# Recreating a tyranid Armorcast Exocrine



## MidnightKid333 (Feb 2, 2011)

hey everyone

I recently purchased a tyranid Exocrine from armorcast off ebay with intentions of making urethane molds with it. After some research, I found out that making urethane molds are a time-consuming and expensive thing to do, so I'm now thinking about alternatives, such as getting my hands on a 3D printer (google it), making wooden carvings of an exocrine and anything that would produce a recreation of the exocrine. 

for those of you that don't know what an Exocrine is, or what armorcast is, let me explain. Armorcast is a company that worked for games workshop a long time ago, but at around the early 90s, Armorcasts casting quality was poor and wasn't very aesthetically pleasing, so they got the boot and forgeworld walked in and raised hell with their amazing models (im sure were all familiar with their work). 

Exocrines are a tyranid Apocalypse model that was made by Armorcast in the early 90s. If you've never seen an Exocrine before, just google it. Mine is from 1990. The casting job isn't very good, so that's what lead me to think of making a urethane mold of it. The google pictures of it look like a good casting job, but upon closer inspection, there are molding cracks, dull spikes and lack of detail. These characteristics will make it easy to make a urethane cast of. 

Do you all think this is a reasonable idea, or am I being a bit too imaginative? I could see it working, but I don't know a whole lot about urethane molds, so I shouldn't be the one saying it'll work just fine. 

I watched this video of how to make a cast, and it didn't look too hard. It shows how to make a two-part cast, but I think I might be able to get away with a one-part cast, by just setting the exocrine in a box and pouring the urethane slowly over it like in the video. 






Thanks for looking


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## normtheunsavoury (Mar 20, 2008)

Whether the mini is out of production or not making and casting from molds of it is frowned upon by GW and saying you're going to do it on here is against forum rules.


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## MidnightKid333 (Feb 2, 2011)

normtheunsavoury said:


> Whether the mini is out of production or not making and casting from molds of it is frowned upon by GW and saying you're going to do it on here is against forum rules.


but its out of production, so games workshop will not make any kind of money from me buying another exocrine (from ebay). Games workshop has that rule because they don't want people recasting what theyre currently selling, because it means no money for them, but these arent being sold by Games workshop, so I don't see why they'd make that a rule


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## normtheunsavoury (Mar 20, 2008)

Because the intellectual property still belongs to them, it's the same with their books, in print or not, it's illegal to copy them.
TBH if it's for your own personal use then I doubt anyone would say anything but it still stands that you're not allowed to promote IP theft on Heresy, forum rules.


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## Azkaellon (Jun 23, 2009)

Just take a Certain uh... "Adult Toy" and add a base to it.....then you magically get get the exocrine......


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## chromedog (Oct 31, 2007)

Armorcast were NOT working FOR GW, they were LICENCED by GW to make them.
There is a very important difference involved.


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## MidnightKid333 (Feb 2, 2011)

chromedog said:


> Armorcast were NOT working FOR GW, they were LICENCED by GW to make them.
> There is a very important difference involved.


so I don't have to worry about infringement laws then? Or does that mean Armorcast will be unhappy at me?

@Azkaellon - Good one xD


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Making a copy is against the law, making your own is not.


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## MidnightKid333 (Feb 2, 2011)

djinn24 said:


> Making a copy is against the law, making your own is not.


so would you consider this making a copy or making my own? is the difference whether or not I sell it? Because there's no way I'm selling them. I'm keeping what I make


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## normtheunsavoury (Mar 20, 2008)

midnightkid333 said:


> so would you consider this making a copy or making my own? is the difference whether or not I sell it? Because there's no way I'm selling them. I'm keeping what I make


You'd be making a copy of something that is still protected by copy right laws so it would be illegal. 
The only way you could do it legally would be to sculpt one of your own from scratch, that way it is yours and you can make as many as you want. Just don't call them an Exocrine and try and sell any, you'd be breaking the law again.


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## Will_SCO (Sep 21, 2011)

3D printers are expensive, both to buy and to use.

There are some cheaper ones starting to appear (such as the DIY Makerbot Thing-O-Matic), but they are still around the £1,000 mark. You'd also need to be pretty handy with CAD or other 3D design softwares.


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## MidnightKid333 (Feb 2, 2011)

I guess i'll have to make some out of paper mache or carve one out of wood then. I haven't used paper mache since i was an infant, so that means i'll try my best at sculpting it. 

any other ideas for a scratchbuild? toss out anything you've got. Someone even suggested the adult toy thing xD

@Will_SCO -- It's no surprise that they're expensive. Those things are state of the art top notch pieces of machinery. I'm also pretty sure that would be considered a form of copying, so thats not an option anymore.


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## Silens (Dec 26, 2010)

Get a triceratops toy and use that for the big part... Sculpt around it.


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