Hello Dear Mithril Friends! It seems like the Pony has been empty since Thingol and I had our beer, at least until today. I’m sure that many, like me, poked our head in once in awhile, and left soon after.
Speaking of Barli and Nob, I haven’t seen them around in a long time. Does anybody know if they are on Holiday or something. I hope all is well.
So I also have some news from Chris regarding the casting process and why some figures are cut seemingly unnecessary and others are not. This came out of my questions regarding the number of pieces of the Lorien Boat character figures, and my concern that there were too many. It appears to be a spin-mould issue and an aesthetics issue. He has given me permission to share this. Gildor feel free to move this to the Vaults of Angrenost if you feel that is a better place for it.
Hello Tom,
Thank you for your reply. Regarding the issue of separating the figures, it’s not a problem connected to 3D print ( which can print anything however complex!) but rather a problem that arises during the spin process that the factory uses. You have to find a single flat plane in which the figure can be placed without a significant amount of it staying outside that plane. For a figure like Frodo for example he can more or less lie on that plane, but Aragon, because he is bent forward , cannot . If you sit him on the mould plane on his side one of his legs and one of his arms will be buried in the mould and will tear the material when extracting or possibly not fill the mould cavity . Most manufacturers tend to stylize figures to overcome this but I will not do this with Mithril. For example, if Aragorn’s two legs were together and he leaned back a lot it would go in the mould as one piece, but aesthetically it would lose its naturalism.
So in the case of this particular set of figures this is my , not the factory’s , opinion that this is the minimum amount to cut the figures. I know I said before that I suspected that you could do it without any cutting , but once the figures resolved themselves into poses that I liked then I could see that some cutting would be necessary.
As for releasing them, I know that they are to be spun all together but personally I think it’s a good idea to split the two releases to a month or two. I’ll be speaking to Lars this afternoon and ask him about this.
So dear friend, I just want to share this. Sorry I am so busy to correspond better.
