Sculpting a tank

[hestan101]

just disspell any confusion, i dont mean \"how do i make a tank?\" im just interested in how companies like gw do it. When they sculpt a tank, is it made entirely out of plasti card and putty and then scanned in, lasered and made n such, or do they do it all on a computer modeler/ also, ive noticed that plasti card is use a lot in mini scultping, so would any commercial miniature using plasticard have to pay fees to the plasticard company??? probably not again, just wondering
thanks, Max

 

[alextheartist]

I know how resin tanks are made:

http://ultrawerke.blogspot.com/2007/03/scratchbuilding-tutorial-part-i.html

http://ultrawerke.blogspot.com/2007/02/resin-castig-tutorial-part-i.html

Hope that helps a little..

I understand that most new platic tank kits (from all manufacturerers) are made partly on the pc..

Alex

 

[Sukigod]

Plasticard is extensively used in the creation product as raw material. It\'s easy to work with and relatively cheap (in bulk). As it\'s a \"raw material\", they wouldn\'t pay any kind of \"rights or fees\" any more than a woodworker who created a cabinet pays the lumberyard who sold the wood.

The final product would be scanned in and adjusted as need be to maximize production parameters like sprue size/box size, the mold itself, how many parts will be neccessary, etc. A lot of the process is concentrated on elimnating waste in the process. These \"files\" are used to make the master molds used to inject the plastic into.

Hope this helps!

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by alextheartist
I understand that most new platic tank kits (from all manufacturerers) are made partly on the pc..

Yep.

There are a couple of ways of going from 3D computer data to production models and some of the technology that\'s been developing in recent years could revolutionise the industry if the price drops down enough to make it feasible for smaller-scale production.

Einion

 

[Dragon Forge Design]

GW used to design the original model 3 up or 3 times the original size using all sorts of materials from specially made modeling board which is like a really dense foam to things like styrene plastic sheet and rod/strip stock, putty and so on.

Seeing some of the scan shots that have been posted online lately it looks like they are now modeling their vehicle kits fully on the computer now using a 3D rendering program.