Interesting

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23795303

Have to say that I haven't been OVER impressed with the stuff that much more costly scanners and cutters have produced....Though they're certainly getting a lot better.
Works to a certain extent on straight line stuff at 20mm 'scales' and above....But there's a tendency for a 'corrugated' effect to be produced, especially on flat surfaces, unless the 'cutter' is incredibly fine. (At least on untouched masters that I've seen so far.)
This means a 'master' has to be cleaned up by hand, by filling in the pits with a super fine putty and then painstakingly 'glass-papering' it down.
But it is an interesting technology.
Cheers - Phil

Quote from: Techno on 23 August 2013, 07:43:44 AM
Have to say that I haven't been OVER impressed with the stuff that much more costly scanners and cutters have produced....Though they're certainly getting a lot better.
Works to a certain extent on straight line stuff at 20mm 'scales' and above....But there's a tendency for a 'corrugated' effect to be produced, especially on flat surfaces, unless the 'cutter' is incredibly fine. (At least on untouched masters that I've seen so far.)
This means a 'master' has to be cleaned up by hand, by filling in the pits with a super fine putty and then painstakingly 'glass-papering' it down.
But it is an interesting technology.
Cheers - Phil

Well if this is the first of a cheaper range coming out then hopefully in a few years they will be a lot better, same as 3d printers...The original OCR's were pretty awful but there a lot better now

I've seen various ships (in about 1:2000th scale I think) done on a 3D printer and they were very well done. Whether the device will ever attain the twin goals of detail and reasonable price remains to be seen.

Well if you think back 30 years to the releative costs of phones and Pc's for example and what they cost now, hopefully we will see a radical reduction in price

I'm sure at some stage they could reduce.....But I'm wondering if there'll be enough call for them; for the price to drop to that extent ?
Maybe.
Cheers - Phil.

Wasnt it the head of IBM that said he could never see the need for more than 5 computers in the worlld

3D is the future in miniatures. BUT currently it takes so much time to transfer a digital scult into a moldable master you save no time over traditional sculpting.
Scanners and Printers for home use are still not good enough to get good quality minis. A decent printer would still cosst about 50 grand and 15mm would be about the smallest it can do.

But alas, there will be minis homeprinted some day.

PLUS : Decent 3D sculptors are rare.
So far, I haven't been impressed by any 3D work (except vehicles and robot).

Quote from: barbarian on 23 August 2013, 05:35:19 PM
PLUS : Decent 3D sculptors are rare.
So far, I haven't been impressed by any 3D work (except vehicles and robot).

Definitely agree with 'B' on those points. 
Cheers - Phil.

The main factor, as Phil mentions above, is the demand for them.  Printers/scanners/digital cameras/etc/etc have all come down to a good price level because every household needs them, it creates competition, and the product can be mass produced.  With 3D scanners and printers, there isn't going to be anywhere near the same level of demand, and the majority are going to be bought for businesses and educational use.  This will keep the prices artificially high for a long time to come.

Also, like barbarian, I've not seen many convincing digital human sculpts.  The proportions never seem quite right, and the physical prints tend to look like the plastic railway figurines.  I think you need that human eye input to get a truly great figure, so for now, 3D sculpting for figures would be a step backward.

Vehicles though have a lot more potential, and the ability to use the same design in any scale with the click of a button is a huge plus.

Scalewise would you agree that it is partly due to 32mm being called 28mm (heroic) and proportions are messed there?

I won't bore you with all the details, but the harsh reality is that 3D printing/scanning etc at home is not a realistic prospect for at least a decade or so, more likely an awful lot longer. 15 years ago the RP industry was promising us the ability to print food at home in a few years. It never happened. As I've been in the design and prototyping industry for over 25 years, we hear this stuff every few years as it makes good column inches for the press and pushes up the share price of the company involved. We just laugh when we read it.

With Z brush, a very good sculpting package, you can get some amazing stuff created, but as with all things, it depends upon the skill of the sculptor. Again, using a very good high definition printer, such as is used by the jewellery industry, you would be amazed at the level of detail achieved. However the print price is prohibitively expensive for most figure companies such as Pendraken.

As others have said, for vehicles etc RP is a very viable option as the detail that can be currently achieved is more than adequate for our gaming needs. Look at AngelBarracks 6mm vehicles, just perfect (I've seen them in the flesh). Again however the unit price can be too expensive for one off items due to the high overheads/minimum unit price that comes with these systems.

Sounds a bit like making artificial diamonds - the manufacturing process is more expensive than digging them out of the ground and cutting them.

Quote from: Hertsblue on 24 August 2013, 09:21:16 AM
the manufacturing process is more expensive than digging them out of the ground and cutting them.

But with less child slave labour and armed gangs ****** and killing the local populace