Customized Game Pawns

Soon.. if I ever get a 50,000$ loan LOL to lease the machine...
I will have a machine that can make prototype plastic parts... I will be catering to game makers and hobbiests...

each part will only be a buck or less!! Smaller the part the more I can fit in the build window... there is no tooling or setup fees... all I would need is a 3D computer file to make them!!! (or ill make the 3d file for you).

the site SUCKS now, but its just a page filler for now...
http://www.3D-Plastic.com

I realy should just get off my hiney and get a bank loan.. but I guess I want to have a few "I want this or that" customers before I go do that... so if any one is interested in 100% custom plastic parts.. were u dont need to order 10,000 and pay 8000$ to make a mold... let me know ;)

There are other companies that do what i want to do, but they all cater to the corporate sector and they still charge more, cuz their machines are even more expensive ;).

I did find a resin kit available online at http://www.aceresin.com/
Not the one I was think of originally but it may serve your purpose...

Ben

I have seen somebody on television who was making his own metal miniatures. I think he was using a 2 metal blocks, he scrulpted the negative of the miniature on 1 side of both blocks. The he places the 2 blocks side by side and drop some melten metal inside it ( there is an opening on the top). After a few minutes the miniature is ready but hot.

If you use this technique, you will need to learn a bit about metallurgy and have some talent to sculpt your pawns.

If you want , you can model them with clay. Or there is a some sort of mastic that you can cook in your oven.

Another thing I have made in art, which was used to make a plaster mask, it could give you some ideas. You model your mask with some mastic. Then you cover it with a weak plaster. When dry, you remove the mastic and it gives you a negative model. Then you paint some kind of soap inside the negative mask at leat 3 times and then you drop yourstrong plaster in it. Then you cut the negative plaster. The problem with this technique is that you cannot mass produce the same model. Still, you can always use another material like wood to make the negative mask and then drop your plaster in it.

note: I have used the term "mastic", I am not sure if it is the right name. I am talking about some kind of paste which is sold to kids in many colors to model many things.

Drac, if you get that going, you'll definitely get good business.

Advertise your service to miniatures gamers and roleplaying gamers, as well. They love custom bits, and if the prices were reasonable and they could simply supply a file, I'm confident you'd get good business.

Enough to pay for the machine? I don't know. But good business.

I know I have several custom pawns I'm ready for you to make right now. :)

-- Matthew

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you want, but is way cheaper than 50,000...

http://www.zcorp.com/products/printersdetail.asp?ID=1

Seo

(sorry, catching up on old threads)

The Z-Corp machines definitely don't have the resolution for any sort of figures (as of this writing). It also produces parts with a really odd texture. As Draconius said, a lot like a Sweet Tart or something. Pretty cool for rapid prototyping applications, not so hot for gaming parts. But, I'd be surprised if the Dimension machine can produce detail at our sort of scale either. Features like chain link and faces on figures require a pretty fine grain.

Also, note that at $1 a part (which I think was the number being tossed around), it's not really economical for producing short runs. I think it only works for prototypes or one shot customs, *if* the detail is acceptable.

Until Draconius gets his desktop factory going, here is the method I've used to make custom game pawns for prototypes.

I got some FIMO, a popular craft clay-polymer which is reasonably easy to handle once you warm it up and soften it. I shaped it as a proto-pawn and then baked it for 20 minutes or so.

While it cooled, I tweaked the shape with Xacto, then I cut it in half, sliced vertically right down the middle, so I had two halves, and coated them with Vaseline.

I sawed off two shallow cylinders from a paper towel tube and placed the protopawn halves centered inside, on aluminum foil, flat against the surface.

I mixed up a small amount Plaster of Paris, poured the plaster over each half, holding the tube steady. I let each tube cure for half an hour.

At the end of that time I was able to extract the proto-halves, peel away the tubing and the result was two perfectly-fitting female mold halves-- in this case, of a small light bulb-in-socket to be used for a proto game about inventing.

I carefully joined the halves, clamped them, and marked an X across the base to guide alignment. I then drilled a pour hole in the base, opened everything up and dusted it out. Ready to go.

I lined the mold halves with vaseline and clamped them up again.

I gathered some colored dinner candles along with one white candle and melted what I needed.

I first poured in an estimated amount of white wax and let that cool a minute. Then I followed with yellow, red, green and blue for the base of the pawn.

Here is the result:

By regulating the white wax pour I got better and better at creating the bulp shape so the wax wouldn't blend into the base. These pawns were made 20 years ago from my second proto of the game and they still hold up!