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To answer the question of what roto-casting is, I'll try to make a general comparison using Easter bunny candy. Instead of pouring a lot of chocolate into a mold and getting a solid bunny, the chocolate is poured into a mold and then spun around end over end, on both the horizontal axis and the vertical axis. What you get is a uniform chocolate bunny with a smooth even interior wall thickness - everywhere. So, this kit is a uniform 1/8 wall thickness, reducing resin cost, weight, and need to put the hulls together and go through extensive seaming work. Great for the average modeler who wants to have a museum quality miniature on a modestly priced budget. With less chocolate bunny parts to glue on, this candy treat is ready for admiring in a mere weekend. |
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The original pattern for the 31" Nautilus kit that left ICONS with Scott Brodeen, is in fact his property. A labor of love that ICONs to this day still owes him $10,000.00 for and never paid him. That aside, the original set of molds were those leftover molds that ICONS used for the original set of 50 that were autographed by Fleischer (sp?). They burned out and Scott made a second set of molds to continue the boat as a kit instead of a build-up. One of these last build-ups was sent over to Comet Miniatures by Terry Fitton at Monsters in Motion ( since they assumed ICONS was defunct ) and never bothered to ask Scott if he had a mechanics lean on the property ( which he did and still does ). Long story short. Scott refurbished the 31" master tools and the kit that appeared was actually better in quality than the ICONS built up miniature, so much so, that Lee Seiler's job of converting off this new kit was made that much easier, but instead re-worked all the river maps and detailing to make his "own version". Comet Miniatures only made a new stand. I know, back to the kit. So we are in the present 5 years later after the ICONS debacle. The rotocast version is the kit halves glued together along with the salon window frames and rudder ( with tail insert for strength ). There is all the same detail as the original kit, but it's all hollow inside with uniform wall thickness because it is only an outside surface mold being rotationally spun. The advantage with this is that there is no seam work to perform, and it takes less resin to manufacture the kit. It takes less time. Still hollow, not solid. The alternate two piece version is the exact same kit, only the upper and lower hulls are made in separate molds and as a consequence, are a little bit thicker walls, so they can be cast. They are on the average of about 15% more material, and several more hours to cast, labor of two body molds vs. one body mold. What we didn't expect was that there would be such a strong desire by this group to have the ability to make a "lighted kit" or to make an "R/C ( radio controlled ) version. For that, one would have to have access to the interior. Alas, the need to go back to the original version. We will offer both versions to please everyone. Our new molds will be an investment and provide enough of each kit choice to make the price offering we have suggested. |
