"Current economics of personal 3D printing" Topic

I have always said that 3D printers are a fantasy as far as the average wargamer is concerned.
However, it seems more and more that I have been proven wrong.
I am OK with that!
So, assuming I had a decent job and no debts and could afford one…
I have two questions. Each assumes that I have picked up some "free" software on line somewhere, and that none of these figures are pirated.

NOTE: These apply to stuff on the market NOW.

1) How much does a machine cost that could print out a high standard 28mm figure?

2) How much does it cost to cast/print such a figure, with appropriate material?

2B) How long does it take to do 2? If I wanted a regiment of 24 figures, how long would it take?

1 – Free (or if you HAVE to have one of your own, many thousands).

2 – Up to 4 for around $13 USD (Yup, I looked on Shapeways).

Of course all of this depends on the definition of "high quality"

I think the answer to "1" is, more than most of us can afford – i.e. $100 USDK+. However, there are services out there that will happily print for you (for a fee of course).

However, you will need to look further than Shapeways when looking for a service as the last time I checked, their printers, while good, aren't state-of-the-art.

Maybe I have gone off the deep end here, but I can see buying a "license" to "cast" 48 figures from the figure designer, in collaboration with the machine maker.
With an unlimited run costing a bit more.
I am sure that "somehow" the license can be limited to one machine, as can the quantity.

Maybe this is how I will get my Welch Fusiliers with bearskin.

If you are somewhat serious, look for similar figs on Shapeways and ask the designer for the type of figure you are after.

My son is a techno wizard and has a 3D printer he built himself for about $6 USD-700 last year. The quality is not what you would want for finely detailed miniatures. It's great for buildings and stuff on a somewhat larger scale or without lots of detail, but fine detail is iffy. The amount of time required to tinker with it to get optimal printing, and the knowledge base required, is what would keep the average Joe from printing miniatures at this point I would think. I think other folks have hit the nail on the head with steering you to shapeways. Industrial grade 3d printers are what you would need to come close to printing miniatures with reasonable detail.

I have a Replicator 2 printer, which is able to print at a 100micron level. That's pretty good, but not up to a high quality 28mm standard. Ironically, I've made figures that are pretty good looking at 15mm, since at that size super fine levels of detail are less common.

I've printed high quality buildings and pieces of buildings, as well as good looking robots, spaceships and more. I also use it to make bases and other accessories, which it is really amazing at since I can whip those up very quickly in Sketchup.

I recently got into Star Fleet ACTA and was able to quickly model and print out 10mm long ShuttleCraft to go along with my star ship miniatures. For that type of thing, the printer is supreme. They turned out nicely, despite the tiny size (though I originally modeled too much detail and had to remove some to get them to print properly).

However, the printers capable of printing true high quality miniatures are still too expensive (though that is changing VERY quickly).

The biggest issue is source of models. I think that's where one of the true business models lies. (The other I am very interested in pursuing and won't go into here.) The odds of your average gamer having the skills to model a high quality character or vehicle are very small. It can be learned, but I know for a fact I will never make gorgeous character models. I just don't have that talent.

Materials are still a major factor as well. The replicator 2 builds with layers of melted bioplastic (PLA). This means you have to build with supports (which is problematical for small items, since you can damage the model when removing supports) or print only items with no undercuts. That means you have to build things in pieces and glue them together if you want complex poses.

I've printed some 28mm size figures, and they look about as good as a cheap pre-paint figure, but you just aren't going to get the crazy amount of detail at that size.

Bad prints are common, so you often have to reprint items more than once. Cost is low, but the reprints add up. It's about $40 USD for a 1kg of PLA plastic. That allows me to print about 100 28mm size figures taking reprints into account.

I'm a huge fan of the former Z-Corp printers that print in resin layers. This means you can print multiple items in dynamic poses with undercuts- even in color, but those printers are in the 40k+ range for the lower detail printers, and the high detail printers are upwards of 80k. The print costs for these printers is about $3.50 USD per cubic inch of material used (unused material is recyclable).

Even then, the high quality prints just aren't that high quality (again about on par with a cheap pre-paint figure).

I love my printer, but there is a huge learning curve associated, and there have been lots of hiccups along the way. I've printed a lot of models off of Thingiverse, which is a free warehouse of items, but many items there are not printable as listed there, so you have to adjust or change them.

If anyone has a model they'd like me to try and print, drop me a PM an I'll give it a go. It's fun to experiment.

Well, if you are going the Shapeways route, you would just purchase 48 figures.

If you are getting someone to create the file to print from, I'd think you would just pay for the file.

If you want to print one figure, then cast it 48 times, I'd think the ethical thing to do would be to buy the original file, as above.

I'm going to try and share a few items I've printed to give you an idea of print quality. The Replicator is one of the most high quality printers you can get right now at the hobbyist level, but it's still $2,300. USD The white items are harder to see the detail in. When I switched to grey, detail became much easier to see in the base model.

Most items are printed at high quality (with the exception of the ogre, whom I printed at medium quality with supports).

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You will know the technology has become affordable enough when a miniature company begins selling figures through a print on demand business model successfully (and making a profit doing it).

I'm really surprised there aren't more businesses offering their services to gamers, and/or companies that want to print their own miniatures.

Having them printed in Europe, for American customers seems rather daft to me.

I know some companies here in the USA have the capability of doing the same, but you don't hear much about them.

I'm equally surprised there aren't individuals, and/or companies offering their 3-D art to gamers, as mentioned above, for limited run prints as well.

Given the current limitations though, on most of the machines, seems they are better for printing vehicles, and other larger objects for prototypes, which are then cleaned up, before having molds of them created, for general production.

I look forward to the day when we can have them at home, and they can print fine details on 3mm and 4mm, and larger figures, without striations, and other defects, in metal.

I'd say we are in the equivalent of the 24-pins matrix printer period at the moment. Inkejets are still too expensive and laserjets can only be afforded by the five richest kings of Europe.

I guess in another five to ten years or so we would have a suitable domestic use machine that will crank out decent mid-quality figures at a reasonable speed and high quality stuff for those who throw enough money at it.

Its not the machine but the motors and software. for high detail you require Stepper motors capable of incremental movement of .002 micron. They are still about a grand plus each and you need one for each axis.

Like Pat said, rid'in the wave of dot matrix, oh those heady days!

the Form1 kickstarter put an early "ink jet" level printer on the market for about 2600 (probably 3000 to 3.5k when it goes to public sale.). But prices at that level can be expected to fall in the next few years..