"More 3D printer goodness" Topic

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the practical question is "Are the parts durable enough to play with?" Legos get a LOT of abuse. I have always felt instinctively that the pieces produced SHOULD be brittle, but perhaps not.

There is still my nagging fear that the worker will not receive the fruits of his labors if he loses the right to control production of his creations.
I fear that the gamers' "But I WANT it, Mommie!" attitude will prevail, to our loss.

For instance, I am always kidding Perry and Eureka (well, more like pleading…) to produce "Washington Crossing the Delaware". OF necessity, they will have to charge a premium price just to break even. But, what if they did produce it, and some techno THIEF bought one, scanned it, and then sold the CAD files for a buck to geeks around the world to download into their $1,100 USD 3D printers? It would serve the SOB right if someone stole his file and sold it for $.50 USD or gave it away, but I digress.

I do not see this as Good for The Hobby™. Not at all. Creativity will dry up if no one can reap the fruits of his/her labors.

Mimeo-graph machines, photocopiers, digital cameras, scanners, high-tech software packages and PDF documents have not caused creativity to dry up in the rules/textual creativity aspect of The Hobby…

Keep ostracizing crap bags like the one currently in the DH, turn them in when you can, at every opportunity you can, to what ever authority you can.

I assume the creative folks will creatively figure (see what I did there?) out how to continue to produce Hoby Goodness for us and update their business models to protect their profits/stay in business.

In December the company Games Workshop used copyright takedown notices to pressure the 3-D printing site Thingiverse into removing fan-uploaded ­designs for 3-D printable figurines from the game Warhammer.

Before it gets to that, maybe the Perrys and Eureka will scan their own figures and sell the downloads themselves.

Beats paying for shipping.

Regards, the Gorb

The "Business Model" for thingverse is interesting in the fact that users are encouraged to share their models.

I would think that this would discourage our hobby from embracing it…

The industry will take advantage of this technology just like they have with PDFs and computer-assisted wargames.

And remember, businesses can use this tech to sell their miniatures more affordably while still making a profit.

I am not sure at the costs to make miniatures but this could also make it easier to produce new ranges.

Together, you have a potent combination for "increasing" the industry.

The cheap printers are also not exactly printing a high quality end item from what I see. For awhile at least you'll need to pay more for a really good model…. love the progress so far though. I want one!

Hell, the ink for modern printers cost an arm and a leg,

Quitre Frankly the price of printing a 120 page PDF rule book is alot higher then just buying the damn book.

I don't know enough about these 3d printers, but if they use any kind of stuff that get used up, you can bet the price of buying more of it, will to so high it will be cheaper to just by the figures.

But surely any decently designed and composed wargame rulebook – as opposed to a guide to painting miniatures, creating diorama standard terrain and buildings &c. – should not run to anywhere near 120 pages?

Such lengthy rules are going to be impossible to learn and play without frequent reference to the rulebook – give me a six to ten page b&w download from freewargamesrules any day!

Well first of all, a 3D scanner is beyond the reach of hobbyists so I don't think we need to worry about that (for a while at least).

Second of all, recasting is a much cheaper alternative and while it is a scourge on The Hobby, it doesn't seem to be destroying it.

Also, as mentioned, these "cheap" printers wouldn't have the resolution required. It's funny how so much of the discussion around this technology is based around home printing. At $1,000 USD for a home printer, you can get a lot printed by a third party on a much better machine – Shapeways being the obvious example.

However, I believe this technology is great for the hobby. Look at the selection of 1/144 WW1 aircraft on Shapeways, or 1/600 jets. If someone with CAD skills want something produced they can make it. If they want to make it available to others, possibly receiving a royalty, they can do that too.

How is my having the ability to make a figure using CAD rather than sculpting a bad thing ? Especially as I can't sculpt but can manipulate a mouse.

As the OP said – you've been pleading for a particular model. Well, with this technology, someone with the right software can legally create the scene you want and you can legally buy one. Seems like an easier approach than hoping a sculptor will choose to produce one.

The only downside in is this era where it seems the courts side with deciding anything vaguely resembling a copyright line is a violation i.e. GWs enforced takedown of something that only vaguely looks like theirs, will limit true creativity.

And I still say TMP needs a 3D printing board…

I have a 3d scanner, and a 3d printer.

The cost is as you say beyond the reach of hobbyists.

The cost of the material to make around 30 28mm figures is roughly £250.00 GBP, and the support material adds £150.00 GBP to that.

Then you have to put them into moulds – and then after making your master mould make production moulds

Then you can sell lovely metal figures from your own designs….

I must be mad!