Custom Facilities Project

Just wanted to post a pic of my custom Air Base piece, Thought using a control tower seemed the most useful, easy to pick up, and the base is actually smaller then the cardboard.

The mold for casting will be underway this weekend, I hope to post here again Sunday of the casted result…. fingers crossed :)

EDIT 10/30 UPDATE–

Here is the final cast, I set up a side by side for size relation, and a few on the board. I made 30 of each, should cover what I need, ive never ran out of cardboard during a game.

Not 100% sure what color im going to paint the factories/bases, I kinda like the light gray, going to let it linger a bit before I decide, I do know I don’t want them detailed painted like the units, I want these to be plain like they are now, just the same color.

Hope you like them, thanks for looking!

This side project really took longer then I thought, didn’t get a chance to really paint too much and work on the map this past week…. I should still be posting pics of China tomorrow though.

@John:

Cool, can’t wait to see this! :-D

Thanks me too lol, just finished the Naval Base master, ill post the duo when I cast them both.

Thanks guys for the comments! I would had posted the Naval base pic along with the tower, but it wasn’t quite done, and I wasn’t planning on working on it, but after I posted the pic of the tower, I decided to wrap it up lol. The mold is curing, so with luck ill be posting pics tomorrow… fingers crossed :)

Edited the mail post with updated pics, thanks for looking!

@John:

Did you make the towers yourself, if so how did you do it? 3D print? Just curious!

However you did it. Props, to a cool looking piece. :-D

I WISH I had a 3d printer, I actually looked for one before this mission, as Ive made 1000’s of 3d models for games, but didn’t want to shell out a few hundred bucks for a sucky one, then have to buy the stock…. then hope the printer works right, I read many complaints on 3d printers (unless I shelled out 2500 bucks… seems those work lol). I hand carved the upper tower out of balsa wood, the bottom was cut from the risk game piece, most of us use for the major complex… youll notice the naval base has the small factory from that same risk piece in the design.

Thanks for the comment, let me know how that printer works out. I’m tempted to design a major base, I like the one from risk, but I think I can make one that takes up less space. If i do, I’ll also mold the minor factory and cast the 4 piece set in pewter.

After several painting styles for these common pieces, I’ve finally got it! I’ll post the final product later in the week, at that time I’ll make the air and naval pieces available to those interested.

Sorry for the delay, too many A&A crap going on :)

I am pleased to announce Ive talked with James, IwillNeverGrowUp, and he will be providing his services to allow these pieces to be purchased from his site www.iwillnevergrowup.com.

Along with these, there will be major/minor factories also available, as well as rail/train units. We hope for this to be going by Jan 31st.

My current air/naval base are not perfect, but they worked for me. However, the ones available will be copied from masters out of a 3d printer ( I should have next week)

I will be taking crits on the pieces prior to the final print and welcome change requests. Ill have the 3d renders (Facilities) up this week (probably Friday)

Im pretty stoked, I love having pieces, im telling you, once you have pieces, youll never want to look/play at/with the cardboard again haha.

Here are the wips for the facilities, I didn’t want to 100% copy the complex from the older game, but I like it lol, so I just moved the stacks.

Any suggestions, just let me know. These are basic and smooth as it will be better for the mold.

If all goes well, within the next 2-3 weeks I should be able to ship out the first batch to James.

@IWillNeverGrowUp:

Looking great. Can’t wait to see the physical product.
I guess we should discuss pricing at some point too.  :-D

Ill know my cost soon, I have few scenarios going atm.

1. Injection mold - (which is being a hassle, as my 3ds Max (a 5k program) wont save in STEP, but will open them lol. Which means I need a new program, AUTO CAD (same company who makes 3ds MAX!)…. why I need STEP? Well, I decided I want this to be painless for me, so I need that format to get an aluminum mold done made for the injection molding. (highest startup cost, no my production time)

2. I 3d print the masters, then make silicone molds, and pour, which would be a huge hassle, but doable. (cheapest for startup, Huge production time for me to do)

3. There is a print shop near me that specializes in 3d printing, need to get a quote from them for say 400 pieces at a time (100 each) (print cost is high,  0 my time)

I prefer to go 1, spend the cash for the injection molding, ya it will be up there for me in cost, Unfortunately I need the files from Auto CAD to get the quote, so im going to get the quote from the print shop tomorrow, start there. I already know I can do option 2, just trying to find a better solution for myself.

If they end up being injection molded, the detail will go through the roof!.. casted, unfortunately they need to be smooth as much as possible to keep the molds from breaking down.

I also met a guy last weekend while I was playing Axis and Allies at a game store, apparently hes made a few minis and had them tooled for injection, ill be talking to him again next weekend about his sources.

Its looking like injection mold will be pretty reasonable, so my questions are:

Is there any other A&A game that had Major/Minor complexes that were cardboard? These pieces are small, so I can do all 4 in a single mold, but I don’t want to end up with a grip of extra air/naval bases. I need this mold to be small as possible to cut the tooling cost. So for now im looking at all 4 in a single mold.

I also really like the rail idea GeneralHandGranade posted, and I don’t like little tokens, so while im getting this tooled, im thinking of adding a Train unit, and also track pieces.

Im only tooling once, so it needs to be right, maybe if I needed 2 minor, 2 major, 1 air, 1 naval in the mold… but if I recall, G40 has approx. 10 more of each for Air/Naval over the Factories.

Im game for recommendations, thanks.

Or if you also think train/rail pieces are a waste of time (ill just cast my own)

Thanks.