Stick with it mate, the finished product will be something very special (and something you should be VERY proud of). The body look amazing!

Steve.

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Just call me Steve.

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Wow, despite the hurdles it looks fantastic.

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Epic- A version of the game with even smaller models that is often dominated by titans which are vehicles the size of a large building and have the ability to pwn...everything. There is also infantry, whose only function in Epic is to provide valuable traction to Titans walking across snowy paths.

I haven't been following this thread (or other Otterman-based ones) as closely as I thought, it seems.  I'm a bit confused about the process.  There was talk about a 'bronze'?  Is/was that the product of the 3D printer?  Are these?  The autocannon mishap looks like a casting error, so I'm guessing it's a copy of the 3D printed product.  But whatever it is, is each trial like this, leading to redesign, costing you?

Head has been found!

Wife won't let me go get the good camera to take pictures of it until I've finished my chores, so you'll have to wait...  

Heya Vermis, the process is called investment casting. The output of Todd Boyce's machine is a delicate kind of plastic. To make a vulcanizable / sturdier pattern, he dunks the plastic original in enamel with some extra feed channels.

The enamel coated thingy is sent to a metalsmith who pours molten bronze or silver into the enamel container. The metal completely consumes the plastic, which is apparently outgassed. When the metal cools (now in the exact shape as the original pattern), the enamel is broken and cleaned off. The result is a bronze master. The feed channels are then hacksawed off, and a little light dremelling produces something perfect for vulcanization.

OK, here's my first attempt. I think it's probably too big, but since I found the damn thing I thought I'd post it. The cylinder the head sits atop is 3mm in diameter, although the whole head is larger. It lacks detailing (teeth in the mouth, for example) and polishing - if it's what's desired I'll finish it.





So:

Is it too big? The head itself was about 3.5mm in width, but when I added horns it got quite a bit wider.

Are the undercuts going to be a problem? Could the head be put on one of the weapon sprues instead to help with the undercut issues? I'd be happy to make some variant heads (perhaps even a head sprue?)

Is it even the sort of thing that people are looking for?

It looks good to me. I am going to make a head assortment, so what you have there would do well.

The hole for the head peg is 2mm in diameter, so we would need to shave the peg down, or cast as is and drill out the peg. I prefer the former.

That looks really cool! I did one similar (not as good as yours) but it turned out way too big, so I dropped it.

I think otter is looking for a head sprue type deal

That's a fantastic sculpt! Looks great even in it's unfinished state Not really sure but might that not be a little bigger than it should be / what will look right in scale from what Otter said before though? If there are going to be multiple heads it's not that big a deal if they vary a bit, but hopefully some / the average will be true scale. If I'm worrying unnecessarily and that is in scale then my apologies and feel free to ignore me.

Otterman - do you have a bronze of the body section by any chance of was it just those two bits you have so far? If you do any chance you could post a couple of photos of it, including one with something in the photo we'd all be familiar with to scale it e.g. a photo with a W40k Marine's helmet on top or something. My sculpting skills are no where near good enough to make a head but it occurs to me it could be helpful for those trying to.

Those are the only pictures that Todd has sent me so far (the two problem pieces). He's a busy fellow, so I try not to bug him too much.

Ah fair enough, sorry just assumed you had taken the photos and had it in hand yourself.

I wish that were the case. He's waiting to get all of the pieces done correctly before shipping.

What % price difference would we be looking at?  Having a model with more bits, which usually means more options, would be worth the extra cost in my mind.

That body looks amazing, keep it up!

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WAAARGH!!
The Lost & the Dipped

Great stuff.

I'll finish this guy off and reduce the peg to 2mm if I can (I might see if I can pick up some 2mm metal tubing for this purpose). I'll see about making two more heads then. I take it that as this is a new sprue, horns are back on the menu?

Yes, we can be horny.

Another production mold would probably cost $100 more, at least, and I think we're facing at least 4 production molds.

Mold A: claw + leg
Mold B: lower body
Mold C: upper body
Mold D: 3 weapons

The casting guys will be able to guide me better. Ideally, we can get 2 heads onto the Mold D sprue. I want Mold A to be claw+leg since they will be spun twice as often as the rest. There is a possibility of Mold A becoming Mold A1 and A2.