Miniature Material, Production & Features

Why This Material- unicool plastic (resin)?

It combines all the best qualities we are after: better durability (isn’t brittle like other resins), the possibility of very dynamic and complex minis (with fewer assembly parts), and quality/sharpness of detail. What’s more, the minis are very easy to prepare for painting – they usually come very clean and almost without any mold lines, while they are easy and quick to assemble. The minis come in fewer pieces but retain their extremely dynamic design.

The quality we strive for and how it became possible

Exquisitely detailed, realistic and dynamic miniatures that are fit for every painter – for novice painters and even the most demanding! As hobby painters, this was our goal when choosing and adamantly chasing the material for Eldfall Chronicles miniatures. 

To achieve these standards, we needed to start with the design of the miniatures – we learned how to design the miniatures through trial and error in vigorous testing. We modified their sculpt files many times before physical production to ensure that they came out as detailed and crisp as possible. Then, the casting and the material also had to click to make our miniatures possible as they are now. This is where it got tough. 

In the beginning, we strived for hard plastic (HIPS), however, it is a very expensive material for smaller runs of a few thousand minis and it had its many drawbacks regarding dynamic poses – we would essentially have to cut up the minis in many more parts or/and change their designs quite a lot. So we had to look for an alternative, but we never wanted to compromise on the quality or the dynamic, intricate designs. And after a while, our manufacturer Unicool Game Manufacturing, made a new kind of resin called unicool plastic. 

It was perfect. It was sustainable, and the quality was exactly what we hoped for.

It is a traditional resin, albeit next-generation called unicool plastic (resin). It is not Siocast, pvc or hard plastic. Although, in its appearance and visual quality, it most closely resembles the latter. And in a way, you could say it is a mix of hard plastic and resin. 

Casting Process

You can say that the minis are made with a traditional hand-crafting method. A silicone injection casting method is used to create the miniatures. Then the minis are carefully removed from the molds after hardening, and washed and finished.

And because of this material and process, the minis can come in fewer pieces but retain their extremely dynamic poses. Something that – for our minis – indeed cannot be achieved with other materials and casting methods.