GW molds manufacturing for plastic miniatures

[Skarloc]

Geek question for all industrial engineers out there..

It is undeniable that GW plastic miniatures are by far superior in quality in comparison to what their competitors are producing and to their own miniatures produced 10 years ago (e.g. WHFB 6th edition). Currently, may be only Wyrd is producing miniatures with similar quality.

My interest and question is to know if anyone is aware of the technology enhancement that GW introduced in the early 2010s that allowed them to achieve such quality and details. Precisely, what manufacturing process is GW using to cast their plastic injection molds?

Is it simply that milling machining precision has drastically improved so that plastic ruggedness is reduced to (almost) zero?

Or is their a second step in the manufacturing of steel molds (after the milling machining) that involves another technological process? May be laser casting? (like done in laser microsurgery)

Last but not least: any idea of the approximate price of a "A4 size" steel mold? e.g. like the two ones used to produce a large miniature like a StarDrake..

Thanks a lot!

[RuneBrush]

GW have done a lot of little things over time.  The first was to purchase the plastics company they used to do the manufacturing so that they didn't have to oursource.  The next one was the move to 3d-CAD and having the sculptors lay out the sprues, I believe there's a pre-flight check too so if a piece wouldn't eject the sculptor can modify it.  3d-CAD also means that they can then CNC mill their own mold - which is done on site (which I also heard reduced the manufacturing price of the mold by 50%).  They've also invested millions in new machines which has allowed them to do things like mixed plastic sprues (40k objectives) and multipart molds (Baneblade).

Price-wise, I've not a clue, probably still looking at least £50k for a small steel mold, wouldn't surprise me to see the biggest kits hit the quarter million.  As a random piece of information, GW have a selection of pre-defined sprue sizes which have all been given nicknames (such as the Tank Sprue).  When a project starts they pick the sprue size first and then fill it up with models

[Skarloc]

Thanks for your feedback!

I'm still curious about the precise technological process used to make such smooth and detailed plastic.. 

[Praecautus]

As mini quality is a unique selling point for gw then they will have as many steps as possible patent protected so they can maintain that edge. It's common practice for all manufacturers

In fact uncle google shows that gw have a number of patents related to the moulding of minis dating back to at least the 90s. Info on patents can often be found online but many are quite complex.