16 replies to this topic

[Frankthedm]

Just curious, since I'm guessing Cthulhu's head will make a fine monster by itself if it is separate. I might try to make a Mooncalf mini like Shin Okada had the idea to do.

[araziel]

Maybe there'll at least be a plastic graveyard where all the miscasts are chucked, and you can buy a bunch of random (soon to be) bits by the pound :P

[Helaman]

That may an interesting product line in itself.

[Frankthedm]

Maybe there'll at least be a plastic graveyard where all the miscasts are chucked, and you can buy a bunch of random (soon to be) bits by the pound :P

Was it Reaper's bones polymer that was reclaimable or was that Citidel FineCast where miscasts could just be thrown back into the casting system. I could have sworn there was a type being used that had that property.

[Dr.Bedlam]

I would doubt that. Some plastics are recyclable, but I can't think of any fit for painting and modeling that can simply be thrown back in the pot, melted, and recast.

Then again, my knowledge of plastics is extensive, but a good twelve years out of date.

[Halberkill]

Maybe there'll at least be a plastic graveyard where all the miscasts are chucked, and you can buy a bunch of random (soon to be) bits by the pound :P

Was it Reaper's bones polymer that was reclaimable or was that Citidel FineCast where miscasts could just be thrown back into the casting system. I could have sworn there was a type being used that had that property.

Neither can be reused. Rubber molds for finecast and metal figures can sometimes be chopped up for filler of new molds, but if finecast or PVC is miscast, it goes to the trash. Though PVC is considerably more cheaper than resin, so a miscast pvc isn't all that much of a loss, whereas apparently GW thinks a miscast finecast is good enough to go in a package.

Only ABS plastic, which lego's are made out of can be re-heated and recast, but with slight loss of quality each time it is done.

Halber

[Frankthedm]

apparently GW thinks a miscast finecast is good enough to go in a package..

Yeah, I've seen a few of those.The Tyrant guard i saw at games plus has a bunch of air holes in the "face"

[psyberwolfe1]

All plastic is reclaimable, the problem is the process is more complex than you think. So the short answer is no. (I work in recycling so this is stuff I know.)

[Baphomet69]

apparently GW thinks a miscast finecast is good enough to go in a package..

Yeah, I've seen a few of those.The Tyrant guard i saw at games plus has a bunch of air holes in the "face"

And yet, a man-sized fig goes for $23+... <expletive deleted>

[Reaperbryan]

We have been told that our mix already includes 10% recycled content, and that miscast can be shredded and reused as long as they are kept to that ratio.

I will know more once production is actually in house, though.

[joshuaslater]

We have been told that our mix already includes 10% recycled content, and that miscast can be shredded and reused as long as they are kept to that ratio.

I will know more once production is actually in house, though.

In house is sounding good, Bryan.

[Heisler]

One of my friends out here does run the local GW store. He said that when they were doing their training they were each given a plastic terminator sprue right out of the mold. At the end of the tour they got to feed back into some machine that crunched it up, in effect recycling the plastic to be added back into the mix. Obviously GW is setup for that operation for their plastic kits, no idea about their finecast stuff though.

[WhatAboutBob]

Yes - PVC can be chunked and tossed back into the hopper to feed the injection molding machines.

There is a big difference between grabbing something off the tail end of the production line and grabbing something out of someone's recycle bin that was used to store an unknown substance for an unknown period of time in unknown conditions. The plastic which comes out of the mold is almost identical in every way that is important to the plastic pellets which are fed into the hopper on the front of the mold.

Plastics like PVC (Styrene, ABS...) can be reheated past their glassy temperature and used pretty much as is. If you end up doing it over and over and over again - you can cook off some of the plasticizer, but that is a minor concern in the grand scheme of things unless you are looking at 100% recycled material.

The more complicated process with recycled plastics involves taking containers which have housed things like motor oil, cleaning chemicals, food items, biological hazards as well as having various labels and other non-plastic materials stuck to them or in them. They must be cleaned, sterilized, purified and homogenized before they are ready to be tossed into the hopper of a machine (well...you could without it - but the resulting plastic could be problematic). In other words - don't expect Reaper to do a SPI Code 3 swap for new bones at the next ReaperCon.

Urethane resins though - the best you can do with them is use them as a filler material after they have been ground to a pulp. It is all a question of how the plastic polymerizes and whether or not it is a thermoplastic (versus thermosets like urethane resins).

[Onemanworkshop]

They are going to have their hands full doing PVC plastics. It releases a gas that contains dioxins (although companies are working on an organic PVC) and will need to be vented well, but if Reaper already to high lead content casting, this should be no problem. The material also wears out molds faster than other plastic resin types. So this is why multiple molds are made, due to short use life with this material.

Doing the molding in house will be good though. If they can work through the technical stuff, they can really crank out the figures then! The next step would to bring mold making in house, but that is a whole new set of challenges, it would be awesome for them. I wonder if they use zinc molds?

Good luck on your entry into the plastics market. I think you have chosen right with the less expensive PVC figures over the hard plastic multi-part kit route. The one piece models are much friendlier for non gamers.
-James

[Heisler]

They are going to have their hands full doing PVC plastics. It releases a gas that contains dioxins (although companies are working on an organic PVC) and will need to be vented well, but if Reaper already to high lead content casting, this should be no problem. The material also wears out molds faster than other plastic resin types. So this is why multiple molds are made, due to short use life with this material.


-James

I know that Bryan talked about having to expand the facilities so I'm guessing that they have taken the venting into account. This material will wear out a metal mold faster though? I didn't think metal molds really ever wore out.