"3D Printing - The Hobby's Future?" Topic

Recently I received several 1/144 scale models from Shapeways. I was very pleased with the experience of dealing with them and their product. Is 3D printing the way of the future for our hobby?

Here is the link to my purchases.
link

They require little cleaning or preparation. I hope to finish off two BE2c over the weekend.

Will this work better for some miniatures than others? I can see an entire 6mm battalion of tanks printed in minutes.

I started a thread about Shapeways a while back and the consensus seems to be that they are pretty good, I guess 3D printing is one of those things that will only improve over time, but seems to have a great start already. The only thing that puts me off is the postage costs!

For me it is not only the postage costs, but the costs period. I do 1/300 aircraft and the price difference between Heroics and Ros and Shapeways is significantly in favor of the former.

That said, I do believe that 3d printing is the wave of the future. I can see the time when even quality figures can be had. I donīt know if I am really looking forward to that day though. I like the human element of sculpting, plus I am just conservative. Change is bad.

My first thought upon seeing it for the first time was that it would make great masters, but I guess with the success of Shapeways I was wrong on that account.

We're already to the point where large minis companies can produce figures on 3D printers. At the moment, the cheaper printers tend to be slow and leave printing artifacts, so are not much use beyond rapid prototyping.

My guess is that affordable small business printers are 2-3 years away, and hobbyists should have decent ones in ten.

The trick, of course, is that it's a different set of skills to "sculpt" for printers. Vehicles are easy, while organics tend to require slightly more expensive software to get right.

I picked up two WW-I planes from Shapeways, as well. They were planes unavailable elsewhere, and highly desirable for my Red Baron games. They are not inexpensive, but they're decent quality for their 1/144 scale.

Really looking forward to bringing them to the table… One is the Russian Ilya Muromets heavy bomber, which can be configured with up to 12 MG's (no bombs in this configuration, but one hell of a gun-ship!), and the other was a plane with a second seat, with four MG's running through his floorboard, designed to strafe trenches, below. To quote Inigo Montoya, in the Princess Bride: "There will be blood, tonight!" Cheers!

Taking a look at KS and Indiegogo, they certainly are fueling some start-ups so it's not just the large companies doing it.

While I'm not sure it will ever replace tradional sculpts for mass-market figures – at least as mass-market as our hobby gets but I think the technology will allow a greater variety of figure types to be brought to market.

I have been proven wrong so many times about 3D printing in the past that I will stick to my guns.
I think that it will be fantastic for one off things, for which you will pay a pretty penny, but too expensive for large units.

I think it will be very good for very niche markets, but if you need something en masse, it will be beyond your pocketbook.

I agree with the OFM.

I agree with the OFM.

Isn't that still a Dawg housing offence?

The comparatively tiny number of potential sales of advanced 3D printers in the miniature wargaming field will not be enough to bring the technology and most importatnly the price through economy of scale down in the short-term (up to 5 years); How fast we all can get affordable high-quality consumder-level printers depends on other field of use to pick them up, or for the original client (rapid prototyping) to exponentially grow.

3D could be more useful at current cost if we could use the models for casting. Ships from Mongoose I believe can be used for casting. the problem there is that ships in a class are usually so few in number…especially in the capital ship classes. So you might get 3-4 ships cast out of one class. That would not be very cost effective.

I think that 3d printing wil become another accepted part of the gaming world. I don't think that people will buy tons of printed figures. I think what will happen is what has already happened. I'd digitally sculpt my figures print them and cast them. Once cast they fall into standard pricing, but often with lower up front costs. I can also see a time where you will find free digital files floating around and you just need to send them in for prototyping, then can mold and cast them yourself.

IS the price really that bad? Its the P&P that I think is the issue!

No, the price IS an issue. high-Resolution machines cost $$$, and if it takes 2 hours to print one model, well…

I really don't like the quality of the finish.

It just looks like the model has been made by gluing grains of sand together.
Or a nice smooth metal model has been covered in pva and sand..

But hey, if you are happy then excellent stuff..

Michael.

depends on what machine produces what finish, I have a machine that uses resin and as a result produces a very good quality master.

the type of machine that uses the tiny particles does not produce a good master, but the cheap ( relatively ) and strong material means you can use it for gaming as is. my resin parts would be too expensive and too fragile to use as gaming pieces.

oh fair enough, I imagine the printers are pricey.

But the planes on shapeways are fairly well priced.

about a hundred thousand pounds ….

for mine with a finisher, a supply of resin and a repair contract.

The thing is, you don't need to own a printer. There are companies that will do it for you.

I paid to get a 1/600 airplane (F-104 Starfighter) printed long before Shapeways existed. Think I paid about $20 USD for it. Sure, a lot for one but at that time I was more curious just to do it than a true cost / benefit analysis.

Ironically, I've sent that file to Shapeways who said it was too fine for them to print – so don't consider them as state-of-the-art.

Well, if we use the recent past (remember when we all had screeching dot matrix printers) to forsee a possible trend, it may be fair to assume;

The technology will get better and cheaper.

It will become a product that can be used in the home.

Copyright and piracy will be an issue.

The machines will be cheap(sold at a loss) and consequently, the ink (plastic) will always seem too expensive.

The copy shop will be a cost effective way of doing larger volume.

Comparing 3D printers to normal inkjet printers is difficult. Pretty much everyone has use for an inkjet printer, but which normal household has use for a 3D printer?

technology is strangled by patent costs, as the current technologies that are capable of sufficient precision are linked to very restrictive patents that are expensive.

the independent model currently has nothing to drive it since the average user can't make a replacement usable ( something) in 3d, because the manufacturer wants to make them use authorized parts. if anyone could print it the manufacturer would lose money on repairs, or heaven forbid someone could redesign the ( thing ) to do a better job.

no the three d printer is not ready for home use yet, but when a proper multi material design is working industrially then we can expect those designs to make it to the home in five to seven years.

At this moment it's only useful for a limited range of special projects.

The one cool thing about 3D printing is that it doesn't matter what you are printing, complexity is irrelevant. This means that the rule of production numbers no longer applies as in conventional manufacturing.

I don't expect home printers to give a satisfactory price/quality and rate of output for many years. It is possible that us wargamers who want a large number of prints will be overlooked by manufacturers who will focus on consumers using their printers for more "one off" jobs rather than cranking out whole armies at an industrial scale.

Companies like Shapeways will get better machines, better DPI and prices will drop. I do expect a boom in that department.

Some companies will invest in a printer and produce models. Home users will for a time be limited to those with deep pockets and willing to face disappointment.

I also think people underestimate making the CAD files for your models.

Forget that a 3D printer is a magic box that cranks out infinite armies in the blink of an eye at Perry level quality for the price of a song by just wishing hard and pushing a button.