Hi people,
Just wanted to give an update on the resin news posted on the main site. Sorry for being a few days behind here we had to rush off to the Crisis show in Belgium.
I'll paste the announcement below from the site but here's the jist of it:
We are going to gradually switch to resin rather than metal and do it in house for two reasons.
1: The cost of metal is beyond workable and continues to rise.
2. We have long needed our own dedicated casting to meet demand.
I've spent the last few months tackling this issue, and using new technologies and even some advancements I feel we've made ourselves we're able to produce resin efficiently, fast with the usual quality you expect from resin. Most importantly without having to rise prices normally associated with the labour time of resin.
The quality of the new castings are superb, I'm very pleased with them.
I know resin isn't for everyone while others swear by it. So I won't try and convert those who don't care for it. The overall reaction so far has been good though.
We had some at the Crisis show in Belgium and customers seemed very happy.
On some packs where I had both metal and resin I gave a choice by showing the metal option and resin to the customer and pointing out they were the same price. After seeing the difference in quality the resin was chosen every time.
I'm most excited about being able to produce releases more regularly and have the options of variants and possibilities that resin offers. From the design and sculpting side it's a dream.
The resin we use is designed to avoid being too brittle and snap. But we're actually able to to reinforce with metal wire within the casting any areas that are particularly fine. E.g a a long thin spear or bayonet. Think of it as being pre pinned!
I'm going to add a list on the forum here with which packs have been switched to resin. Though they are also clearly marked on the site.
Here's the news from the site which covers some of the same stuff:
" Black Scorpion Miniatures Resin.
Since Black Scorpion launched in 2005 two main things have happened. We've constantly become more popular and struggled to meet demand as our casting was always done out of house. Demand required a dedicated casting facility. More recently the cost of metal (even lead based metals) has risen hugely and continues to do so.
To this end I've spent the last few months organising a dedicated resin casting facility to address both these issues.
The key challenge to be able to produce resin efficiently to avoid the normal high costs associated with the slow production time, whilst enjoying the benefits of resin such as higher casting quality, more accurate re production of the original, little flash and easy clean up, easy conversion possibilities, lower material costs etc..
I believe we've now achieved this.
Therefor we have now begun a gradual replacement of our metal miniatures to resin. We have a large back catalogue so this will take a while and some items will continue to be produced in metal in the long term.
To start with the most popular packs will be replaced as the metal stocks run out. For the most part this will be Pirates and Cowboys.
As a pack is sold in resin it will be clearly marked on the product description so customers can tell what's what.
We'll keep an updated list on the forum of doom of which packs have been replaced.
Most significantly prices will REMAIN THE SAME. I considered our packs to be great value in metal so its with some pride that we can now produce them in a higher quality material at the same cost. The same is true for postage costs as resin is lighter these certainly won't go up.
For the moment we are still very busy transferring models to resin as fast as we can. Once things get settled you can expect much more regular releases.
The main benefits are:
Higher quality, near to masters castings.
In house production allows much better supply to customers and traders.
Greater release schedule, we can now release miniatures on a regular basis with more diversity and options. E.g we've already made the modern weapons available in resin.
Easy conversion possibilities, resin is easy to cut and alter.
Cheaper postage costs specifically for traders, large orders.
There are a couple of specifics to address. E.g we had some limited resin miniatures which were then released in metal. Bromhead and Nelson will continue to be available in metal. Alexis will not be available in metal for the foreseeable future. But we will be making an alternative resin version possibly as a special character from Cutlass.
We'll be adding some information soon with tips on resin miniatures. "
