Cast Your Miniatures Like It's 1982

[Vile Traveller]

At kesher's suggestion, and as a spin-off from his Raise Your Kids Like It's 1982 thread, let's take a moment to talk about the good old days of casting your own RPG minis.

I started this way, with Prince August's fantasy range, and it wasn't until years later that I started building up my Citadel and Grenadier precast miniature collection. Together with my first Moldvay Basic box, I got a model metal starter kit and some moulds for xmas in 1982. I believe I had the barbarians #1, dwarves #1, elves, troll & goblins, and wizards to start with. We used those figures for everything, plastic animals & dinosaurs for other monsters if we had them, and dominoes for dungeon walls (d**n, those things fell over all the time).











Later on at some point I acquired a few more moulds: men of the city, dwarves #2, orcs #1, orcs #2, and wraiths (which we used for all undead).

[Vile Traveller]

Casting was quite fun. Sometimes I used rubberbands to hold the two halves of the moulds together, which was fine unless you spilled some molten metal in them - then, TWANG! but I also had some good spring clamps - well, somebody had some in the garage, and I found them - which were much better. I used some talcum powder, sparingly, as a release agent, and the unbiquitous camping stove for melting the metal (everybody still went camping then). Depending on how well you clamped them, there was very little flash. A few seconds with a needle file and a wsh, and they were ready to paint.

I modified some, usually by carving bits off or adding spears made of needles (often because the spears cast on the mini broke off).



Because I was building a lot of aircraft model kits at the time I always had a ready supply of Humbrol enamels and painting supplies around my room, so I've always used those for mini painting. One problem of enamels combined with metal minis was that they tended to chip off easily, but I'd never heard of acrylic model paints at that point. I used a lot of black washes and nothing else on the metal parts like weapons and armour - I was quite shocked when I saw my first metal minis with the armour actually painted. Why, I still ask myself.



This is bringing back some great memories! I fully intend to start casting again after I move for the last time (hopefully to New Zealand). I hope I can get my hands on a supply of metal, because shipping it from Europe could get expensive.

Clearly Prince August is all I'll ever need:

[Vile Traveller]

Oh, at some point I had these, too. I only realised through this thread that they were not part of the fantasy range.

EDIT: I think they may have been in the starter kit.

[Zenopus]

Neat thread. I'd never heard of casting your own minis or Prince August before. What material is the metal made of?

[Vile Traveller]

I believe it's some kind of 'white metal' alloy with a fairly low melting point. Pretty sure there is lead in there. You can get lead-free now!

[coffee]

Love the thread! I remember seeing ads for casting your own miniatures in The Dragon. Life would have been different if I'd followed up on them!

[rsdean]

Just to get warmed up; these guys are just off my painting table and awaiting a dry day for a final varnish coat. They are mostly from the barbarian mold shown at the very top of the first post. I'm deploying them as better armed Saxons for Osprey's Dux Bellorum Dark Ages rules.

[Vile Traveller]

Wow! Rather better paint jobs than my earliest efforts (though I did get better).

[derv]

It has been a while since I last cast any figs. So, at the very least, this thread has forced me to half heartedly clean off my work bench

First pic is my "beans, bullets, and band-aids" set up for lead casting. The plastic bag is full of Elves that need to be filed, cleaned and primed.



Most of my molds have been purchased through The Dunken Company.

I have also bought some things through Casting Supplies.

You can buy casting metal from Casting at about half the price that Dunken charges. Three 13 oz. ingots for $22.50-$24.75, compared to one 8 oz. ingot for $14.00. Ideally, you want a 50% tin/ 39% lead/ 11% antimony mix. You can cast quite a few figures with 39 oz. of metal.

I also scavenge lead from old drain pipes and wheel weights. Beware that the new wheel weights are not lead any more.

Pure lead melts at too high a temp. for the Prince August molds (620 deg F), so it must be mixed with tin. Tin lowers the melting point and allows the lead to flow. Pure tin melts at 450 deg. F. Tin also has a stronger tensile strength then lead.
 
Fortunately, the new lead-free solder for copper pipes is almost completely tin (tin, copper, zinc, and traces of other metals). 

You'll need to experiment to get the right ratio of lead to tin. You'll also need a thermometer that reads up to 750 deg. F. Most people aren't interested in experimenting, so buying your casting metal from a supplier is your best bet.

Below are some of my Prince August figures in various stages of completion.



It's a fun hobby. The down side is the rate of failed pours. Sometimes the mold does not fill completely and the pieces have to go back into the melting pot. Sometimes you break a figure while filing the sprue down. Sometimes you drop finished figures on the concrete floor

[ritt]

Fascinating thread. This part of the hobby is totally new to me. Thank you very much for sharing this!

[derv]

There was a time in the wargaming hobby when making ones own figures was part of the whole DIY ethos and manufactured variety was some what limited.

Donald Featherstone's pinnacle introduction to the hobby from 1962, War Games, has a whole section giving basic instruction on how a person can create their own molds using plasticine (modeling clay) and plaster of paris.

This is a great little book that anyone who would like a basic overview of the early days, should read.

Here's a brief history on toy soldiers at the Toy Soldier Company.
You can also find many classic brands of figures there, both metal and plastic, like Elastolin and W. Britain.

This is a short article on casting kits from the 1930's with a brief history of the awareness of the effects of lead poisoning- Wisconsin Historical Museum.

[Deleted]

Heh. From about 1980 to 1985 or so I was casting figures professionally.

[rsdean]

For which company?



Time to go play some Frostgrave, but here's a wing of mostly Prince August orcs and goblins in action last summer.

[derv]

Jul 23, 2016 17:37:02 GMT -6 @gronanofsimmerya said:

Heh. From about 1980 to 1985 or so I was casting figures professionally.

Tell us a little about the commercial process. Home casting is a slow and somewhat laborious method.

Let's see some pics too, if you have some.

[Vile Traveller]

Nice pics, derv and rsdean! Those orc archers bring back happy memories. For some reason I always used lots of them in the B/X games I ran. Ranged combat is so underrated in D&D. derv, do you have any pics of those Dunken minis you mentioned in the other thread?

Never considered mixing my own alloy, I just used the stuff I could buy in my local model shop. I think there was only one type at the time, looks like there are more options available now.

[xerxez]

Nice work everyone. Very cool thread. Often, I've wanted to try mold casting for minis and larger projects and have watched some good tutorials on it on Youtube. For awhile, I would see a boxed set of supplies and instructions at Hobby Lobby and it specifically mentioned wargaming figures as a use but I never bought it. I would like to see a whole lot more of everyone's work!

[Deleted]

Lordy, nobody took pictures of their d**n work back then! Film was expensive, and so was developing.

From 1980 to about 1982 I worked for GHQ, and then about a year later, from about 1983 to 85 I cast figures for Tekumel.

The commercial process looks like this:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=idKWzhL494M

Except machines didn't have air rams to clamp the mold shut; they used weights on levers, and as the mold spun the weights swung out and the levers pressed down on the mold.

[derv]

Jul 24, 2016 13:14:02 GMT -6 @gronanofsimmerya said:

Lordy, nobody took pictures of their d**n work back then! Film was expensive, and so was developing.

Come on man, 1982 was the year of the Kodak Disc. Besides, I thought everyone owned a pocket instamatic camera that used cheap 110 cartridges- the same film we used with our Estes Astrocam rockets.

Tell the truth, the real reason you're not posting any pics from 1982 is because you were sporting a mullet and don't want any of us to see it

I'm just busting your chops. I was actually the guy sporting the mullet

[derv]

Jul 24, 2016 8:15:24 GMT -6 Vile Traveller said:

derv, do you have any pics of those Dunken minis you mentioned in the other thread?

The molds I purchased through Dunken are all Prince August. I currently have 13 different molds.

Never considered mixing my own alloy, I just used the stuff I could buy in my local model shop. I think there was only one type at the time, looks like there are more options available now.

The Prince August Model Metal that comes in thin 8 oz. bars is 54% lead, 11% tin, and 35% bismuth. It's said to have a melting point of 280 deg. F.

[Deleted]

I didn't have a mullet, I had a "Prince Valiant."

[derv]

You mean like this guy?

[Deleted]

More like this.

www.imdb.com/title/tt0047365/

I had more hair than Robert Wagner's wig.