A figure in production. (1 Viewer)

[Ken Clarke]

Day 31 to Day 38 – Casting the Masters.

At this stage we batch all the masters up and courier them to our factory over the border in Southern China. This is the first time that our factory would have seen these masters so explicit instructions for each piece are included. An example here would be spear handles: They are too long and thin to be cast in metal (they would bend too easily on the finished product) so wire rod has to be used instead. We therefore have to specify to them the exact dimensions of both length and diameter of the wire rod to be used.

Silicon rubber molds are then made of all the pieces. I did not take photographs of this mold making process as I was not there at the time; however below is a photograph showing the casting department in our factory.

The molds for the spin casting machine are circular. One of these is clearly shown to the right of the photograph and is painted bright yellow. Each mold will hold quite a few pieces and have a channel carved to the center for the molten metal to flow in from. The mold is placed in spin casting machines, which can be seen in the photograph and look rather like industrial size rice cookers! The advantages that spin (or centrifugal) casting has over other forms of “drop” casting is that when the machine spins the molten metal is forced to the outside of the mold giving a seriously crisp casting and also by doing this it minimalises the problems of air bubbles in the final product.

In the center of the photograph there are a bunch of silver objects looking a bit like motorcycle spokes. These are the product of the molten metal in the channels feeding the actual piece we need to cast. At the end of each “spoke” a piece of casting is cut off and then these “spokes” are recycled ready for the next batch.

We usually order 3 castings of each piece at this stage to be returned to us in Hong Kong:

Number 1. We glue together to make certain all the pieces fit snuggly together and that all holes have been drilled in the correct places. We also check that the mold was made correctly.
Number 2. We send off to the master painter chosen for this job.
Number 3. We file in archives.

At this juncture I feel it appropriate to mention some details of our factory in China and our attitude towards the labour force in this country.

There has been a lot of bad press recently regarding Chinese “sweatshops” and the use of both under age and “slave labour”. I want to make it clear that East of India as long as I am around would never use a factory that did not adhere firmly to both the law and moral labour practices. I personally find it disgusting that these places exist. Fortunately it appears that they are being closed down gradually and less new ones are reappearing so hopefully these bad practices will be stamped out eventually.

Our factory only recruits staff over 18 years of age (we have checked this on our visits), supplies a decent factory with electric fans in the hotter summer months, decent living conditions and wage for the area they are located in. They supply 3 meals a day and also sleeping accommodation. They also give staff holidays which are normally taken over the period of Chinese New Year. Let’s face it if they didn’t then the workforce would get up and leave and walk down to the electronics factory down the road. These are free people and not slaves chained to a desk!

That last bit was a little off topic but I thought I would get it off my chest in case any reader thought otherwise.

 

[DMNamiot]

Hi Ken,

Thanks for answering the question a lot of folks have whenever you mention Chinese Factories. Great picture and info.

Dave

 

[Ken Clarke]

Thank you Dave.

Today I am going to take a short break from this production process as we have just received the first of a batch of Parthian light horse archer masters to support our Persian heavy cavalry. This is the first of these and I thought I would share it with you all.

The Parthians were of Scythian origin and fought both for and against the Greeks. They conquered an empire from Armenia to Afghanistan and also clashed repeatedly with their Western neighbour Rome as Roman leaders sought new lands to conquer East.

The Parthian horse archers tried not be close contact troops. Their strategy was to charge the enemy face on, in this case the Greek phalanx, and from a distance of about 100 yards start launching arrows. They would then ride up to about 20 yards from the phalanx, turn the horse backwards, and then ride back to where they came from shooting arrows to the rear. They would then continue to repeat this move again and again, gradually wearing down the enemy.

This model shows one of these Parthians having just turned his horse and riding back to his own lines. I hope you all like it!

 

[wadepat]

Thank you Dave.

Today I am going to take a short break from this production process as we have just received the first of a batch of Parthian light horse archer masters to support our Persian heavy cavalry. This is the first of these and I thought I would share it with you all.

The Parthians were of Scythian origin and fought both for and against the Greeks. They conquered an empire from Armenia to Afghanistan and also clashed repeatedly with their Western neighbour Rome as Roman leaders sought new lands to conquer East.

The Parthian horse archers tried not be close contact troops. Their strategy was to charge the enemy face on, in this case the Greek phalanx, and from a distance of about 100 yards start launching arrows. They would then ride up to about 20 yards from the phalanx, turn the horse backwards, and then ride back to where they came from shooting arrows to the rear. They would then continue to repeat this move again and again, gradually wearing down the enemy.

This model shows one of these Parthians having just turned his horse and riding back to his own lines. I hope you all like it!

Hi Ken,

That is a beautifully sculpted and detailed figure! I think the Parthian light horse archers are going to be a big hit. You are doing some outstanding work and it is appreciated!

Also, I am finding this thread to be very interesting and informative. Thank you for sharing this information.

Warmest personal regards,

Pat

 

[Ken Clarke]

Hi Ken,

That is a beautifully sculpted and detailed figure! I think the Parthian light horse archers are going to be a big hit. You are doing some outstanding work and it is appreciated!

Also, I am finding this thread to be very interesting and informative. Thank you for sharing this information.

Warmest personal regards,

Pat

Hi Pat,

Thank you very much for those kind words! Much appreciated.

I hope they will be a big hit too; and so does my bank manager! Of course it's always hard to tell until they hit the market.

Well I have a few more of the sculptures arriving very soon of the Parthians but more importantly the paint master from my artist of the Persian Heavy Cavalry figure we are following in this process is due in this afternoon.

I hope to post up the next stage in this saga in the next couple of days.

 

[Ken Clarke]

Day 39 to Day 70 – Painting the Masters.

Now clearly it doesn’t take one month to paint just this one cavalry figure that we are following in this production process!

This is the number of days it took to paint the batch; and this batch consisted of 3 Persian heavy cavalry, 6 Greek heavy infantry, 3 Persian foot causalities and 3 French marine infantry from the colonial period.

Master painting is probably the most difficult of all the processing stages for us. Mainly due to the obscure figures we produce and really not much information available. If we were say to make a Roman army then there is so much information available off the book shelf that I could easy give the masters to a local artist and have the completed product returned fairly rapidly.

In this case we had to consider Persian fabric designs, Greek shield patterns, and French officer’s uniforms from China in 1900 and many more details which have to be evaluated to make the finished pieces credible. My great friend Till, who lives in Japan and was responsible for a lot of our “Shogun Collection” master painting, said he was happy to oblige - so the process began. Till also has a full time job in Japan and consequently the process takes a little longer than using a full time artist but I personally think this extra wait is worth every bit of it. Till in my opinion is a model figure artist of the highest league!

We now pack up all the castings in individual plastic envelopes with all pieces numbered and together with construction notes, photographs of the constructed figures and numerous research materials we FedEx the package to Japan.

Till checks out the castings when received and then we start our almost daily conversation by email as to how they should look. Both Till and I start a debate having both done a lot of research on the subjects prior to this.

Horse colours, fabrics – a whole host of different ideas go back and forth. Persian shields unfortunately, being made of wicker work and other degradable material, have been lost for ever. Having said that, by delving around in books on Ancient Persian carpets, fabric designs and sculptures from the British Museum (to name just one museum), a whole host of credible Persian design ideas immerge. We then feel confident that what we are recreating is as accurate as can be possibly achieved.

I will give 2 examples here: the red horse design on one of the new Persian shields is inspired by the Ishtar Gate animals and the sleeves design for the figure we are following in this production process comes from an ancient Isfahan carpet design.

Greek shields fortunately did survive the test of time as they were made of bronze. Also numerous patterns can be seen on ancient vases and plates from the period and other sources. The problem is that these designs are rarely flat in perspective and often have pieces of the design missing. So whilst Till is painting away in Japan I have contacted my friendly graphic designer who lives in Australia and he is starting to put together and paint, in watercolour, these designs in a flat format. These designs will be put on the shields and in other areas by our factory at a later date. More details on this later when we come to the production stage of this saga.

Meanwhile Till in Japan has finished the batch and he sends me the final photographs by email for approval. Once approved these are then returned to me in HK by FedEx.

Below are 4 photographs of these figures from the Persian heavy cavalry.

This first 2 of pictures were taken by Till in his studio in Japan and sent to me via email. Please note all the paints stacked up and one of our new French colonial officers in the background!

The last 2 pictures are of the figure we are following in the process and taken in our offices in Hong Kong.

The photographs are quick snaps of course but give an impression of what they will look like.

Please note that these figures are UNFINISHED even at this stage. For example our artists do not know the exact colour match of the EOI figure base for the Ancient Collection. The exact Pantone colours (more on Pantone later in this thread) for each area on the base are known by our factory so therefore it is pointless for Till in this case to try and match them. These bases are painted in flat sand to give an idea of how they will look on completion.

 

[Fubar]

Those are gorgeous figures. Thanks for sharing the process.
Fub

 

[Wraith]

Ken, this is fascinating stuff for the uninitiated. Thanks for taking the time to post the process. This forum is a real learning experience.

Simon

 

[Ken Clarke]

Dear Fub and Simon,

Thank you for your interest and your posts. I’m actually finding this quite an experience to write, and I enjoy sharing it with you all. At least if I get it all written down it can form part of an operations manual for staff. Also best to have a hard copy written somewhere just in case I start to forget things myself! I am at that awkward age after all!


Day 71 to Day 72 – Analysing the Colours for Paint Matching.

The artists who paint the East of India masters for us to present to our factory for production purposes use a variety of painting techniques.

One artist uses exclusively oil paints and then carefully blends in a lighter shade for the highlights and a darker shade for the lowlights into the base colour to achieve the shading required. Oil paints allow this due to their extremely long working time before drying.

Till, who painted these, uses a variety of painting styles and mediums and these depend of whether the finished surface is to be semi glossy (in the case of armour and lacquer work) or matte (in the case of most of the remainder of the figure).
The matte surfaces on the figure we are following in this production were painted using acrylic paints and mainly from the Valejo range.

Till will use some of these paints straight from the bottle, unmixed, and others could be a blend of two or more paints. I asked him for the sake of this thread to analyze just one of the colours he used for a spear shaft on this figure and his answer was it was Valejo #929 Light Brown and #860 Medium Flesh mixed at approximately 1:1 with a wash of #826 German Camo Medium. This procedure would be impossible to do for every single colour that he made up. He would become more of a chemist and not an artist!

Well the problem at this stage for us is that our factory in China does not have access to all these different paints chosen to be used by the individual artist. Even if they could buy them it would cost a fortune in paints alone as they tend to come in extremely small bottles designed for the hobbyist. Not only that; they are not trained in washing techniques, or indeed blending oils on the figure, and prefer to paint using each shade independently directly from the palette and onto the figure. This actually has its advantages; if some of our masters are painted using oils and some using acrylics then the final factory product turned out from both batches will be consistent. The figures batches will go together in the range.

Our factory has a paint mixing machine based around the Pantone colour system. This is very similar in a lot of ways to the machine used in home decoration stores that mixes paints for you. I am not certain of what happens in the USA when you want to buy a specific colour to paint a room (I have never got around to painting a house over there yet!) but in the UK the store will stock the most common colours mixed up and ready to go but the more obscure colours from the paint chart are mixed in front of your eyes by a formula that is programmed into a machine. Well this is basically how it works in China at our factory.

During these two days each colour from the paint master is analysed using a Pantone colour chart (see picture below) and the precise colour, including all the various shades, written down and filed. Also matte and semi gloss finishes have to be recorded. Not only that, it is also estimated how much of each colour will have to be made up to prevent excessive waste and cost.

I mentioned in my previous post that the artists samples Till & I photographed were still not finished due to various factors; for example the bases. The reason being is that our factory already knows the Pantone colour for these bases (earth, rocks, shading etc.) so we feel confident that they will be perfect when we get to see their sample of the production version of this figure.

The paints are now mixed and each factory painter will have what is known as a “work station” to collect each morning before starting work. A “work station” will consist of a tray containing a variety of white porcelain dishes of varying sizes (depending on obviously the amount of each colour required) of every single paint colour that makes up this figure.

These white porcelain dishes are of the type used in Chinese Restaurants and normally contain things like Soy Sauce and Hot Chili Sauce when eating Dim Sum and the like. I use them myself; they are jolly good for mixing paints and for eating! I don’t however use the same dish for both activities!

Having done all of this the figure and the batch is ready for the factory edition samples to be painted up. This will be the topic of my next post.

 

[Dragoon]

Thanks again Ken for these posts, they're great. I was wondering if there are future plans for coming out with some Spartans. With their longer hair and the Greek letter L on the shields as well as a predominance of red clothing, they'll look distinctly different then the rest of the hoplites you're making.

It just wouldn't be Plataea without them.

 

[kilted vampire]

Ken those are beautiful figures. I will be looking forward to seeing them in the stores.

 

[HistoryfortheAges]

Hi Ken,
Any chance of Persian chariots in the works? I have a couple of sets of marching Greeks and a couple of sets of immortals that I bought from you in Chicago last year. The Persian cavalry looks great! When will these be available and will you be selling them individually or in sets? Thanks for keeping this hobby interesting!

Steve

 

[Ken Clarke]

Hi All, Thank you for your nice comments in my absence and my apologies for my late reply, I had to sort out some family issues but I am fully back at work now.

Some quick answers to your questions and then in the next few days when I catch up I will continue this thread on the production process. We only acually got these Persian Heavy Cavarly back from the factory so we are about on track with this story. I did mention at the beginning that this was going to be a LONG thread!

Kilted: Yes they should be in the stores very soon. I have sent out my newsletter today to our dealer network so hopefully they will be ordering very soon. I will of course also bring them with me to Chicago so if you are there please drop by our room and have a look. I will have a full display of the whole collection there set up along with JG Miniatures scenary.

Steve: I am seriously looking at the chariots now and for sure we will make them. The problem is packing them so they get to the other end in one piece. In this capacity I am trying out some new box ideas but I hope both you and myself won't have to wait too long! I just updated our website so all the set configurations are there. They are basically the same set format as most of our previous offerings: 3 foot figures per set or 1 cavalry figure per set.

Dragoon: I am considering Spartans and indeed a lot of other armies from Ancient times but I really can't give a lot away on a public forum, as everyone logs in here! I hope you understand my silence on this matter.