GW\'s Metal Mix

sanctuary13

sanctuary13

New member
So I know GW uses a special non toxic white metal, but does anyone know what actually goes into it? I realize it\'s lead free, but white metal can be made up of many different kinds of metal, like tin, silver, bismuth, antimony, etc.

GW metal seems to be a lot more flexible than most other companies metals, does anyone know what kind of white metal exactly they use? I\'m sure it\'s just another top secret thing from them in their English fortress of solitude DO NOT QUESTION GAMES WORKSHOP! OBEY AND BUY!
 
airhead

airhead

Coffin Dodger / Keymaster
my guess is that is a trade secrete. The lead-free metal is a mix and may change due to the prices of various metals.

Lots of tin.
 
Dragon Forge Design

Dragon Forge Design

New member
Well I\'m sure its at least 95-98% tin with trace elements of nickel, copper, silver and so on. I\'m sure no one from GW will divulge their exact formula.

I know from my days working at Ral Partha, when we wanted to know what exactly was in a competitors metal we sent sample figures of their product to the foundry and they analyzed it.

If you need to know bad enough I\'m sure you could do that option..going to cost you something though.
 
Amazon warrior

Amazon warrior

New member
I actually find GW\'s metal much less flexible than other companies\' mixes, and much more brittle. But maybe that\'s just me. Plus my collection includes stuff from Grenadier, Ral Partha and Rackham, so lots of lovely soft lead.
 
J

jahminis

New member
GW\'s mix seems to fall in the middle of the brittle/hard metal...
croc is pewter, and hard to file and bend...
gw is not too hard to file or bend, and doesn\'t snap too easy...
rackham minis are very soft, easy to file, but snap so easily...

GW has been lead-free since \'92, i believe...
as DFD said, tin is the main component in all metal minis these days...

cheers
jah

P.S.: sanctuary13, great pin-up pic in your sig...
 
EArkham

EArkham

Necromancer
When I was (briefly) considering of starting my own miniatures line, I spoke to some representatives at Ney Metals. I was told specifically that both GW\'s and Reaper\'s metal mix were trade secrets... which was interesting, because I wasn\'t actually asking about that but using them as examples of the quality of metal I wanted. I guess the industry folks see that question a lot.

Also, I\'d wager that the GW figures cast in the US are probably different in makeup than the ones from the UK, if for no other reason than using different local companies. At least, I\'m assuming Ney doesn\'t ship metal to the UK for GW anyway.

Btw, though I\'ve played with casting figures before, I haven\'t done it enough to make an educated guess as to what GW uses.

Kep
 
Einion

Einion

New member
Originally posted by sanctuary13
So I know GW uses a special non toxic white metal, but does anyone know what actually goes into it?
Click to expand...
My guess would be that they buy a commercially available alloy type, simple as that. It\'s probably a simple mix of common metals that are used to make this kind of alloy: tin, antimony, bismuth, maybe zinc, possibly with some addition of copper.

And FWIW I\'m sure the composition does vary somewhat for whatever reason, since I have only a few GW minis and there\'s some noticeable differences in feel and colour with some of them.

Einion
 
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