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Thursday, April 3, 2014

Tentacle Maker v2 - The Mold Is Done!



The mold is done and I'm extremely happy with the quality of the build!  I now understand (somewhat) why GW charges what they do for their models.  Injection mold making is a tricky thing.  Mine was relatively simple and it still took 5x longer than expected.  I can't imagine what the designers and mold makers at GW have to do to get a model kit to market.




I'm working with the injection house to try and get them completed in clear resin (above), but that makes shipping complex.  They will damage themselves if 500 are thrown in a box and bulk shipped.  Resin will need to be packaged before they get shipped to me and that may be way more expensive (and take even more time) than I planned.  I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that it won't add too much cost because the clear ones just look phenomenal!


The other option is Nylon.  Extremely tough and a less expensive material, to boot.  Not as glamorous, though.  This stuff just feels more like a tool than the resin does, but like most tools, it's not very pretty.

Right now I'm waiting on the final quotes on materials, labor, and packaging from the injection house.  I'll have a firm (though not set in stone) release date once I get that info.

I'd like to thank Steve at Zero Tolerance for all the work and consulting he did for me in building and testing the mold.  Amazing work!  If you need EDM fabrication done, Steve is the guy.

Again, thanks for all of your patience and if you have an open order with me, I'm still happy to refund your money if you're sick of waiting.  If you want to be emailed when the new product is out, stop by the Contact page and select Release Notification List and drop me a line.

There is finally light at the end of this tunnel!





2 comments:

  1. Richard, I think everyone agrees when I say: your effort and eventual product is well worth the wait.

    I was lucky enough to order your product almost two years ago - before it got so popular. I've been using it ever since and I can vouch that this is the best product for GS tentacles on the market.

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    1. Thanks for the praise, Michiel! Send me some more pics of your work and I'll post them up!

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