Production Update #5

Everything…everything is resin…

Just a quick update to let you know how things are going – I estimate that I’m now between 20-25% done casting (yay!)

I say “estimate” because I still have lots of buildings that I’ve cast, but haven’t cleaned up or counted yet. Keeping up with myself can be a bit tricky – I’m pouring nearly two gallons of resin per casting day.

So casting continues on schedule, although I’m working on a bit of a snag regarding the corner pillars. As you saw a couple updates ago, I’m now sitting on a great big pile of stock for the corners that all needs to be cut to length. Unfortunately, none of the techniques I’ve tried for cutting the pillars quickly have been satisfactory so far. My first plan was to use a tool called The Chopper (a little guillotine-like thing for slicing through plasticard) but it wasn’t able to cut cleanly through the thickness of the tubing. Then I figured I’d go with the nuclear option, and try a bandsaw. While that works, only one side of the cut comes out cleanly – and since the top of one cut is the bottom of another piece, that won’t do.

So what are the options moving forward? First, one of my sources has this sort of tiny tube-cutting tablesaw which I may be able to pay him to use (same guy who owns the vacuum chamber I was using, actually – he’s presumably got all that love and happiness and stuff out of his system and returned from his honeymoon)

Second, I’m looking at my options with the bandsaw – a different blade or type of saw may solve the problems with the rough cuts.

Third, my last resort is to trim the tubes by hand using a miter box, the same way I did for the pieces that went into the finished buildings you saw during the campaign. This will get the job done (and should still not prevent me from delivering in a timely fashion) but is something I’m hoping to avoid for obvious reasons. I may be able to bring on a gullible chump/valued helper to assist me if it comes to that.

As always, thanks for reading and I’d love to hear any of your comments or questions (especially if you know of some kind of badass tube-cutting robot or something)

Cheers,

-Chris

Production Update #4

Now we’re getting somewhere…

As of a couple weeks ago, I was looking at a two-week delay in producing new master molds, as the studio Mike and I were using for vacuum degassing was temporarily unavailable (I mean really, who spends two weeks on honeymoon? Don’t they know what’s really important? Tiny buildings)

I had planned out getting my own degassing setup for after the campaign was wrapped up, but the delay (as well as finding a really good price on a vacuum chamber) caused me to alter my plans. The new vacuum chamber is already up and running, and we’ve cranked out a big pile of new molds in record time! Karl Marx was right, comrades – we have seized the means of production!

So with both pressure pots online and a sufficient number of molds, I’m pleased to report that full-scale production has now begun! I’ve been working out the most efficient system for casting, and last Wednesday I managed to crank out 72 buildings in one (long) session.

This box is about 2/3 of a day’s production

The damaged print I mentioned last time has been redone and is shipping now. I’ve just restocked my resin supplies, so the next few weeks should be a frenzy of tiny buildings. I’ll keep you posted with my progress / spiraling resin-based madness.

Thanks,

-Chris