"3d printers and miniatures" Topic

Sorry, not impressed with the breathless enthusiasm for the new technology. I rather suspect the reason people want this is NOT to produce their own designs or new lines, but to simply take a figure from someone's line and toss it in the machine and make a thousand copies and rip off the guy who made the figure. Therefore it all comes down the price per figure. If the cost per figure AFTER the $20,000 USD investment for the machine is $18.00 USD a figure then it won't fly. War gamers are incredibly cheap.

b9creator.com

$2,500 USD if you assemble yourself. $100 USD for 1 kg of resin.

6mm figures and terrain

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Motor wheels

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Notre dame

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Cool, so to get a 6mm army it will only cost just under $3,000 USD (assuming you can create the 3d files yourself or find them for free).

Seriously? You can buy a lot of 6mm armies for $3,000 USD…

Roughly 1000 ml of resin. Cost is 10 cents / ml ( or cm3 ). 1 lb of tin costs about $20. USD Density of molten tin is 7g/cm3. Cost per cm3 of tin is about $0.30 USD.

Photo resin is 3x cheaper on a volume basis. Build speed is a lot lower, though you can print multiple figures at the same time.

In terms of amortized cost, you need to compare the cost of the 3d printer with the cost of a spincaster set up, and the time it takes for each. Given the cost of a spincaster setup ( unless you build your own, or buy one of the truly crappy intro level models ), the B9 is cheaper.

The big advantage for the hobbyist is the printer can print whatever you want. No need for a mold first.

Damn, I should do a kickstarter or indiegogo campaign…

10 years ago, these machines cost $30,000 USD+. Progress man.

Hah ha, or entirely build your own…

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No, you need to compare the cost of a printer with the retail cost of simply buying the thing.

You wouldn't factor in the cost of a steel press when looking at the cost of a £2.99 GBP hole punch, would you?

The advantage is that you can print on demand, albeit currently at a higher cost and (for current self-build/home printers) at a lower quality. There is also no saving for printing multiples, each additional print costs the same as the first.

By your analogy, anyone currently buying metal figures can do it themselves by buying a spin caster, which they can. But you need to factor in the cost of moulding and casting, plus the material overhead of the casting machine against the retail unit cost that the item is commercially available for…

What I meant was speed. Printing multiples at once essentially improves the 'speed' of the 3d printer.

And yes, my intent is to compare the cost to the die-hard hobbyist of printing their own vs sculpting/vulcing/spincasting their own. If you only ever intend to make one figure for your own use, greenstuff and some tools are still way cheaper than a 3d printer. But to make units, you'd need spincasting (gravity cast gives bad results) or 3d printing.

People spend $3,000 USD on gaming PCs. You can now buy a high res 3d printer for that. I consider that now entering "die-hard hobbyist" territory, just as $3,000 USD PCs are "die-hard gamer territory". Amateur photographers can drop several thou on their hobbies, musicians as well. We're now in the realm where a hard care miniatures enthusiast could acquire a 3D printer and do their own stuff.

As for needing to 'sculpt' your own stuff, Thingverse and other such sites are starting to fill up with wargaming items.

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Much more options than when I last I check. :)

The question still remains, why would you invest $3,000 USD+ to produce our own when you can buy it at such a low cost? You are still looking at investing $3,000 USD+ on a printer to print items you can buy for under $10 USD each… that's a lot of stuff you have to print just to break even.

How many wargamers out there even consider sculpting their own figures, with all the skills and hassles that go into moulding and casting?

And with the latest UK legislation permitting the final end user to be fined for purchasing counterfeight goods, this could open up a whole new can of worms.

I foresee a few C&D letters circulating: thingiverse.com/thing:166195

Because if you are die hard, you WANT to do it that way.

The same reason die hard pc gamers build custom pcs instead of just buying a PS4. The same reason diehard bikers ride custom rigs instead of a $200 USD Huffy. :)

As for the GW knockoffs on thingverse, no questions there about C&D. But even with the quality of those prints, gamers are already printing out wargaming figs, terrain, etc.

Yeah, but those guys generally get a better product for their investment…

Hi guys,
Glad to see people are investigating 3D printing.

Just over a year ago I started a 3D printing company 3distributed.com and am a DM for a d&d 3.5 group. I'v recently combined these two aspects and just launched Stormbeard's Emporium where we can digitally sculpt and 3D print miniatures in super high resolution from customer's character descriptions and/or sketches.

The service is aimed at table top gamers rather than modelling enthusiasts but which ever camp you fall into, I'd really appreciate any feedback on what I've set up.

Stormbeard's Emporium – link

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$999 USD high res dlp printer. Keeps getting crazier and crazier.

My base designer

thingiverse.com/thing:258429

Open a free thingiverse account, and then you can use the customizer (click on "Open In Customizer") to generate stl files for bases of any size, many shapes, and slot or no slot.

Will shortly add ability to specify flight stands, etc.

Then download, print, and mold for yourselves. :)

Plan to add textured and calvary bases as well eventually.

Went to a wargame show yesterday where one demo game had traditional 1/160 sculpted modern tanks on the table and the equivalent in 3D printed form – I couldn't tell the difference, except the 3D one was lighter to hold.

One trader had a few Sherman's and PzIV's for sale, very much as a sideline, but the point is, this thing is starting to happen in mainstream wargaming.

Just had a look at thingi universe, jeez is that as good as its got? Grim stuff, then again the GW clone, zombie wars type stuff usually is given its audiences expectations.
Technology a ways off yet and even when it gets here properly going to be like buying bread, extruded plastic wonder bread or a nice hand made rye sourdough………….
L

Just had a look at thingi universe, jeez is that as good as its got? Grim stuff, then again the GW clone, zombie wars type stuff usually is given its audiences expectations.
Technology a ways off yet and even when it gets here properly going to be like buying bread, extruded plastic wonder bread or a nice hand made rye sourdough………….

What you are seeing at 'thingi universe' is a bunch of amateurs creating stuff and sharing it for free. Then getting feedback and improving or just creating something new as the mood strikes them.

Judging the content there is a bit like going to a freshman engineering class (or even high school kids interested in engineering) and looking at the bridges they build and saying, ' jeez is that as good as its got?' If you want to see what folks with more skills can do, try this place link

People are learning skills in brand new ways today. These ways are misunderstood by many people over a certain age as they are not part of the social media revolution. I learned web design by reading books and practicing like hell. EVERYTHING I learned in those books (and much much more) is now commonly available on the web for free, and many sites even organize lessons and track your progress. People are learning skills they never had access to a few years ago, and that learning is messy and that's what you are seeing on 'thingi univierse.'

I work in a school during the day and our best learners are those kids teaching themselves skills on the net, by creating and sharing content and getting feedback. Weather they are writing terrible stories and publishing them on the net for feedback or enrolling in web design courses that are free, they are constantly learning. Sites like 'thingi universe' facilitate that. The people who use these sites will be more versatile learners/doers as they continue on in life.

Judging them by any other standard is unrealistic at best.

To see a real pro in action, here you go

YouTube link

There are already people doing exactly what you describe: Scanning the shape of a real person, and then scaling it down to a much smaller scale and creating (sometimes in full-color) a 3D printed miniature of that person! 3D printing is getting more and more affordable, and not just for the cost of the printer itself. I myself am creating a 28mm miniatures game designed for 3D printing, and so far I've been amazed at how affordable I can make my designs by reducing the amount of material used wherever possible. The tanks I've designed are as hollow as possible while still being rigid and strong. My website is still incomplete, but you can find it here: wargame2080.com

Thingiverse is mostly amateurs using free tools. But for simple things, its a great source.

Looks like a pretty good 3D printer for only $349 USD. Think I'll get on for Christmas.

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Judging from the comments posted 18 months ago, I'd say Moore's Law is alive and kicking in the arena of 3D printing.

Anyone else?

Here is the first attempt at a vehicle. I only had the printer set up as Good, and the bed was too high to start.
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Here is the second after adjusting the printer bed. The printer is the XYZ Junior 1.0. This is still at the Good setting. my next will be the best setting.
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PaperPie, your links are not working, even after I logged into Google's servers. Cheers!

Thanks, I am not sure why.

I am trying a different location for the images.
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New error: "The open folder can no longer be viewed.
The folder that you were viewing no longer exists or you no longer have permission to access it. You have been moved to My Drive." The "My Drive", is my personal drive on Google.com. Thanks for trying, though. Cheers!

OK how about a Pintrest link. we'll try that.
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They all seem to have ridges running side-to-side, across the vehicles. I suspect this is from the printer's resolution, rather than by design? Still, they look quite decent, aside from the ridges. At arm's length, the ridges would be hard to see. Cheers!

I am going to work on some smoothing experiments.