Terrain and Building Kits

[cheddarmonger]

Especially with the demise of Armorcast, the hobby is in need of a source of ready-to-assemble and/or paint terrain.  GW is fiendishly expensive; I hear they're coming out with fantasy building kits, which I assume will be expensive just like their 40K building kits.  Would it be cost-effective to produce unpainted resin walls?

By the way, "pink foam" insulation material that is so prevalent in terrain building is not available in California, so they have quite a handicap.  I was delighted upon moving here to Minnesota that I could get that material!  So, even selling 12x12 sheets of pink foam for hobby use might be a profitable business.

[Custom_Hobby]

Have you been reading my private emails? :icon_paranoid: I actually have two projects under way that are close to you kit idea. I don't want to spill the beans just yet :tsktsk: (because there isn't enough to take pictures of yet :icon_redface: ). I will let you know when the time is right. I want to try and find a good resin caster here in the US. I used the company that Hasslefree uses for the Resin Kyrie figures but they are in the UK and the shipping would be a killer on larger orders.

Do you know of a good distributor for the pink foam? I have been looking into that. I want to find a number of good suppliers for all of the things we use in or hobby. I want to start selling all of the products we use in our hobby. I really want Ch to be a onestop shop for all of that. 

[cheddarmonger]

Pink foam.  You might be best off buying it at retail from Home Depot and cutting it down and packaging it yourself.  I'm sure that theres no way the whole hobby industry uses as much of it as a single building crew uses in one season.

Resin casting.  Hmmm.  From what I hear, you could probably start casting yourself in a small scale, and shopping it out when you have more volume than you can cast yourself.  Isn't there a whole garage-kit hobby that does just that?

[Custom_Hobby]

Very good point with the pink foam. I need to check intot that.

There is an industry that does garage casting and I have been looking into buying the equipment and having a go at it myself. I know that Adam from Black Scorpion Miniatures does his own resin casting now. I will see how it goes.

[Dr.Evil]

I only got some resin plaster last week to try, how did you know about it...  :icon_paranoid:
I was thinking of making bases and stuff like that from resin and selling them on ebay as metal would cost more than people would want to pay.

[Rays Bat]

Pink foam.

I remember that...
I had to make a mock up of a graphics project. It ended up looking like a massive nipple. :icon_scratch:

[Bungle]

I only got some resin plaster last week to try, how did you know about it...  :icon_paranoid:
I was thinking of making bases and stuff like that from resin and selling them on ebay as metal would cost more than people would want to pay.

For short runs resin is cheaper. The replaceing of the moulds to keep good casts eventually makes it more expensive than metal though.

[Perv]

I was looking at Pink Foam on Ebay and on the web when Cheddar suggested it, it seems theres a few companys around that supply it but not that many.  I was looking for UK based places though so not a great help to you.  Just thought u might like to know the UK market is in need of a well known seller too.

As for terrain and building kits, I think there is a massive market for these and if GW are planning some then you're right they will be well overpriced.  Would it be an idea to get your kits out before the GW are planned to come out so there isnt a copyright issue on some pieces?  Not sure the way the law works there.....

[Dr.Evil]

I only got some resin plaster last week to try, how did you know about it...  :icon_paranoid:
I was thinking of making bases and stuff like that from resin and selling them on ebay as metal would cost more than people would want to pay.

For short runs resin is cheaper. The replaceing of the moulds to keep good casts eventually makes it more expensive than metal though.

Vasaline smeared inside the mould should help the mould last longer by not drying out so quick and with the metal master i can make new moulds from them.

[Custom_Hobby]

I was looking at Pink Foam on Ebay and on the web when Cheddar suggested it, it seems theres a few companys around that supply it but not that many.  I was looking for UK based places though so not a great help to you.  Just thought u might like to know the UK market is in need of a well known seller too.

I am looking into selling it and my shipping rates will be very good.

[Bungle]

If you are in the UK look for:


Dow Floormate 200 for 25mm thickness around £3.97 for a 25mm x 600mm x 1200mm board but you need to but them in packs 600mm deep that contain around 24 sheets. or the 50mm x 600mm x 1200mm @ £4.57 each for 12 sheets in a pack

Hope you have space in your garage.

[Bodhi]

Very few materials are available here in Sweden. So I do most of my shopping on internet anyway. Another reason for this is that only sculpting money goes into my paypal account and only paypal money is used for hobbystuff. That way it all stays "within the hobby" so to speak. My way of keeping myself from spending far to much on the hobby  ;)

So if I'd want to do my own resincasts - any links on suppliers for the necessary materials? Any links on sites telling me what the necessary materials ARE?

[Bungle]

casting stuff
http://www.tiranti.co.uk/indexhome.asp

Suggestions:

"Hollywood flats" 1/2" or less thick building fronts perhaps with sidwalk/pavement cast on.

With all the zombie games there is little 28mm modern stuff apart from the paper kits, I think some building fronts would be simple to cast and perhaps popular with gamers and painters.

1960/70 concrete buildings might be good for sci fi. Offices and retail

1920s brownstone tennements/apartment buildings like in "batteries not included"

again with retail and home above.

rears of the buildings would be good with fireescapes and delivery areas.

Gamers could add sidewalls  and interiors from card, or do ruined versions.

I have been planning on having a go at doing this in 15mm for some time, but it might be popular in 28 too

[geronimo]

If you're looking to buy resins and board in bulk, don't go to Tiranti. They're painfully expensive.

We use http://www.mouldlife.co.uk/ and http://www.alchemie.com/ for our resins and epoxy materials. Mike, there are bound to be US equivalents to these kind of companies who'll be able to supply you in kits as small as 1+1kg of resin (hardener plus resin in equal parts) though it'll be far more economical for producing kits and so forth if you buy in more standard 20+20kg kits (price per kg comes down dramatically, the more you buy).

There are industrial modelling foams we use which are a thousand times more useful than any of the white, pink, or blue foams used within the amateur hobby. For starters, all of these epoxy or PU foams can be glued together with superglues, can be sprayed directly with cellulose paints, and machine and sand much more sharply than any of the insulation/building foams typically used. We use these kinds of foams for all our larger-scale building projects to bulk out forms, skinning with modelling waxes or clays, epoxy putties, or resins as appropriate. The main downside from a hobby point of view is cost; I've tried selling a standard grey pro-model foam on eBay but no matter how much you sing the virtues of such a product, you can't get past the fact that it works out 2-3 times or more as expensive as the foams you guys are used to.

I'll talk to our resin supply reps when they're next around to see if I can get US recommendations. I know your health & safety regs are different from ours so I'm not entirely sure what's available in terms of urethanes, polyesters, etc - but I'm happy to do any research I can to help anyone here at Custom Hobby :)

[Custom_Hobby]

I'll talk to our resin supply reps when they're next around to see if I can get US recommendations. I know your health & safety regs are different from ours so I'm not entirely sure what's available in terms of urethanes, polyesters, etc - but I'm happy to do any research I can to help anyone here at Custom Hobby :)

I really appreciate that. Anything you can find in the US or NZ would be a great help.

I usually just recommend the usual cheaper foams because I know most people would not go for the more expensive options.