"shapeways to lead or plastic ?" Topic

has anyone made a mold from a shapeways print (ultra frosted) to produce a more traditional lead or resin miniature?

Or into plastic?

Are there experienced ocmpanies that can do these magical things?

I don't know about Shapeways but reaper minis was doing it back in 2001 with their CAV line. They use the 3D print to investment cast a master mini and then made production molds from that.

Laser Dreamworks did something similar when they cast the masters for their 1812 ships.

I read about a company a while back that used printed shapeways models for raygun sci-fi spaceships. The printed ship was taken to a jeweller who used his tools to smooth out the step effect and then a master was made from this cleaned moded, and then the master was used for molds.

Nowadays I see more and more companies bringing out 3D printed miniatures that have a far higher quality than Shapeways, so I sould suggest looking for other service providers.

Aren't the new Mutant Chronicles (Warzone) minis being done that way… 3D print used to create mold for styrene or resin?

I know Drew at Studio Bergstrom is making metal versions of some of Irrational's Shapeways prints. You might ask how he's doing it.

Brigade Models UK is doing this I believe for their new 2mm Land Ironclads terrain bits (villages, sci-fi towns). I'm not sure if Angel Barracks is as well for some of his vehicles.

i have made a couple of casts of shapeways 3d prints, most are just wheels or tyres mostly but i have moulded a truck.
(all with permision), the tyres were vulcanised straight from the white material the truck needed some modifications done to it.
the tyres came out all ok and i have cast them in white metal, no damage or warpinp fter the vulcanisation process, now they are on some new models i am getting ready to sell.
the finnish of the shapeways models would not be good enough if you wanted a smoother model.

Are there experienced ocmpanies that can do these magical things?

Keep in mind that the hot, hip, new process appears to be 3d-modeling and then resin casting. I don't know who they're getting to do the actual manufacturing, but OBJ files seem to be displacing greens.