Desert of the Dead, fantasy wargaming miniatures!

Following the moulding process further.
over 3 years ago – Fri, Nov 20, 2020 at 05:27:19 PM

Hey all

Had been meaning to do this for a couple of weeks and finally got around to putting some pics together.

Last time we looked at how the models get cleaned up and stuck down for sending to the mould room. 

To recap this is what heads downstairs

Once the mould room get them they glue gun some of our mould holding blocks around the miniatures. The glue will stop the silicone running out of the bottom so we can create the mould.

The blocks are used to help us form this but then also afterwards to help with mould alignment when we are casting. This means we get less mould slippage than you might otherwise. It also helps for long terms storage of the moulds keeping them tight and clean while not in use.

We change the colours of the blocks between ranges so we know we can more efficiently find moulds when required. We have to make silicone moulds for them too!

The silicone pouring is a messy process! We have to ensure the models are well covered so the mould is durable. Mixing the silicone ingredients is no simple task either! A few months ago we lost a whole weeks worth of masters when we poured a wrongly made batch over them. The silicone stuck to the miniatures and was near impossible to remove. Luckily with three 3D printers we had the ability to cope with the minor setback quickly.

These are left to dry overnight before heading up to be cut out. With the last week being the production of (much quicker to make) B C and D moulds we used up 4 times a normal weekly quantity of silicone!

 This kind of production left our mould cutting team with quite the task every morning!

The team will use a wave cut around the edges of the mould before getting to the miniature within. This again is to help with alignment when it comes to casting. The two sides of the mould will lock together better due to this. It can be seen clearly in this removal of a miniature photo below :D

We are picking orders at a rate and still hope to have everything out the door in the next couple of weeks!

Thanks again for continued patience. See you all next week :)

Friday 13th update!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 01:16:28 AM

Hey all

I didn't get time to complete the resin process photos this week as I had to be off site (Not covid related) but the team did smash through the moulds as planned so we are now on an all out resin production blast! 

We have also have been shipping plenty of parcels so hopefully more and more of you will have your figures arriving in the mail :)

In other news Jason sent back the first of some colour schemes for the elves and halflings. We are going to keep the blue on the elves but likely move to purple on the little guys.

I will be back with those resin steps next week and an update on the production and shipping :)

Progression of plans!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Nov 06, 2020 at 05:56:53 PM

Hey all

Just a quick update today to say that we are on schedule with the plan and should have all of the final production moulds finished by Friday of next week! The team have been very impressive in hitting the targets set for them and I saw 20 more orders head down to packing this morning as more products become available to pick from the shelves.

Lockdown is back in force in the UK but it does not affect our manufacturing warehouse so we are business as normal. We stocked up with all the things we need from our suppliers to ensure that if they were forced to close we would be fine. I have never seen so many glue sticks! (We use a glue gun to sealed the moulds before pouring in the silicone).

I had hoped to show some more pictures of the moulding process that I began last week but time got away from me. I will be back next Friday to complete that chain of events and hopefully to confirm that all the moulds are finished.

Action plan progress update!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Oct 31, 2020 at 06:33:07 PM

Hey all!

Last week I gave you our biggest update ever which included the plan of action for finishing this thing off. A week down the line are we on target? You bet we are! SO MANY moulds got made this week

We were aiming to finish all intial production moulds by the 3rd and after a week of mass mould making this is looking like its going to be spot on.

I've been taking pictures throughout the week so lets go through the chain below!

Next week I will bring you some more pics from the chain and another update on the progress from last weeks plan.

The BIGGEST update ever?
over 3 years ago – Sun, Oct 25, 2020 at 05:23:06 PM

Hey all

Tired of small updates? Strap yourself in for this one then! A few people have asked for an update on production and shipping so I did some maths this week and took stock of where we currently sit. I thought it would be cool to share some more mould room information with you too so you have a better understanding of how it all works behind the scenes :)

Two weeks

For the next two weeks our mould production team of 12 are all out on desert of the dead. Master moulds are completed bar two or three tricky items which need a little work to get them to cast better. Currently they tear the moulds which means we get a far worse yield from production moulds for them than we should. We don't need to change the miniature, we just need to figure out where we can add extra vents and such to make the mould flow better and models removal less straining on the silicone.

That should be finished end of today.

Production Moulds

Our only focus is then to finish the production moulds. Of these we currently need around 200 (This is mostly miniatures which consist of multiple parts. A chariot for example will be roughly 10 of these moulds, the two phoenix production moulds accounts for another 10 of these) to be finished and the 7 people working on this part of the process can produce 35 a day. These should be finished by Monday/Tuesday of next week.

As you can see it is mostly the larger pieces which need a production mould made! For the production moulds we have to take the cast master miniatures and remove any mould lines before we can use them.

All initial production moulds finished Tuesday 3rd October if not before.

B C D Moulds

At that point the room will turn its attention to B C and D moulds. These are repeat production moulds of things we already have one of but having multiples enables us to produce double, triple, quadruple the miniatures on each run of the resin room.

 In some cases they aren't necessary. For example with one of the elven musicians (I forget which) we only need 200 of the the model. The production mould we have made creates 10 at a time. Accounting for a 10% fail rate we need to run the mould 22 times to make everything we need. Our mould room now runs from 6 until 10 every day, during this time the moulds get run 4-6 times. So we have enough of the miniature within just 5 days!

In another example case we need 1400 of each elf with spear. Where this occurs we will need additional production moulds (B, C and even D moulds) The B C and D moulds take much less time to make as we already have the cleaned up masters that were used to make the first mould. In most cases one person can make 15 of these moulds each day compared to just 5 when it comes to the initial production moulds! That means the 7 people who make production moulds can produce 105 of these per day. 2 staff do this daily anyway so they will make 180-210 of these before the rest of the team pitch in to make a total of B C D moulds in excess of 1200 over the next 3 weeks. Considering what we have already made this will be more than we need to finish Kickstarter production (and give us a little head start on what we will eventually need for retail).

All additional production moulds finished Friday 13th November if not before.

7+2 is 9, what do the other 3 people do in that room?!

Jay, Chris and Matt spend most of their day cutting out the moulds which are then sent straight down to the production room to join the resin run!

Resin Run

Following the elf with spear along its journey. With 4 moulds in the resin room making 10 miniatures each (9 considering expected fail rate) we make 36 per run, averaging 5 runs a day means we get 900 of that miniature per week.

Each mould is good for about 50 runs before we start seeing an increased fail rate and take it out of service. Over the course of just 8 days we hit the required quantity (1400) of the model!

The models we needed the most of were the first we made production moulds of so one week of running after final mould productions will be enough to hit quantity on all of the remaining items.

The above picture shows half of the resin run. While one side of the room sets the other side is being demoulded.

Resin production complete Friday 20th of November if not before.

Shipping

During this whole process (as has currently been the case) orders will be getting dispatched daily as they are completed. There are several hundred that will be needing items from the last week of production but should have most of their contents picked already. We will need to check each before shipping. This will take a week but allowing for two means it won't be a missed target.

Shipping totally complete Friday 4th of December if not before.

BREXIT FEARS

Everything, including backerkit orders should be out the door first week of December if not before. We have the team in place to make this happen. If another local lockdown occurs (I doubt it will as Cornwall has the lowest rates of infection in our whole country) we have been told that our business will be expected to continue operating. I would expect delivery to happen before Christmas for everyone and so the looming January deadline for Brexit won't affect our Europeans backers at all (I'm not even sure it would anyway as who knows what Brexit actually is).

Completion

The end is in sight and I hope the above detail helps to back that up. I appreciate its a fair way over our initial goal for delivery and I thank you all for your patience. Pandemic aside we had all the normal problems that come from a kickstarter that targeted £10,000 (I think) and raised £250,000 (including backerkit). Two months ago I thought we would be crossing the finish line around now but there were things I didn't take into account that caused issues and I've certainly learned from them when it comes to future expectations! Taking a day out to get a proper view of it all, assign people where needed etc means I am utterly confident in the above dates. Of course I will be updating each Friday to show these targets are being hit.

In other news

I have been seeing a few painted pics popping up. Check out these awesome RUMBLESLAM minis by Chris McEwan

As ever I leave you with a preview of our February campaign.

P.S

I almost forgot to do a comparison pic of the Goddess again didn't I!

Sorry they aren't complete. I was using the original prints which were to hand rather than bothering the guys in assembly for the pieces.

There was a built one on the shelf in the mould room which I nabbed for a scale shot alongside a Maxmini Plague Giant, our Undead Titan from this campaign and a few of the smaller miniatures too! Left to right Zombie slave, Mummy, Halfling and Elf

Back next week!