A 3D Future ?

[fateeore]

Am I getting the wrong end of the stick here....(probably  )

£18 for a single '6mm scale' tank ?.....I thought those 'ran out'....at something between 50p and £1-50.
Or are we talking about a 'master' that a different firm can use to produce multiples and sell themselves ?
(£18 wouldn't be a bad price at that scale if so.....Like I said above, I've seen some other vehicles produced by high quality printers.....Very high price...But those were being produced as 'masters' for a secondary firm to put into production themselves.)

Can't see many (any?) folk being prepared to fork out that sort of money otherwise !.....

Cheers - Phil

It was for a single tank. There were cheaper ones @£5 or £6.

I doubt they were for use as masters as the site was print on demand, using the same model as T shirt companies; you get the design you want, and then get paid a royalty on sales of that design.

[Techno]

It was for a single tank.

Blimey !! 
Cheers - Phll

[J.S.]

Anyone recognises this figure here?  



Tried to scan a 10mm fig at work (I still occasionally help out at the dental laboratory of my parents)...normally this programe is used to sculpt teeth, but this worked perfectly fine. Just a little bit expensive to cut out a single 10mm fig of a zirconium bloc  

Nevertheless, I can clearly see the potential of 3D techniques in the miniature hobby.

[petercooman]

For me it's a big nono.

I have been looking at various shapeways models recently and they are bloody expensive. Quality seems to be inconsistent too.
And even if the price was right and the quality grade A, it stilll ain't metal! I just like my metal.

I'm probably too conservative for these kind of things but i like it that way.

Also:

[Techno]

I liked the item that was on the news recently that was going on about 3D printing in chocolate.
Just think....If you take out an opponents figure in a game...You get to eat it.
Instead of using paint, you could use food dyes to keep the models edible.

Only problem I can see is that you'd have to do all the gaming in a cold room so the figures didn't melt.
Cheers - Mr Silly.

[fsn]

Perhaps a shell like Smarties?

[Fenton]

You could always eat the enemy soldiers you have killed which would add something to the game, though if my opponent had all of his made of coffee cremes' I wouldnt try and win

[fateeore]

You could always eat the enemy soldiers you have killed which would add something to the game, though if my opponent had all of his made of coffee cremes' I wouldnt try and win

You could always smoke them 

[Fenton]

Not Cafe Creme's ..Coffee Creme's

[Orcs]

You really think the capitalist system will allow this?  I suspect it will remain niche, and if it ever looks like it might become commonly available it'll go the way of electric cars, and other superior technological developments - bought up and buried by the multinationals who will lose out to it.

I think your right there Luddite, As soon as the resolution and price gets to a point where its viable that technology will be burried alongside other technology we know about - Unladerable tights/ Stockings , everlasting lightbulbs etc.

I wish to point out before any of you lot make comments - I have no interest in Stockings or tights, other than looking at (or possibly removing) tham from a female form.  And actually laddered ones can be quite alluring 

[get2grips]

As to pre-painted; I'd still paint em.

Wouldn't buy pre-painted as that's a HUGE part of the hobby for me

[FierceKitty]

What's the potential for scanning a larger figure and reducing it to the one true scale? It could then be used as a master for making a mould, and you'd have metal figures again.

[Techno]

Basically cost FK.

Costs much more to sculpt a larger figure....Then you've got the added outlay of scanning an cutting your new master. (That won't be cheap at all !).
If you're thinking of scanning an existing figure from another manufacturer.......Copyright....Or payment to them to get round that.
All adds up I'm afraid....And not by little amounts.
It all just adds extra 'stages' in the process, that someone's going to want paying for...in time.....or money.
Can't see it being viable for a long time yet.

Cheers - Phil.

[petercooman]

It would save your poor old eyes though Phil 

[Techno]

Strike two !!
Cheers - Phil.

[fateeore]

This is an interesting video on to the topic.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUndy0j8GX0

It relates to a thread on dakka http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/548621.page about the antics of an alleged serial con artist.

There are a number of things of interest, notably the price. The official Forgeworld model is @£500, to have the 'fan made' model printed would apparently be 3 or 4 times that amount (or taking a month and a half to print the components at home - which is difficult to believe, given that the wording of the offer was that people would have to hurry as the plans may have to be returned at any moment), and yet the hook of the scam was offering the printed model for @£250. Which in a way speaks volumes about people's false expectations of the current state of 3d printing.

[Leon]

If you could get a 3D scanner big enough, you could just wheel a Panzer IV into a warehouse, run the scanner over it, and then you could print it in any scale you wanted!  So all we need is a massive scanner, a working Pz IV in Middlesbrough, someone who knows how to use the various gizmo's... (and a man with a goat?!)

[fateeore]

If you could get a 3D scanner big enough, you could just wheel a Panzer IV into a warehouse, run the scanner over it, and then you could print it in any scale you wanted!  So all we need is a massive scanner, a working Pz IV in Middlesbrough, someone who knows how to use the various gizmo's... (and a man with a goat?!)

Or... or... or.... you could get a 10mm PzIV (which I believe are available in Middlesbrough) scan that - probably using an App -, and then get someone with knowledge of the gizmos to print the full size version... perhaps in chocolate.

Though after sincere and semi-serious reflection I think your method may be more practical.

[Techno]

But if you made it out of chocolate, wouldn't there be the danger of the goat eating it ? 
Cheers - Phil.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Theobromine is dangerous for goats, especially when your talking 40+ tonnes needed for a panzer iv.

More if it was a solid cast!