Visiting Reaper

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In the other room was where I found Al Pare, delicately slicing gates and vents into the vulcanized molds. This critical process, which determines how the metal flows through the mold and whether air can escape, must be done right in order for each mold to consistently produce the full number of figures of which it is capable.

Al Pare, for those of you who don't know of him, is one of the Immortals of the gaming industry. He got his start years ago as the sales manager at Heritage, a company which made games and miniatures. If he'd known how much debt that company was under, he says now with a smile, he never would have gone to work there -- and he would probably not be in the game industry now. Despite the best that Al could do, including the landing of two very large sales contracts, Heritage went under.

Many years and a few companies later, Al Pare is the Production Manager for Reaper Miniatures. He's been associated with Reaper almost from the beginning, when his line of fantasy jewelry was half of Reaper's product line. And while I happened to find him working on the molds, that's a type of work that Al would prefer to turn over to someone else -- if he can find someone who can master the skill, that is.

Shown above is the pot of molten pewter, flanked by the centrifuges into which the molds are placed after the metal is poured into them.

Working with hot metal has its dangers. When I asked if Reaper had any such tales, they told me of their old quarters and the roof that leaked when it rained. When a drop of water contacts molten pewter, it instantly vaporizes, sending metal spraying. Consequently, the staff learned to duck and run when it started to rain.

(Curiously, I'm told that slipping an ice cube into the metal pot doesn't cause an explosion. I wonder how they found that out...)

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