Petition For Die Cast Models

Would you pay for die cast ship models?

  • Yes

    Votes: 66 84.6%
  • No

    Votes: 12 15.4%

  • Total voters
    78
  • Poll closed .
I agree, aisling duval would make a great bobblehead

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Still a lot of cost involved in creating the tool parts to produce en-mass even a plastic kit. I had to look into such a project a few years ago and was shocked by the costings!

Oh yeah, I know. It's why you'd need a third party like airfix to get involved with the run. Even so the initial cost of the moulds is pretty high. It's all about the economics of scale. The cost of producing 10 is about 95% of the cost of producing 100. If there is enough interest it would be viable.

Depending on how many years ago you looked into it you may find the cost of it has come down. When I first started working in engineering the cost was huge because designing the moulds and modeling the fluid dynamics required a lot computing power (it could take days to run the model). Fast forward 15 years and you could run accurate real time fluid modeling on the same PC you use for ED; that's brought the cost down significantly.
 
There are loads of talented sculptors on Etsy, who you can negotiate with. And sculpey is fairly inexpensive. Search for "custom cake topper" if you want to find the artists that do custom sculpts. Then the rest is a matter of making a 2 part silicone mold and slush-casting or rotational casting resin into it (or go solid, depending on the size)

You ought to be looking in the range of $200 for a sculpey original for something reasonable sized. 3D printing. Meh.

ratty-sculpt.JPG
 
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