"3D Printing a 40K Army..." Topic

A Reddit user posted a picture of his 3D printed Space Marine army for the tabletop miniature game Warhammer 40,000. The work-in-progress army isn't perfect, but it's close enough to the real thing that I would imagine Games Workshop – the games manufacturer – might start to get a little worried.

The growing popularity of 3D printing figures and armies for Warhammer games, to me, says more about the rapidly increasing prices of Games Workshop products than the current accessibility of 3D printers. Armies can regularly cost several hundred dollars, and, depending on the army being created, it can get uncomfortably close to $1,000. USD The Redditer that printed this army said these models would have cost in excess of $300 USD, and the army isn't even complete yet…

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3D printing will certainly have ramifications throughout the hobby.

The issue will not be that users will copy existing figures, which will happen in the near term, but that there will be a steady evolution towards figure designers selling their designs directly to the user who will then manufacture their own figures.

I think that raylev3 is right about that.

The copying thing will really hurt companies like Hawk Wargames that have expensive product but not a lot of resources. They don't have the market penetration that will allow them to lose many of the few fans they have.

I would imagine, when the technology gets there, these boutique games we had a poll about a few weeks ago will simply cease to exist as figure producers and the new ones will just produce files to be printed.

Taking a close look at some of those figures I don't think GW has anything to worry about from that kid. They look like regular GW figures that have been microwaved.

How much did he pay for the printer that let him save $300 USD?

I'm thinking when 3D printers can print in color…. which which is not unreasonable…..and can't be far off…my interest will increase. Then all I have to do is have them printed and flock them!

If painting keeps me sane….as I suspect it does I'll be in a world of hurt!

Best Buy sells 3d printers, $1,300 USD-$600

Taking a close look at some of those figures I don't think GW has anything to worry about from that kid. They look like regular GW figures that have been microwaved.

Give it ten years. Tops.

Some of the new 3D printers will print in full color and not just the "layered" color that's been around for awhile. My university computer lab was just talking to a rep who had one for around $65,000 USD and it is quite impressive, but the price means that it would need to be purchased for a company, not an individual gamer.

We have some gamers on staff and they have been able to create some incredible models, parts for 1/48th armor kits, variations on Star Trek ships, and more. I know of one company who is going to use their 3D printers to create molds for figures and vehicles as you can create large quantities of molds, then use other materials to mass produce the gaming items.

A comment posted to the linked article is very illuminating, so I will quote it verbatim here:

Gothmog • 8 hours ago
In their 2013-2014 annual statement GW CEO Tom Kirby says the following on 3D printing

"Because no one seems able to grasp the essential simplicity of what we do there has always been the search for the Achilles heel, the one thing that Kirby and his cronies have overlooked. These are legion. I run through the list from time to time when someone says that computer games will be the death of us – they are so much more realistic now! – again. This year it is 3-D printing. Pretty soon everyone will be printing their own miniatures and where will we be then, eh?

We know quite a lot about 3-D printers, having been at the forefront of the technology for many years. We know of what we speak. One day 3-D printers will be affordable (agreed), they are now, they will be able to produce fantastic detail (the affordable ones won't) and they will do it faster than one miniature per day (no, they won't, look it up). So we may get to the time when someone can make a poorly detailed miniature at home and have enough for an army in less than a year. That pre-supposes that 3-D scanning technology will be affordable and good enough (don't bet the mortgage on that one) and that everyone will be happy to have nothing but copies of old miniatures.

All of our great new miniatures come from Citadel. It is possible that one day we will sell them direct via 3-D printers to grateful hobbyists around the world. That will not happen in the next few years (or, in City-speak, 'forever') but if and when it does it will just mean that we can cut yet more cost out of the supply chain and be making good margins selling Citadel 3-D printers.

At the heart of the delusion is the notion that designing and making miniatures is easy. It isn't."

Just the cost of the printing resin was probably close to any savings they thought they were getting. Not to mention the time it took to print everything.

Just like current computer paper printers, 3d printers are not going to be cost effective the way some think. A consumer grade computer printer costs next to nothing now, but the cost of paper and ink makes it so they're really only good for printing small amounts for convenience. 3d printers are going to be the same. You might have one and do bits and bobs here and there, but you aren't going to print armies because of the cost of resin.

The real issue isn't what this guy did today, it's where the technology will be in 10 years…and, like other tech stuff, the costs will come down.

His is the prototype. It's only a matter of time, not much time at that, before the repro equals the original. The price of the hardware and materials will only drop. (Unless someone corners the market on resin?)

End of the day, I agree with raylev3 – files to make your own. That's when we'll see a GW Hobby 3D Printer (TM) and official Hobby Resin (TM) Only for use with official GW 3D Printing Files. TM)

At the heart of the delusion is the notion that designing and making miniatures is easy. It isn't."

Anyone who wants things the easy way isn't bothering with miniature wargaming. They are busy playing board games. I do both, and I love to make things myself, it's most of the fun! We are the perfect market for this.

and, like other tech stuff, the costs will come down.

Costs come down fastest in electronics, where there are few to no moving parts. Anything involving moving parts can't be cheapened the same way.

Printers, for example, are cheaper than they were 10 years ago. But not in the way phones have come down.

I've lived my life being told that solar would be cheap any day now. And, while it is cheaper, there are mechanical issues that prevented it dropping as the boosters said it would.

People have had cheap 2d printers available for what, 30 years or so? Are people printing their own books at home? No, or at least not in mass quantities. People are printing a self-written letter that will be printed only once.

3d printing at home will be a viable alternative for a unique model that would sell only in limited quantities. Those models might be sold digitally, you might want to alter the model a bit, and then print it yourself.

But mass-production will always be cheaper when done by a company that has the machines to mass-produce. If 1000 gamers want 100 Napoleonic infantry figures each, I just don't see how each of them can do it cheaper than one company producing 100K figures.

I also do not think that every household will start buying their own 3d printer anytime soon (next decade). In a first phase, shops will pop up (cfr. copy and printshops) that have the necessary machinery, and where you will go to to print one file that you bought online (at home or right there in the shop). Cfr FabLabs. Whether the technology will shift to the private households will largely depend on the underlying cost model of the consumables (resin, plastic, …).

This doesn't prevent the enthusiastic hobbyist experimenting with this new technology. But then, there are also hobbyists that build their own car. Most people go to a car-dealer.

That pre-supposes that 3-D scanning technology will be affordable and good enough (don't bet the mortgage on that one) and that everyone will be happy to have nothing but copies of old miniatures.

There is a whole sector of Further and Higher education turning out 3d modellers. You don't need to scan a physical model, just get someone to draw it in the computer direct. As much detail as you like, plus similar models are easy – add a backpack, change the hat, you don't have to resculpt every pose, you just manipulate the rig. (Guess what my kids are doing…)

There is a whole sector of Further and Higher education turning out 3d modellers.

Absolutely correct, and with pretty much zero reproduction cost, selling the models is a good revenue proposition. Especially if you did the modeling on your own time as a hobby activity.

That pre-supposes that 3-D scanning technology will be affordable and good enough (don't bet the mortgage on that one)

Actually, that is fairly easy to do now and will drop in price faster than 3D printers due to the lack of moving parts (as such), wear and tear and source materials.

HP are doing £d printers that can do colours: link

One of the Derby Wargamers has access to a printer that could do something close to these. He has been using to do his own spaceship & vehicles.

In the discuss on Reddit there is reference to the LittleRP printer [ littlerp.com

From the pictures on Kickstarter is looks good enough to do decent miniatures:
[ ]link

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