"% Digital?" Topic

Of your recent minis purchases, what percent were digital files (i.e., minis to 3Dprint from STL files)?

100%
90%
etc.

0

0

0

0.

0

I pay other people to print stuff for me. Much less hassle than doing it myself.

0

0

Another zero here. Bought a few prints of 6mm terrain items which I'm generally happy with but the few 6mm figures I sampled were useless. a small sample of 10mm elephants are lovely but their legs are 50% too long, obviously intended as fantasy beasts rather than historical.

Don't and won't own a printer myself. Not enough space nor enough likely demand from me that I can't supply easily from existing sources.

0

STLs? The only STLs that I have bought are for terrain, not for minis.

At a convention I did purchase printed minis, as well as traditional molded minis

0%

Taking "recent" as meaning this year, a few percent. A rather larger percentage are 3Dprinted but not bought by me as digital files. About 80% are cast metal or plastic.

I expect 3D prints to make up an increasing fraction in coming years.

0

3%

Probably about 1%. Vehicles mostly and some buildings.

0%

But I have purchased 3d minis, vehicles and terrain….

Dave

0

100%

20%

0%

<5%

50%

<5%.

In the past year I would guess at least 80-90% STL files vs Metal/Plastic purchases. I use the word purchases loosely as I can still find several stl files for free for different periods.

Looking at the responses I'm still in the minority having my own resin printers for the last 2-3 years, the STL files are getting better, software keeps getting better, the printers are getting better, and the resins are way better than when I started.

Maybe like moving from lead to tin-alloy things will change… yes at 56 I remember people fighting about this many many years ago.

@ 6% of the models I purchased at Colours

0.

0

5% – namely 3 Vorlon fighters.

The big zero and will likely remain so.

0

95% digital. Full disclosure I run a 3D printing store at wargamerprinting.com. The variety of stuff you would never see in plastic or metal is amazing. I am an old grognard but 3D printing is a boon for us. The last 6 games I ran were either 50% or more made up of 3D printed stuff. My last two were a Star Trek Original series ship game in 1/1600 and a 1/2500 Battle for Deep Space 9 ship game. I even have printed up figs to do ground combat in the older or newer Trek series. It's pretty awesome to print it today, prime it tommorrow and paint it the following day. I decdied I wanted a Dark Elf 10mm army for Fantastic Battles or Warmaster. My buddies selected their armies. I printed mine up in a day. Next month I may decide I want 10mm Dark Ages, 28mm LOTR, 15mm Vietnam or 15mm Biblical. I printed up 2 War of the Roses armies in 28mm because I always wanted them but couldn't afford them in metal and didn't want to go through the hassle of assembling 100's of figs. So, I printed up over 400 of them in a few days. Cost was minimal. Life is good!

Thanks.

John

Ditto to John Leahy above. I print all my own as well and run a print company too.

100%

90%

I don't run any digital company but am fully embracing digital production along with traditional methods. 90% or so of my last 50+ model purchases over the past 12 months have been digital files (STL Files). My recent physical model purchases have all been of subject matter that will fit in with my digital purchases.

My other hobby purchases over the past 12 months have been rule books, 3D printing devices / supplies, paint supplies, and terrain accessories such as tufts and static grass.

I have not purchased any printed 3D models as of yet since I do my own printing.

0

5-10%

A round number 0

X42

100% Stl files bought online over past three years and printed home

100%

Nine!

In German, of course.

100% some paid for some my own design. Terrain items are all own design, some card some 3D printed.

Why would I want metal, inferior for minis in soooo many ways.

100% digital.

That goes for miniatures, terrain pieces and rulebooks/supplements.

Decide against buying 'Midgard Heroic Battles' as there's no PDF only purchase option, which is a shame since Peter Dennis has just released a 2D full colour printout Viking skirmish pack; 220 counters (28mm) for £6.00 GBP

"Why would I want metal, inferior for minis in soooo many ways."

That's a rather *poorly researched and though out* statement.

For starters metal has been used to make miniatures for thousands of years.

Plastic/resin perhaps 100? If that.

Plastics only real advantage is price.

Resin seems to have the most disadvantages overall. Fragility, waste, toxicity, cost, so on. I'm sure there's the perfect resin out there somewhere, but I'm yet to see it.

Metal is easy to manufacture, reusable, can have undercuts, is fast to cast, holds great detail, very paintable with typically no anoying residue. Maybe weight is it's only flaw, when posting large quantities. One could say price, but you get what you pay for.

Platic (FDM) – High Resolution, no areas lost for detail due to fill requirements, ability for high precision, allows turret locking. Vastly more robust, will not break if dropped. From personal experience vastly longer times before paint chipping off, lower cost, recycalable material (corn starch). More complex desighns as typical 2 part moulds have massive limitations on model configuration. No need to assemble parts, single piece items unless seprate part desired avoiding the metal issue of frequent unintended dissasembly common with wheeled vehicles.

FRar more access to less prolific vehicles as they do not have high up front fixed production costs (moulds) so low cost for low production runs.

Like bronze as a cutting tool, metal figures are just no longer optimum by a long margin.

"Like bronze as a cutting tool,"

That tired old response is it?

Oddly bronze tools are worth more than iron tools. Guess that because they are rubbish??

"they do not have high up front fixed production costs (moulds)"

I guess it depends on how many different figures your going to make.

I'm sure there are reusable mould materials, you can even reuse silicon to an extent. A decent 3d printer and a computer to run it must be about 5,000+au these days.

That's a lot of moulds.

Even 10% would be moulds for many types of figures.

And casting, especially metal, would be much quicker.

Problems with paint are usually due to preparation, paint, varnish and handling/storage.

Same with plastic and resin, only metal has less issues with release agents.

Remember, these aren't toys, thay are sold for older children and adults. If you treat your collectables with care they will last.

Minor quibble with the above comment. I run a $200 USD USD Bambu mini FDM printer off off of a 10 year old PC. A roll of filament is $10 USD USD to $30 USD USD. Total investment value there is about $300 USDish. Granted it's slow and time has value. MSLA does cost a bit more than this typically. A decent home setup with the necessary variety of accessories and materials can be had for under $500. USD

So still around 10%, as I mentioned above.

And 500 us, is a lot of silicon.

Even in craft store quantities and prices, a single 28mm figure is not much. But from a casting store can be from just a few dollars a figure.

You can also cast as many moulds as you have, depending on set up. Gravity metal/resin, for example. Possibly 100s in an hour, while 3d printers are still looking at their printer like a kid looking at the bag of popcorn in the microwave, waiting. And you could be demoulding within an hour. Pop.., pop…

And casting is fun too!

Oddly bronze tools are worth more than iron tools. Guess that because they are rubbish??

I will agree that as antiques bronze tools may have value. I look forward to you showing me AMAZON adverts for modern Bronze Hacksaws. .

H Man my son would love to sell thousands of engineering vehicles but the don't sell. If you have the volumes injection molded plastic is the way to go not metal casting, even the hated W*** S*** used plastic. If you are looking at more than 5000 off. However new production 3D printers are pushing that break even point closer to 10,000 off nowadays.

You see very little metal casing in the premium 1/35 scale market, it's too awful.

I will admit there are some exquisite Resin prints in some new 1/35 scale kits. These are impossible in metal or even FDM but are far to fragile to be practical wargame items far too thin and unsupported.

Me FDM prints win hands down about £ 0.20 in material for a 1/144 scale vehicle which in metal can run from £5.00 GBP to a daft £10.00 GBP.

Release agent bit is not valid for FDM prints, we do no surface preparation. Use Tamiya paint over black primer but we have done it direct. We prefer black primer as if you miss a bit I does not show up so no wasting time if you miss bits. We could use black Filament but sometimes it's hard to see it when removing supports. Hey you want the maximum time saving the over metal. Even black filament would be better than trying to remove molding flash and filing metal parts to fit but hey take the win and spray. I can't say FDM pain chips for longer than 10 years as I am not sure I have stuff older than 10 years to see it chip or flake.
I can tell you metal under the same usage is dreadful after 2 years so I can only confirm positively that FDM is 5 times better than metal but the figure is rising every year.

I would not want boiling metal in my house, an FDM printer is fine no hazards to the carpet so SWMBO is happy.

"I would not want boiling metal in my house."

I wouldn't want boiling metal anywhere.

Chipping is a result of painting, handling and storage practices.

I have no chipped metal, to my knowledge.

If the models aren't coming into contact with each other or other hard surfaces, no problem.