Model Forum / General / Models / January 2008

I'm sure there is a more detailed explanation available, but basically a
"standard" mould has two halves,
basically male & female halves which come together leaving a space into
which the molten plastic is injected.

"Slide Moulds" are essentially moulds with more than two parts, you have the
two halves, then a third part
that fits in, it means, for example, a gun barrel can be moulded with a hole
in the end.

The whole "Slide Mould" hype seems to be prevalent in Dragon advertising,
but I don't think the concept
is particularly new or restricted to armour models.

Some more help here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injection_molding

It's interesting, if you google "slide moulds" or "slide molds", most
responses are about Dragon & Tristar
kits, so much for advertising.

Hope this helps (a bit)

To add to what max says; look at slide-molded tracks and rifle barrels.
With two-part molds the ends of track links are typically flat, devoid of
detail. With slide-molds the ends have indented or concave detail.  Same
with barrels. Instead of a solid rod, there is a muzzle opening.  Aircraft
kits benefit in the canopy department, slide-molding capturing complex
curves.  Pretty amazing when you see it.