting an invoice for my first order
*fingers crossed* Feels like we are talking about a different bloke as he has kept my costs to a minimum, been friendly and very helpful.
again, time will tell and thanks for the info

Klaus

 

[james9487]

I\'m glad things are going well, but just so you know, they don\'t let you take the molds, that\'s part of their business agreement, they want to do all casts of the molds they make (unless things have changed in the past 3 years). Anyway, I learned a few lessons from that ordeal and I hope that my mistakes can help inform others as well. Good luck to you!

 

[jami 415]

Originally posted by james9487
Because it\'s 3 pounds per spin, so if each miniature has 2 moulds, you pay for 2 molds and 2 mold spins per miniature (or 32 total spins per 16 miniatures).

We negotiated the price down somewhat, I think he took off 1-2 molds and cut the price per cast down a notch.

Here\'s the original invoice:

CUSTOMER A/C No
Date: 19/10/05 Order No:VERBAL JAMES Invoice No: 0684

Quantity Description --------------- Unit Price--------------- Total
2 MASTER MOULDS --------------- £40.00 --------------- £80.00
4 PRODUCTION MOULDS ------- £40.00 ------------- £160.00
180 ROOK------------------------------ £1.10 --------------- £198.00
180 BISHOP ------------------------ £0.70 --------------- £126.00

CARRIAGE IS INCLUSIVE OF: £- £-
RUSSIA £- £-
UK DISTRIBUTOR £- £-
USA £- £-
£- £-
Carriage £87.50
PLEASE MAKE CHEQUES PAYABLE TO: Sub Total £651.50
GRIFFIN MOULDS LTD VAT £-
TOTAL £651.50

that is very helpful to read.

thanks a bunch for sharing that.

can I ask a question that might sound a little dumb; if you only put into production 2 minis, why did you need 4 production molds?

is that because they deteriorated after so many spins?

 

[jami 415]

okay, perhaps another nieve question;

lets say you have 10 designs all in their original greenstuff masters,

could you have them all directly made into a production mold(s) assumming you dont want that many spins; just about 10 or so spins = 100 pcs total, just to get started?

 

[james9487]

About 4 prod. molds - The miniatures weren\'t sprued together, so that\'s why the separate molds.

As for 10 designs on 1 production mold, you\'d have to ask them. It\'d be possible, I guess, but they might not be willing to do it. You\'d definitely have to pay for them to make masters for each of the 10 but they might be willing to work out a deal if you don\'t want too many copies of each.