Behind the Forge
From myth to maquette to finished relic. Every piece takes between eight and fourteen months to complete. Here is why.
Avg. master sculpt time
Mould capture resolution
Production cycle per piece
Hand-painted, one artist
"We do not manufacture collectibles. We document things that should not exist, and then we make them exist."
Iron Wraith Studios was founded on a single conviction: that dark fantasy deserved the same craft rigour applied to fine art bronze. Every relic begins as a written brief drawn from the lore archive. It ends as a numbered, signed, production-limited object. The distance between those two points is the forge.
Weeks 1–3
Lore Brief
The text comes first
Every piece begins in the archive. The lead sculptor reads the relevant lore entries, then writes a brief — not a visual description, but a character study. What does this figure want? What has it lost? What does it cost to look at it? The brief is approved before a single sketch is drawn.
Briefs average 1,200 words. Rejected briefs are filed, not discarded — several have become the seed of later pieces.
Weeks 4–8
Concept & Maquette
Small, then smaller
The first physical form is a 1:12 maquette in oil-based clay — roughly four inches tall. At this scale, proportion errors are obvious and cheap to fix. The maquette is reviewed against the brief three times before it is approved for scale-up. Most maquettes are revised twice.
Maquettes are destroyed after the master is approved. They are not sold or archived.
Weeks 9–20
Master Sculpt
The long work
The master is sculpted at final scale in a combination of Super Sculpey and epoxy putty. Surface texture — fabric weave, skin, corroded metal, root growth — is worked in by hand using custom tools. No 3D printing is used in the master sculpt. The texture you see on the finished piece is the texture the sculptor put there.
Average master sculpt time: 340 hours. The record is 610 hours for The Hollow Sovereign.
Weeks 21–26
Mould & Cast
Captured in silicone
The master is moulded in platinum-cure silicone — the same material used in medical prosthetics. Each mould captures detail down to 0.1mm. Production castings are made in a polyurethane resin formulated for dimensional stability; pieces will not warp, yellow, or degrade under normal display conditions.
Each silicone mould produces between 40 and 60 clean pulls before it is retired. Edition sizes are set by mould yield, not by demand.
Weeks 27–36
Paint & Finish
Colour as narrative
Each piece is hand-painted by a single artist from start to finish — no assembly-line division of labour. The paint scheme is developed from the lore brief: the Ashen Covenant palette runs cold iron, ash white, and deep crimson; Verdant Rot uses oxidised copper, lichen green, and bone. Finishing includes oil washes, dry-brushing, and sealed with a matte varnish that preserves the painted surface indefinitely.
Paint time per piece: 18–24 hours. Each artist signs the base before packaging.
Weeks 37–40
Edition & Ship
Numbered, sealed, sent
Each piece is numbered by hand on the base, photographed against a calibrated background, and packed in a custom two-layer foam insert. The outer box carries the edition number and a certificate of authenticity signed by the lead sculptor. Shipping is insured to full replacement value.
Once an edition closes, the mould is destroyed. There are no second runs, no open editions, no exceptions.
40 weeks, start to ship
What every relic is made of
Polyurethane Resin
Dimensionally stable, UV-resistant, formulated for long-term display. Will not warp or yellow.
Platinum-Cure Silicone
Medical-grade mould material. Captures 0.1mm surface detail. Each mould retired after 40–60 pulls.
Acrylic & Oil Paint
Layered by hand. Oil washes for depth, acrylic for opacity, matte varnish seal for permanence.
Custom Resin Base
Weighted for stability. Edition number and artist signature applied by hand before packaging.
The result is a relic
Every piece that leaves the forge is the only version of itself that will ever exist at that edition number. The collector who holds No. 47 of 333 holds something that cannot be replicated — not because we say so, but because the mould is gone.