"Any Plastic Resin casters in north america?" Topic

I have been seeing alot of late of this new material coming out into the market place, i was orignialy and may still go with Resin, however i am interested if anyone in North America (would be very happy to hear of one in Canada though i doubt their is one :/!) has a casting company that casts in this medium and is able to cast for a fair range of miniatures?.

However i would also like to hear more about the items properities i have heard from a few forums that this new material cannot be glued together with normal glue but requires a more heavy glue like Krazy glue and such.

Thank you for your time and hope to hear back from the community soon :)!.

Well the most notable one is Trollforge with their trollcast

however it hasnt really bore any fruit for a lot of people

Give reaper a call. I bet they can set you up with the metal casting and give you to option to upgrade to plastics at some point or a combo of plastics for grunts and metal for character figs. I'm not sure if they are running contract work on their machine yet. Last I heard, It was setup and in the shop and they where getting new molds for the bones line.

Bones are a blend of PVC but they can probably inject hard styrene plastic if that is needed. Just a different pellet fed into the machine.

Yea i hear Trollcast are booked solid, however they also are in the UK i am pretty sure, i want to avoid VAT tax and over shipping fees, will make my miniatures cost more than i want them too!.

I am however getting my 3D prints from the a UK coimpany with the masters coming in resin, I want to aim for resin miniatures because i want too sell my product in packs of 10 guys or so, and with metal prices as they are and rising i do not think going metal unless i want to be selling a small number of miniatures for a small amount of skrimished based games , that is not the root i want to go i am afraid.

However i will give reaper miniatures a call anyhow i would be interested if they are still accually doing casting for other companies!. Thank again for the feed back guys!

I think a lion share of thier business is casting other peoples stuff. I still think resin figures is a bad idea. Specially in a baggy of 10 guys. Your customers will love the pile of broken bits they get in the mail.

Again, depends on the resin/plastic. So many formulations. The brittle junk casters tend to use ( Especially Ral Partha with their dragons ) has put everyone off.

Fortress Figures years ago used to do some in resin. Almost indestructible.

Ah CorsecEng, yes alot of resin companys do use poor grade resin which has that result, i have seen resin out their, such as Strange Aeons resin miniatures which are pretty much indestructable. I do agree a portion of the market is put off by resin, but from poking around a few sites and looking at a few communities, i feel that as long as the miniatures are great and the resin is of the good quality type, that the majority of the market wont mind them being in resin.

Metal is still somewhat acheivable with casting molds lasting for a very long time before needing to be replaced. However i fear the cost of metal will keep on going up, as well as the shipping charges increase due too weight of the items.

So its a hard spot to be in so i am still looking at perhaps doing metal but i do not know if its worth while in the long term as everyone is switching over too resin for the long term cost benifit. Even Reaper has gone over too a soft resin to keep things going price wise. I feel as long as i get a good quality resin caster that i should be able to get the majority of possible market sales?.

Not trying too sound narrow minded at all everyone i really thank you for your comments i just see everyone going over to a form of resin and i see why its a good idea in the long term. I am just looking at doing it now saving me the hassle of doing it in the near future and thinking for the long term view of the market.

So sorry again everyone if i came off abit like that, however i just dont see metal being a good option unless i sell my minis at a higher price and aimed at skrimish games instead of the over all market?, your thoughts on this?

Yea i hear Trollcast are booked solid, however they also are in the UK

I believe they are in St. Louis, Missouri. They are also in the middle of trying to fulfill a Kickstarter among other things.

Reaper didn't go to resin. They went to plastic injection. Totally different material. Reaper uses PVC as apposed to the more common styrene hard plastic. It's a higher grade version of the stuff that the cheap clix figs are made of.

I don't know casting. I do know production/selling of wargaming products. The backlash you get when you mention resin figs and the disaster that is finecast, both lead to a position where you have to educate your customers. I can tell you from experience first impressions bring sales. Your sales will suffer greatly if you have to explain why you went with resin.

As for economics, Metal prices will continue to rise. So will resin. Resin and RTV are primarily a petroleum based product and will fluctuate with the oil prices just like white metal will with the price of tin. However, Prices rise and we all hate it but in the end it's inevitable. It seems that your biggest issue with metal is the (potential) rise in price. That said, I have not seen your numbers and don't know the production cost between resin and metal. So if your launch price goal would be too high for metal as it is today then that is understandable.

I don't know if you goal is to roll your own rule set as well. In that case it is understandable to aim for a reasonable cost for the size of game your designing. If your not linked to a specific rule set then again research would probably tell you that 28mm scifi skirmish is more popular and singles or squad packs would sell best.

Resin has other "hidden" costs that may be absorbed by you or your caster. Bad casts in metal don't waste material. You pop a resin mold and the quality is unacceptable then your out of luck and losing money or your passing it to a customer hoping they don't get mad. I don't know what the failure rate of resin is during production but it is something you should consider.

From the amount of research you've been doing and the scope of your project, It appears that your attempting to make a company that will last the test of time and possibly work up towards a full time gig. Those are noble goals and something I set out to do myself.

I just hope your not selecting the resin based on the fear of rising metal costs. The entire industry is based on that price so unless the resin gives you a significant edge then it's almost a non-issue. You just have to maintain the average price for 28mm scifi figs along with everyone else. For the resin to overcome the negative stigma attached to it, you'd need to be presenting something as good or better then Trollcast. Trollcast is a resin based plastic but if you notice they never say it is a resin. It's all in the marketing because the stuff is plastic but it is also a resin because it is a two part mixture. (note this is my outside looking understanding of the process and I may be wrong)

If you find something that works and can be distinguished from traditional resin then by all means call it something cool like Underfireonium. However, I still think resin is a bad choice from a purely marketing stand point. You'll also need to find the right caster and that will cost money. Keep in mind that a caster relationship is a long term partnership and if you end up with someone who can do the quality you need for the best price then great but how long will it be worth it to them? People enter and leave this industry all the time.

In the end the choice is yours but I hope some of this is good food for thought. I personally would base it solely on the price to cast them now and let the future take care of itself. If we run out of pewter then we just melt down some of our massive metal mountains to make more :)

My understanding with what I've heard from Ed is that is a combination of resin with hot melt plastic, a hybrid system. I could be wrong, as he has said he has a few reusable systems as well ( old figs can be ground and remelt if needed ), but the current system does make use of thermsetting compounds, so it can't be reground.

As for metal pricing, every 10 cent rise in metal costs could potentially result in 40 cents in the store. Because if you mark up your fig 10 cents, the distributor will mark it up 20 cents, and the store will mark it up 40 cents. Everyone at every stage wants to keep their markup as a percent, and this has magnifying effect on any price increase. If markups were flat numbers, this wouldn't occur, a 10 cent increase on your end would be 10 cents in the store.

Resin may increase in price, but it is still way way cheaper than metal. Same goes for plastic. So cheap, that throwing bad casts away isn't an issue until you are producing so much garbage, or taking up so much of the caster's time that labor or garbage fees begin to outstrip savings.

The tricky bit, is getting it right though. Resin is way lighter than metal. So molds may have to be reworked or spin speeds increased to get into all the detail. Also cooldown/setup time till it can be pulled may be longer, increasing cycle times.

CorSecEng – You know , that post really speaks alot of sense too me. I do owe you a thank you for you have convienced me to change from resin to metal. You have really supported why you think i should change with very sound reasoning. Also in learning that i may be able to get casting done by one of if not in my view the best Miniature company on the market ( Reaper) would be a hudge comfert in not having to worry about them leaving anytime soon!.

They even do packaging from what one individual posted on an older thread which is very very interesting!.

Resin i was looking at from a price risk rise point of view as well as shipping costs, it is a lighter material and hence i can ship much more product to myself and then to customers for much less. Howeveri can see now that unless i get a very good quality resin caster that even then i will still have to fight an up hill battle to convince players that my resin is good and not poor quality.

However i will still keep my eye on resin for the future, and very much so if i do well and want to produce larger figures such as large battle suits and such ;)!.

Thanks for the feed back everyone, i do agree Cursoe Painter that yes resin will always cost much less than metal, and resin wouldnt rise so much in price unless oil became really low in supply, in which cases we have more to worry about than miniature rising costs ;)!.

I am planning to start CorsecEng just the miniatures line that people can use to play skrimish and other style game systems. However i do plan to eventually release my own game system as all my ranges will have a fairly indepth background with them that would be best supported in my own game system. However i want to first start with a small but growing miniatures line to see if i can even make a profit in the market and also get some attention of the market place with a growing fan base ;)!.

thanks again everyone for all the useful info and thoughts!.

Sincerly – Shawn.

These guys do contract pewter and resin casting as well

veltd.net/zencart