Over in the GI Joe Discussion Group on Facebook Gyre-Viper posted some pics and explanation of the old school process for creating vehicles before CAD and milling machines came along. The pattern maker, who wishes to remain anonymous, explained the process with some details I know I've never heard before. So thanks to him, Gyre-Viper, JoeDeclassified, and the GI Joe Discussion Group for bringing this all to light, with pics.
Gyre-Viper wrote:
So I've been talking with a former, oldskool Hasbro pattern maker from the 80's/90's (who would like his name kept out of this so that people aren't all up in his face) and I asked him if he could sort-of give the quick-and-dirty of what goes into making the pattern for a vehicle, etc, at least from his experiences. So instead of paraphrasing and bullet-pointing, I figured I'd just use his exact words. Some of the images posted below have been seen before in this group. Some have not. Today's lesson: "MODEL SERVICES DEPARTMENT FLOW"
-Joe Declassified
Hasbro Model Services pattern maker wrote:
"For The Model Services department the flow went like this:
A kit bashed model would be made by the Design guys, the ones with the design degree, in the R&D department.
A Styrene base model was made then parts from car, airplane, trains, military vehicles, store bought models were added.
Have a close look at a vehicle; you can make out disk brakes, transmissions, rear view mirrors, in the oddest places
The Designers would then take that model and draw up blueprints as to how the finished product should look.
The pattern makers would then build a precise wood pattern with the correct amount of shrink factored in. That means the pattern was .004 inch per inch larger than what the part that came out of the injection mold.
The pattern was built to the parting line and everything had draft applied. That means every vertical side had at least 1/2 degree angle so the finished plastic part could be release from the injection mold tool.
Remember, plastic shrinks once the part cools so that means if a toy was 12 inches long, we would have to scale everything up. The wood pattern is actually 12.048 inches long.
Doesn’t seem like much but if the shrink rule isn’t followed you won’t be able to mate any of the parts.
I’ve included the pictures of two wood patterns for tooling. The reason you will not find any here in the States is that we shipped the wood patterns overseas as the actual injection molds were cut directly from these patterns.
Patterns were works of art. Precise, made to the parting line, real master pieces. I say this with a great deal of pride as this was all done before CNC and we were holding tolerances to .003” inch. That’s an actual hair width.
We built these not only because it was our job, but also to try to impress our coworkers. In my case it was just to show the old timers that I could do it. Mind you they were New Englanders and also Patternmakers so it was extremely hard to impress them. You knew you did a good job if on the next job, they would share a trick or technique with you.
If you didn’t have the right stuff, the old timers wouldn’t waste their breath on you.
The Engineers many times would take there measurements off the pattern we built and then make tooling drawings.
Remember again, this was before Cad and the compound curves developed on a toy would be near impossible to create in a standard three view drawing on a drafting table."
A kit bashed model would be made by the Design guys, the ones with the design degree, in the R&D department.
A Styrene base model was made then parts from car, airplane, trains, military vehicles, store bought models were added.
Have a close look at a vehicle; you can make out disk brakes, transmissions, rear view mirrors, in the oddest places
The Designers would then take that model and draw up blueprints as to how the finished product should look.
The pattern makers would then build a precise wood pattern with the correct amount of shrink factored in. That means the pattern was .004 inch per inch larger than what the part that came out of the injection mold.
The pattern was built to the parting line and everything had draft applied. That means every vertical side had at least 1/2 degree angle so the finished plastic part could be release from the injection mold tool.
Remember, plastic shrinks once the part cools so that means if a toy was 12 inches long, we would have to scale everything up. The wood pattern is actually 12.048 inches long.
Doesn’t seem like much but if the shrink rule isn’t followed you won’t be able to mate any of the parts.
I’ve included the pictures of two wood patterns for tooling. The reason you will not find any here in the States is that we shipped the wood patterns overseas as the actual injection molds were cut directly from these patterns.
Patterns were works of art. Precise, made to the parting line, real master pieces. I say this with a great deal of pride as this was all done before CNC and we were holding tolerances to .003” inch. That’s an actual hair width.
We built these not only because it was our job, but also to try to impress our coworkers. In my case it was just to show the old timers that I could do it. Mind you they were New Englanders and also Patternmakers so it was extremely hard to impress them. You knew you did a good job if on the next job, they would share a trick or technique with you.
If you didn’t have the right stuff, the old timers wouldn’t waste their breath on you.
The Engineers many times would take there measurements off the pattern we built and then make tooling drawings.
Remember again, this was before Cad and the compound curves developed on a toy would be near impossible to create in a standard three view drawing on a drafting table."
-Joe Declassified
Packaging just for reference for the pics that follow
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Carved wooden vehicle pattern of the underside of the Ghostriker jet
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Blueprint drafts
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Individual part patterns
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Ghostriker patterns in their tooling frames
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Zanzibar skiff in its tooling frame
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