Model making

[Howard Cohen]

Want to know what goes into making a kit? Read this, maybe print it out and show it to your local hobby shop, pass it around to all the modellers you know, educate the masses  

 

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-6/Toy-Model-Kit.html

[misterNNL]

Very cool Howard. Thanks for sharing this link for us all to better appreciate the history of our common hobby.

[Art Anderson]

Actually, the information in that article is quite out-of-date nowadays.  The design work has all become digital, not just line drawings, but line drawings that can be rotated in all imaginable angles.  Add to this the "3D Scans" which show not only the lines of the proposed models, but all the shapes and contours.  Even the process of pattern-making has changed:  No longer hand-carved and shaped wooden masters, but rather, 3D printed "tooling mockups" done 1:1 the size of the final model kit, with each part being done in this technology.

No longer are rotary cutters used for hollowing out blocks of steel or other metals for creating the molds used for injection molding--since the early 2000's, this has been EDM (Electro-Discharge Milling), in which tiny electric arcs are used to literally "burn" away the steel bit-by-bit, to create the mold cavities, and such cores as need be made as well.  Even such surface details as interior upholstery patterns are created in the tooling in this manner, as is all the exterior trim, even scripts and badges.  Once test shots have been done, corrections noted and made, the last step, polishing the tooling (to get rid of the somewhat "sandblasted" surfaces that EDM leaves, the tooling is ready for production.

Art