How much does it cost? Well other than time
So the print, the bronze, the mould, each pour?

Signed, Curious of West Bengal

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Print: ~£80 for a tank.
Bronze: ~£25 per cubic centimetre
Mould: ~£90
Per pour: I haven't gotten that far yet.


You might have to have several prints done before you're happy with the model going to Bronze.

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Is that for casting in resin or metal? Will yours be resin?

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The Armoury

Bronze is for making metal moulds. Resin moulds are cheaper and might hold some detail better but it is much more fragile and you have the usual problems with air bubbles.

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Sofa General

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Don't forget the cost of hiring a CAD man .

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What is the best way to get into the CAD programs?
IE which one should you start with (pref free!)

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Coffeeeeeeeeee...........

So you make a bronze version of the tank (or whatever is being made) and then use that to produce a metal mould? How is the bronze produced then?

Also, wow, didn't realise the whole process was so expensive.

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Otterman can correct me on that but the way I understood it is that the bronze is made the same way as bronze sculptures. Basically you cover the model in a clay material and then pour in the bronze which burns away the material from the master model. In order to release the bronze you then destroy the mould. If there's an error you need a new master model.

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Otter and me are using Moment of Inspiration 3D http://moi3d.com/ - unfortunately it is not free but you have a 30 day trial period. It was the first modeling tool I ever really used - the results can be seen in my Nashorn thread ...

MoI3D is - in my opinion - very easy to learn and use. It is a pure modeler and has therefore a limited set of functionality - but for this case it's more than sufficient.

I had a look at some free tools - e.g. Blender http://www.blender.org/ - but at least for me the learning curve is too high (and I do not want to invest my rather limited free time in learning how to use the damn tool, instead I want to create something).

That's correct AFAIK

I think this strongly depends on the size of the model and the company - I paid around 50$ for my Nashorn - including three chassis as well as lot's of bit's and pieces ...

My tank is a lot bigger.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

So judging by a heavy tank costing ~£80, I suppose a super-heavy may be on the order of £100-£110?

I seems alot are starting an interest in this. I recently acquired rhino

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Though my guards may sleep and ships may rest at anchor, our foes know full well that big guns never tire.

The Armoury

Not necessarily - printing my Necron Warbarque would have cost around 40$ using printapart - the model was around 4cm x 2cm x 2.5cm

PrintAPart has excellent resolution and good pricing, but its output is extremely fragile. I have broken several barrels while attempting simple silicon molds.

The rule of thumb for them is $10 per cubic centimeter, but it becomes cheaper at larger volumes, such as Nik's warbarque or my Vaygr battlecruiser.

Todd Boyce / Ninjamagic charges about $30 per cubic centimeter for bronze work.