"3D-Print-Terrain- French Indian War and AWI Terrain" Topic

3D-Print-Terrain launched a new Kickstarter campaign for French Indian War to American War of Independence terrain

Main page
link

Amicalement
Armand

Not good at all…? (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

I sent the KS link here to a friend who has a couple of 3D printers which he uses to make hobby items.

We are closing in on SG #5, so making good progress. Reaching Fort Henry will be a true stretch though, as that will require 2K more, and at £40.00 GBP per pledge, it takes quite a few of those to bring in another 2K. But we shall see.

They looks really good!

Amicalement
Armand

What scale is this for?

WarWizard, you select the scale when you 3D print the model. Details on the KS page.

Also 3D printing isn't necessarily cheaper than buying off-the-shelf models.

@thehawk … well, not sure how you are working out your math, but printed terrain is a heck of a lot cheaper for me.

Cost of printing my own 28mm sized house? Just under $5 USD with the roof and floors. That is the filament, but not the printer.

Price of printing out a dozen dungeon tiles, to make up one room? Again, under $5 USD for the filament.

If I assume that my $300 USD printer will last long enough to print 300 such objects worth of stuff, then the cost per house (or room) will go up by $1 USD if I want to include the cost of the printer. Of course, ift he printer lasts even longer, then the cost per building or room will drop.

I don't think you can purchase a house of that size for less than double that. And probably closer to four times that.

Example #1:
Warlord Games offers up this African/Arabic home:
link

This is a plastic house, selling for $25. USD

Or this one, slightly larger with a dome, for $32 USD:
link

These are both plastic kits of buildings sized for 28mm gaming.

Compare them both to this set of African/Arabic homes:

You could print one of each of the three buildings shown, and you would still average about $5 USD each. Or $6 USD each if you tack on $1 USD per building for the shared cost of the printer.

For the price of the one domed structure, I could have 5 buildings, a well, and some walls to go around the village.

And even if half the stuff I print fails right at the tail end, thus wasting filament (and for the sake of argument lets say the structure is totally lost and cannot be salvaged even as a ruin), then that would double my cost to about $12 USD per building. Still under half what Warlord charges for one plastic building.

Will the printed terrain look "as" sharp as the factory injection-molded stuff? No. But it will come close, and once painted up, it will look lovely on the table.

Just my own experience speaking.

That $5 USD-6 dollar cost of course works out only if you have a 3d printer. I'd like to know what the cost would be if I had these printed by a service like Shapeways.

There is little (if any) cost savings, if having a printing service take care of the printing for you. At this stage of 3D printing evolution, you really only save money if you do it yourself.

Browsing shapeways 28mm buildings seem to run $20 USD-50, which is comparable to 4ground buildings.