"War Times Journal (Naval Miniatures Prints/Files)" Topic

Three weeks ago I tried to buy some files (OL. three of them) to print some of their (wtj) really excellent selection of pre dreadnoughts.

Crickets. No answer to my follow up email enquiries.

Has anyone heard from them/Bought anything recently?

I have had several orders with them in the last 5 months. No problems at all. Good company and quality products.

In the last three weeks? If it is a one man operation, any health crisis will stop operations in their tracks.

Hi Karl,

Sorry about that, your first email had no content and so I thought they were spam. My error.

I just re-sent the download keys in case the first email (which has the download links) ended up blocked or in a spam folder. Feel free to let me know if you get them or have any questions.

Jim

Awesome

I purchased the fleets to do russo japanese war for the 100th anniversary.The pewter models were excellent and so was the service.I really like the free rules as well.

I was just looking at their page, and it appears the clear plastic line has been discontinued because of problems with their printing vendor, that line has been discontinued, with only the grey plastic prints and downloadable files still available. 1/2400 does not appear to be a choice they are offering in grey, unfortunately.

As the files are digital can't you scale them the size you want or it it that the ships you wanted that were in clear and not offered in the downloadable files?

I don't know about the downloadable files, as I'm not interested in3d printing.

@Nine Pound Round

As I print for people I was curious and I was correct one can buy the files to print however the prices are very expensive. Best of luck.

What was it that appeared to be very expensive?

Have you given any thought to offering the grey plastic models in 1/2400?

My predreadnought collection is not nearly complete, and it pains me to think I may never paint the "Victorias," the "Niles," or the "Admirals….."

Your clear plastic 3D print quality met or exceeded the best on the market, and anything else is a come-down…

@wtjcom

I was a while back when I looed at your site but it seemed the prices of your .stl files seemed high. I was only looking to educate myself for this conversation. I was not trying to criticize in anyway.

@Nine pound round

Sorry about that, there were numerous factors that influenced the decision and it was not made lightly. The DLP models at WTJ will need to keep running at the current scales for now, but we do plan to post the names of 3D printing operations who are known to be able to build the WTJ models.

Regarding 1/2400 ships, you can see a sample pic of a home printed 1/2400 USS Georgia on the 3D Printing Tips page (linked in the Digital Downloads header in the WTJ Store). The subject model was not thoroughly cleaned or trimmed, yet still seems quite fit for masting and painting. Included with the pic is information about the machine it was built on and the resin that was used. This level of detail should be attainable by any of the home machines in that class.

link

I use the term "home machine" loosely, because there are already many good-sized shops running banks of these machines full time and buying more as production ramps up. I think we will see more of this in the future, especially as increasingly capable machines are released. Compared to 10 years
ago, the progress really is spectacular.

@greenknight4

No worries, just curious. I could probably make it more obvious that each
private-use file purchase is good for five builds, which I think is the
standard. I will be expanding the FAQ page to account for some of the other
questions that have been coming in.

@wtjcom

I currently am running 5 machines close to 24 hours a day. I do some for those that supply their own files but I am a reseller for three lines and advertise here (I will not mention my company name or the ones I sell as this is not intended to be an advertisement).

I find that with other lines that I can buy and print (for myself) an unlimited number of times on any given file I have purchased.

Chris

I'm intrigued by 3D printers but if I have to pay for the design file I wonder if I'd print enough to make it cost effective.

If you are doing armies then no problem. I am working on a new 28mm Norman army. For a DBA type I need 5KN, 1Cv, 2SP, 2MA and a bow or two. The files might set me back $20 USD and then I can print as many as I want. Also lets say you decide you'd like to try your hand at a larger scale say 40mm or 54mmor for skirmish gaming. You just increase the size of the print file and you can use the same file.

@Murvihill

That's a good question. I have been selling ships for over 10 years where design cost and build cost were already being charged for (IE – the design work was not being done for free). And that was using a fairly expensive resin. I would not expect a great change in cost effectiveness.