i read all over the place how dragon uses slide molding to make it's kits and it makes it much crisper. what is slide molding, what is different with slide molding that makes it so much better

complex question and correct me if i'm wrong someone

conventional injection molds are 2 halves and NO undercuts.... made of tooled steel? anything other than a vertical and the component wont release

slide molds use a third element coming in at 90 degrees to the main mold

if you look at a slide molded component on the tree you can see the sprues of the tree clear the position of the 3rd part


does that make any sense?

heres the wiki link to dragon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Models_Limited

hope that helps

mark

There can be more than three parts.

Scott

Mark got it right, they use a multi part steel mold to get better definition and detail in places on the part that were inaccessible when using a conventional two-part mold. Parts that had flat sides so they could be removed from a mold now can have detail on those same sides. Al

cool. I had wondered the same thing.