André Rudolph Hobby Casting Techniques for quick armies of toy soldiers
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- Опубліковано 20 сер 2024
- André Rudolph hand cast and painted 15,000 25mm scale metal miniatures for a huge battle scene depicting the final conflict between Napoleon Boneparte's French army and his enemies, Prussia and Allied Britain.
He visited Ireland in August 2015 and took part in this video to show how he casts miniatures in bulk.
If you want to learn more about his work on the Battle of Waterloo exhibit, check out his interview on our channel.
Websites:
www.toysoldier... (Visitor centre)
shop.princeaug... (Toy Soldier Moulds)
www.mithril.ie (Lord of the Rings miniatures)
/ toysoldierfactory
/ princeaugust
princeaugust.b...
Very interesting and informative and narrated extremely clearly - thank you, Michael
Awesome vid. Thank you for sharing. Im new to the moulding thing so some good tips there. Thank you
I've been a huge fan of Prince August for over 30 years. I started casting Fantasy figures in my teens, and still do in my 50's. If I may, I'd like to offer a couple of tips on using your fine molds:
1. Quit mucking about with little hot plates, solder-melters, etc. If you're at all serious about this hobby, get yourself one of these AS FAST AS YOU CAN: www.amazon.ca/Lee-Precision-Production-Pot-Grey/dp/B000NOORXY/ref=sr_1_2?hvadid=230012777482&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9061029&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=3016839361289810346&hvtargid=kwd-302129949290&keywords=lee+precision+melter&qid=1549802298&s=gateway&sr=8-2&tag=googcana-20
NOTE>> be careful not to overheat the metal using a Lee Melter. This is easy to do and can scorch the rubber of your molds. I tend to keep the melter almost full, and I usually run it at temp setting 3 (not that that means anything!)
2. Pour metal directly from the Lee Melter into your Prince August mold (assuming the mold fits beneath the spigot - I'm using molds for 25mm figures, so generally this is not a problem). A fast pour insures that the metal is still plenty hot (and therefore free-flowing) in order to pick up detail in the molds. In the event that your mold is too big to fit beneath the spigot, here's a pro-tip: pour hot metal into your Prince August crucible (to heat the crucible) then pour the metal back into the Lee Melter. Then quickly re-fill the crucible from the spigot, and quickly fill your mold from the crucible!
3. Be sparing with your releasing agent. Apply with a cotton ball (as shown), and vigorously tap out any excess! Less is better for a couple of reasons- first; too much will obscure detail in the mold. Second; it minimizes contamination in the re-melted metal. (When you place metal from cast-off pieces, off-cuts etc back in the melter, the talc powder contaminates the metal. As long as a releasing agent is used, lost metal recovery is never quite 100%. This seems to be a fact of life (though I am tempted to experiment with cooking sprays such as "PAM" for use as a releasing agent ---NOTE: I have NOT tried using PAM as a releasing agent- it's just an idea! Caveat Emptor!
4. Tapping is critical. Unless you plan on building a proper "vibrating table", tapping the sides of the mold is the best way to get great results. Tap gently but vigorously (we want to force metal into all the fine details, but we don't want to splash it out of the mold either!). I typically tap a mold from the side with a heavy pair of pliers until the metal forms a "skin" on the top of the inlet-holes on the mold. (This means the metal is cooling and continued tapping will likely offer no further improvement in detail).
5. I know this is not recommended, but we've had amazing success ganging the molds together as many as four at a time (!). Four molds can be successfully stacked with a single board on the outsides (picture: board-mold-mold-mold-mold-board). I prefer to use 2 heavy elastics per bundle rather than spring clamps of any kind, because the tension on the molds is more uniform. I have used this method successfully to cast up to 12 figures at a time (Having a Lee Melter makes this easy; just be sure to have enough Prince August Model Metal on hand!). Tap the bundle as you would any single mold.
6. Have an iron dumbbell plate handy (like a 10-pounder). When casting figures (especially if you gang the molds together), placing the mold bundle on the dumbbell plate lets the plate act as a heat sink. The figures will harden slightly quicker, but most importantly, you'll minimize heat damage to your molds.
Finally>> If used correctly, you'll find the level of detail achievable in the figures to be "pretty close" to many of the commercially available figures available in the 1980's. Yes, original Ral Partha and Citadel (and Grenadier etc etc) WERE generally sharper in detail back in the day, BUT when it comes to whipping up literal armies of minis for about 45-cents per fig (CDN) this is a really hard system to beat.
...but trust me on the melter- you want that!
You can always provide constructive tips.
@@goblincross Its true that such a device will certainly work for our moulds, however one has to be careful with the height adjustment of the device so that the larger moulds fit under it correctly. Have you tested it in all of the Prince August sizes? We have moved more towards standardising the sizes now in favour of the larger rectangles.
@@princeaugustcasting I absolutely agree- respectfully, I mentioned exactly that issue in point #2; "...assuming the mold fits beneath the spigot", and again I would emphasize that I have been using the 25mm scale Fantasy molds exclusively.
I was also careful point out that if the mold doesn't fit under the spigot, I offered a technique for preheating the crucible for a more conventional pour.
So far I've collected almost (!) all of the 25mm Fantasy Armies and Fantasy Armies (Classic) molds, and the vast majority of them fill on the long side of the mold. I say majority because the Catapult Double Mold (PA673) fills on the short side (making the mold stand "vertically" when filling). I was able to fill this directly from the Lee Melter with no trouble whatsoever.
As for the larger molds, I'd love to give them a try- (May I contact you via email to discuss this?)
Thanks in advance!
-Ross
@@goblincross You can always contact me via email. I am their webmaster so the standard email with the 'info' at the beginning goes to me.
I would imagine that at this point, he could cast miniatures blindfolded. Though, that has some pretty obvious drawbacks.
I suggest that all metal castings be soaked in vinegar to get rid of scale on the castings.
Never tried that but it cannot hurt. Cleaning the figures before priming is important.
Nice vid. I've always used powdered graphite for the mold release.
If you find that works for you, fine but our powder is a bit cleaner than graphite.
I love this video
Thanks. André's passion for casting is obvious.
I'd love to see a video of the positive being made for the mould...
Not sure what you mean by a 'positive being'? We do show the casting in many of our videos if you mean the final cast being shown not just the pouring of the metal into the mould.
@@princeaugustcasting Hi, thanks for replying.I understand that in casting,the 'positive' is the technical term for the original object that's cast ; the mold - the 'negative' is made from an impression of the 'positive'.
Are there any videos of one of these 'positives' being sculpted before hand?
@@cymro6537 No. All our sculpts are done by Chris Tubb, and he lives in the UK so I cannot film him doing it and he prefers his privacy. Currently we use zbrush to design digitally our figures.
@@princeaugustcasting Go raibh maith agat👍
finding a toy soldier mold is the issue for me. i cast bullets, fishing weights just hard to find a good mold to cast soldiers. about to the point of buying plastic soldiers and green sand cast my own. everything i like has to be impossible or hard as heck for me to find
Well we do offer many hundreds of toy soldier moulds. Just check out our site at Prince August.
cute soldiers... ungloved fingers... melted metals... super safe workshop :)
+SuperPicasso05 It is actually very safe. Dexterity is far better than wearing gloves when casting. This is not the same as steel or gold casting, where the temperatures are extremely high. The temperatures are no higher than normal cooking on a hob would be (300 Celsius).
I was wondering if you could help me get hold of some aluminium police or army figures? Can you help me?
Go on ebay
hi I cast silver I've just started doing soldiers where can I get mould that could handle the temperatures. as I'm having to use delft clay which ends in a lot of problems have less than a 40% success rate
+11robert11 I am sorry, I don't know where you get moulds suitable for silver. Ours are definitely not suitable. I imagine metal moulds are what you need.
Andre It is Steve from Australia , Where are you fucken , I still have your soldier that you gave Jayne , Contact me as I live in Australia now but am often in Germany
hi again
does it contain harmful substances? I am looking for a material for indoor home designs like metal statuettes measured around 10-15 inches.
It’s been 8 years.
Did you make the statuettes?
Es plomo?
Where can you get molds to do this scale?
Our description has the link to princeaugust website.
what is the model metal? is it lead?
+SuperPicasso05 You can find out more about it on our website.
shop.princeaugust.ie/pa2047-model-metal/
+Prince August so sorry. I have just seen the product link.
Rough