I am very curious if WA's been eyeing Siocast for products. For those who don't know Siocast is a new-ish way to make 'plastic' minis. An example would be some of the new Reaper Bones USA models.
The benefits is that it seems in general it is not as complicated to engineer vs plastic injection, they claim you just need some good 3D prints to make a mold. Given WA's huge lineup of STLs, this may be a way to provide a lot of the WA catalog without the risks and cleanup of resin. Especially if you need to make like +5000 of something.
Of course the downside is that it is still very expensive. Not as much as plastic injection, but still large enough that it requires several thousands to invest in. And it is a proprietary technology by a 3rd party.
But lets be realistic here, very few companies can rely soley on plastic sales. Other than the 40g gorilla, I can really only think of 2 miniature companies who only sell plastic kits (not counting traditional model kit makers like Bandai or Tamiya). That being Victrix and (kind of strangley) Wyrd. Almost everyone else supplements their lines with metal/resin (and now potentially siocast).
Good God no. It's absolute garbage as has been documented time and time again in all it's various forms. A couple companies get decent results with it but I suspect it takes quite a few rejects to achieve that. We'll stick to hard plastic thanks.
@Hudson Adams So Siocast was an overhyped product with more flaws than benefits for the price? Not surprised.
@Charles Tottington Correct. Siocast is a trademarked form of vynil, if I recall correctly. Its a garbage material for miniatures.
@Charles Tottington Correct. Siocast is a trademarked form of vynil, if I recall correctly. Its a garbage material for miniatures.
I've got a couple of the Corvus Belli Siocast models and they are either good or the biggest, steaming pile of horse doo doo you could ever imagine.
I've had resin failures that are more salvageable than a bad Siocast.
My guess also that while Siocast may have some attraction for a metal moulding outfit that has yet to invest in hard plastic production assets, it's probably no cheaper for a firm that already has the setup to cut their own polystyrene molds, while at the same time resulting in a worse product.
Printed photoplastic (resin, but not the same stuff as cast resin) seems to be the sensible way forward to supplement polystyrene sprues. Ideally with a digital option. Moving forward I can see sprues becoming more utilitarian (less add on options, but more figures - what are now marketed as unit builders) to maximise bang for buck, while parts that you only need a few of (command options etc) will be provided as digital supplement. Either publicly free for consumer goodwill, or linked to plastic box purchase.
