Why do Wyrd models come in pieces?

[TheMechE]

Does that production method allow models with high quality details to be made at less cost?

Or is it just for the community to have something to put together?

[Adran]

As far as I understand it's to do with the production. You need to make that many parts to allow them to leave the mold. Because of overhangs and such like. To make it in one piece you would have a very flat model. 

[solkan]

The models wouldn't necessarily have to be flat.  But if you look at a piece of injection molded plastic, the details on each side of a piece have to be in the same direction.

So you could make a ball with holes in it, but if one hole was vertically up/down, all of the holes would need to be vertically up/down.  If you wanted the holes in/out towards the balls center, you have to break the ball into pieces, and probably mess with the edges of the holes.  (In the end, a lot of important details end up looking like holes in the plastic to a mold maker.)  Otherwise the piece won't be able to leave the mold.

That's how it works for the typical two part metal molds that Wyrd's probably using for Malifaux's plastic models.  It's possible to get fancy in the mold making and have multiple plates so that different sides of a piece can have holes in different directions.  But the only time I've seen that in a wargaming model, the company involved was new and was making a big deal about it.  I don't know if they got their money's worth.  🤷‍♀️  Because even with the fancy multi-directional mold, you still need to break a human shaped model into multiple parts because you can't sell a model in the sort of T pose that it would have to be in to avoid having the arms shadowing the torso.

For Wyrd's metal models, those molds can flex when the caster goes to get the pieces out, so there's more options for under cuts and hole directions in a single piece.  But if you have a one piece figure, there's a fairly limited arrangement of poses that are possible with the arms.  In order to get the arms out of a plane with the torso and the other arm, you really have to break one or both arms off into separate pieces.  Likewise for leg posing.  There are plenty of nice one piece models (I've got a Wyrd M1E Convict Gunslinger and M1E Johan sitting in front of me that are both one piece models), but after you see enough one piece models you end up seeing the limitations in posing.

For Wyrd's other game, The Other Side, the models sort of ended up an experiment in using a material with a lower softening temperature and getting assembled in the factory.  I don't know what sort of molds are being used for those models.  But those models do end up illustrating two important points:

- There are poses and joint arrangements that don't work unless you're using a material like polystyrene (rigid and lightweight).  The TOS material isn't as rigid, so some of the joints bend over time.

- People get used to putting their models together, and often want to do much more work than a model factory worker would have the time for.

 

[Morgan Vening]

7 hours ago, solkan said:

It's possible to get fancy in the mold making and have multiple plates so that different sides of a piece can have holes in different directions.

I believe it's called slide core? Won't work for the most dynamic models as single piece, but would allow for them to be much less parts.

Wasn't it used in the first run plastic Witchling Stalkers? I was shocked that those were single piece, as they came out about the same time as the first run Misaki box.

I just figured it was too expensive to do it that way, at least at the smaller print runs Wyrd are doing. It'd be one thing if you were printing models that people bought a handful of, if not dozens. But when one of each sculpt (often less so, who fields three Shasta Vidya on the regular?) is enough, upping the price for simplicity might be a factor.

Also, some people enjoy the assembly. I have someone assembling some of my miniatures, and he and another are assembling some MDF terrain, because they enjoy it.

I am most definitely not one of those people.