Hey! Manufacturing techniques and methods help..
<Waves> It's nice to meet you all, i'm new to figure.fm and just thought I'd say hello! Looking forward to adding snaps of my new, slowly..so slowly lol growing collection of figures and vinyl toys (is vinyl allowed?)
Actually there was a hidden agenda to me taking the plunge and finally signing up .. I'm in the need of some assistance from individuals considerably more knowledgeable than me... >< I'm studying Industrial Design at Northumbria Design School in the chilly north of the UK (Any other 'northumbrians' around?) and I'm doing a piece of work regarding materials and manufacturing processes. I was hoping someone could point me in the direction of places to research about the manufacture of PVC or Polystone based figures, stages of development and the like.
From what I gleened so far from various pictures and articles over on dannychoo.com and the internet, a base form is sculpted(notsure on the material) from which moulds are cast. Then those moulds are used to actually make the parts or end product, which is then assembled and or painted...? Would these serve the purpose of prototyping?. Which are used to iron out facets of design and detail for the final model. As for mass manufacturing, again i'm guessing, a CAD file would be sent to the factories??
Any help anyone can provide is much appreciated! ^^ Now if I can only get on with some work and not get caught up looking at custom gunpla...ooohhh..
Thanks in advance.
Nou
p.s oh and the image is a partially finished figure I did for a uni project, it's based off Canti from FLCL if anyone is interested :)
Have you looked at KidRobot and similar sites that showcase indie vinyl toys? I have done a project like this similar for school...it required sculpting from Sculpey, painting then designing a package. From what I remember from 3 years ago, once would do an initial sculpt [prototype], make a master mold from Sculpey, Hard Foam, Wood, Plastic, etc... with RTV silicone rubber make a resin cast, paint then send it to the factories...usually vinyl toys involve having a master mold made from ceramics then use a spin form of molding the plastic instead of injection procedures like they use in gun-pla. After that comes the paint. CAD is usually used for 3D cutters or materials that are supposed to be manufactured via CNC. AFAIK as far as vinyl toys are concerned, you'd have to send your prototype or initial make to the factories (usually in china)...and I know they'll take care of your prototype from experience.
(and we share the same inspiration from FLCL too http://cramcomplex.deviantart.com/art/Handkampfer-51712620)
here are some links that i used for research:
http://www.magic-pony.com/
http://toysrevil.blogspot.com/
http://www.kidrobot.com/
http://cramcomplex.deviantart.com/art/Handkampfer-51712620
The () made a 404 to DA lol
Cheers for the links man! Liking Handkampfer and can deff see the canti inspiration. :) I didn't know about the spin forming and use of ceramics for initial builds, thats an interesting point.
I meant that the initial build will be via hard-foam, sculpey, clay, wood etc. for the prototype then they'll cast the proto to a ceramic mould from there the recasting process is going to be via spin forming technique...
Procedure:
prototype -> painting -> finalizing -> mold making (ceramics/RTV) -> recasting (mass prodcution) -> painting -> release
Here's a podcast from HLJ: http://www.youtube.com/user/hobbylink#p/u/5/BpH3mGRkTjw
My thoughts too, will have to go pester some lecturers I think... Cheers for the help man, it's much appreciated guys.
I can't help much on the casting front (that whole process confuses the hell out of me), I have done some research into what material GSC and other figure manufacturers use to make their original positive. It's a polyester epoxy putty; apparently Kotobukiya uses the brand "rock putty" specifically, though I wouldn't be surprised if there are competing brands out there. It's very closely related to the polyester putties used in the west as automotive body fillers, and in fact may actually be the exact same thing. I haven't been brave enough to go buy automotive body filler and try to sculpt with it yet, despite being sorely tempted, and as such can't say for sure. American toy companies use something chemically similar, affectionately known as "the green stuff", but it isn't the same, as the texture is different and it's a forest green instead of the dayglow lime color you see in Japanese prototypes.
Ah, almost forgot! Gr, we need edit buttons. Anyway, part of how I found this out is this video series, behind the scenes at Kotobukiya: http://www.kenleewrites.com/2008/09/how-japanese-female-figurines-are-made.html I found it very helpful!
Wow thanks, going to watch that while I'll eat my lunch.
Holy crap those guys are a talented bunch.. Does anyone know what the machine and process was when they created the parts using the moulds?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V2gIipvxeg&feature=related 2:23 in.
great link - I just watched the entire series and I think the machine that was used to get the silicon into the molds and the air bubbles out is just a BIG vibrator 9don't let your GF sit on it) . . .8O
...I hope vinyl's allowed :P
Umm, I'm not sure on the specific manufacturing for a PVC figure (just finished an ID major last year), but when Danny had the pictures of the Mirai figma prototypes up, it looked very much like an Stereolithographic rapid prototype model pulled from a CAD file... And I think I remember seeing a video of the GSC office and someone working on what looked suspiciously like Solidworks (though CAD programs seem to look much alike anyway). If that turns out alright, if it follows a normal manufacturing process then the CAD file would be sent to a tool maker, who will make the moulds and do some test shots which will be sent back to the client... who will then yell at the tool maker to please change things back the way they were in the original file (ok, joking but it does happen). Once the test shots are coming back satisfactory then they'll proceed with an initial batch, check that, and if everythings looking ok then proceed with production.
That though is my best guess, going from what we learned and from talking to the various industry people that tended to hang around campus.
My thoughts too, will have to go pester some lecturers I think... Cheers for the help man, it's much appreciated guys. Sorry, it posted the reply to the wrong comment..or I screwed it up probably the latter lol.
here's a link for getting your prototype modded from sketches, costs $299 USD Patch Together - http://www.patchtogether.com/ - the link is on the sidebar. I'm going to give the auto body filler (Bondo) a test drive, I'll post the results. I use sculpey or ceramic clay for my initial sculpts.
Thanks man, thats appreciated.
For anyone thats interested I've found some interesting stuff..
http://www.enotes.com/how-products-encyclopedia/action-figure
Good insight to the process invovled in making limited runs.
http://boards.core77.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=3052&start=15
http://www.figurepunk.co.uk/
Anyways I should probs get to bed... I'll post up more when i find it
Cheers again people. :D