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I was just thinking that GW would have to develop their own software for reading and slicing the meshes such as what poser and daz studio do, however the printers still only read stl or gcode files. so whatever the software, it would still have to output into one of those formats for the printer to read. Which could then be shared.

kaotkbliss wrote:
I was just thinking that GW would have to develop their own software for reading and slicing the meshes such as what poser and daz studio do, however the printers still only read stl or gcode files. so whatever the software, it would still have to output into one of those formats for the printer to read. Which could then be shared.

It would effectively be impossible outside of them making a non standard code for a special "citadel STC" Machine printer with skulls and stuff all over it. and it doesn't stop people with 3d scanners from ripping em ether (its already to the point that it is a phone app).

the only thing GW and any miniature company can do is to bug the government to get special IP and copyright protections.

Yeah, hence the "was"
Everything was working throughout the process until it came to the get the files on the printer part.

The only option I could see is if their theoretical software didn't output any files at all and did a send straight to printer either via wifi or usb.

Of course, like anything else, people will find ways around it to pirate. Nothing is 100%

I envision some kind of custom Guard Regiment / Space Marine Chapter designer on the GW website, where you could pick from a massive range of presets like weapons and shoulder pads and limbs etc, and have GW custom print them for you at a premium price.

Look at POP Goes the MONKEY on Shapeways, they were selling enough in the way of 3D printed bits and such that it got GW's attention and they make them remove anything GW could even remotely claim IP on.

I just 3D printed a land raider. (I'll post pics as soon as I take some) That was a serious monster!. Took almost an entire spool of plastic and an entire week of printing.
It came out alright and since I don't have any other land raiders I'll go ahead and use it if groups allow. But I know I will replace it with an actual model as soon as I get a chance.

Too much time, too many resources that I could have spent printing scenery instead, and too many variables that had me reprinting parts and parts not getting a real smooth look.

 ziggurattt wrote:
Envision a time in the near future when we can 3D print fully assembled and painted models, even something large like a thunderhawk. Also, envision an easy modelling/painting program (along the lines of HeroForge (https://www.heroforge.com/)).

How could Games Workshop survive or thrive when technology reaches that level of ease?

Would they continue to mold plastic, or would they sell access to the modelling program and license players to own 1 to n of each squad?

As an example, would they charge $25 for a Cadian Shock Troops squad, that lets you design and print up to 5 squads (50 models)?

I know that 3D printing has been "the death of Games Workshop" for like 15 years now. I'd like to hear some of your thoughts regarding a future state where 3D printing really is easy, fast, and cheap, with the same quality we get from Games Workshop today.

Huh, must be that time of the month again for the ol "what if we could print models" thread.

Unless GW starts issuing licences for their stuff to be printed it'd still be IP protected and thus a legal liability to get into that mess. Especially since GW has moved further and further towards protecting their IP from being as easily referenced due to common words being used.

That said people selling printing plans for "not GW" models (like they do other stuff already) would be a thing but it'd always be a market chasing whatever GW has released this month.

Injection molding will always allow a lot more detail, GW's simplest solution might be to just throw more tiny skulls on everything and effectively make models "unprintable".

 greyknight12 wrote:
Injection molding will always allow a lot more detail, GW's simplest solution might be to just throw more tiny skulls on everything and effectively make models "unprintable".

Or *gasp* make their prices cheaper where it wouldn't be worth to print the copies.

 greyknight12 wrote:
Injection molding will always allow a lot more detail, GW's simplest solution might be to just throw more tiny skulls on everything and effectively make models "unprintable".

That isn't true - DLP can achieve a higher level of detail than injection moulding and is not constrained by the requirement to have the mould release from the part meaning that level of detail can be maintained all over the model without breaking it into many parts.

The problem isn't detail - it's speed, cost of both the machines and the resin, post print cleanup process, maintaining the machine, etc.

Machinery is not like electronics - it doesn't just keep getting cheaper. CNC mills and lasers have been around for years and have basically been flat in price for some time now. The controllers have gotten very cheap (because electronics) but the mechanical parts aren't going to get any cheaper.

The people wishing for 3D printers think that it's going to be incredibly easy. How many of them are laser cutting scenery or even casting their own resin parts? Mostly zero, too much work. It isn't going to be that easy for a long time, if ever.

DLP?

Scott's mostly right.
3D printers while handy for a one of or terrain piece are a hassle to work with and people will pay for convenience.

And the speed factor isn't a minor thing. It's in the thousands.

Digital Light Projector - the ones that use light to selectively cure liquid resin. Barring a new material becoming available filament printers are never going to be good enough.

Until you can buy the machine for less than the cost of an army, unpack it, press a button on your phone and have perfect miniatures start falling out of the front of the machine then it just isn't what most of the people that keep making these threads want.

Yuup, and too time consuming van make stuff actually impossible, it's a hobby not a job. So you might just not have the time.

A friend 3D printed some heroforge minis for 3 of us on an older model. I took him 2 days of work. I don't blame anyone not having that kind of time.

 Desubot wrote:

the only thing GW and any miniature company can do is to bug the government to get special IP and copyright protections.

A legal requirement to have firmware DRM in all machines on sale is the only thing that would provide any protection and it would only stop those people not wanting to void their machine's warranty.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Earth127 wrote:
Yuup, and too time consuming van make stuff actually impossible, it's a hobby not a job. So you might just not have the time.

A friend 3D printed some heroforge minis for 3 of us on an older model. I took him 2 days of work. I don't blame anyone not having that kind of time.

I used to have a laser cutter and ended up getting rid of it. Actually making parts was fast and easy, they come out of the machine perfect (the laser even flame polishes the edge as it cuts) The space it took up, the hassle of maintaining it, the dust, the smell, keeping algae from growing in the water cooling, etc. was the problem. If I'd had an outdoor workshop like I do now then I might have kept it but it just wasn't practical and that's true for a lot of people.

Here's the Land Raider I promised.

kaotkbliss wrote:
I just 3D printed a land raider. (I'll post pics as soon as I take some) That was a serious monster!. Took almost an entire spool of plastic and an entire week of printing.
It came out alright and since I don't have any other land raiders I'll go ahead and use it if groups allow. But I know I will replace it with an actual model as soon as I get a chance.

Too much time, too many resources that I could have spent printing scenery instead, and too many variables that had me reprinting parts and parts not getting a real smooth look.

It feels like we're in the equivalent days of computer dot matrix printers when it comes to 3D printing. You can get some great results, but you need a professional level printer - and at that cost, it's probably easier to let someone else do the printing.

Maybe 20-30 years from now, there will have been a revolution in 3D printing so you can get professional, out-of-the-box results for the equivalent of $200-$300. Even then, people will probably still look to companies that can print en masse to get things cheaper. I'm pretty sure this will mean GW will be safe designing and printing models for us, but they will probably evolve to offer a "print your own" service for some of the more esoteric lines (like say, various IG regiments). And there will be some form of DRM involved - the 3D print equivalent of the digital rulebooks we see these days.

Here's a thought for you all - there are people who have a job and that job is putting together flatpack stuff.

You know the items around the house that have a clear instruction booklet, which come with all the parts and often only need a single crosshead screwdriver to put together (and some of them even have that inside the box).


And yet lots of people still can't put a flatpack together to save their lives.

Now granted miniatures are a little different as we are expected to put them together ourselves (And even then some struggle); printing our own would have to reach a point where the 3D printers are nearly 100% foolproof in production for a company like GW to let us do manufacture at home of their products. Consider the huge issues with Finecast (produced out of house); now consider quality control managed by people who can't put a flatpack together.

There's a huge risk that the really serious home-printer people would be the only ones that would tweak things to get the quality; the average consumer would utterly fail or run a chance of getting lots of errors in production. Heck they might not even maintain their machines well enough so that by the end of printing half an army the quality has dropped off.



The Replicator from Startrek works great because the user puts 0 effort into creation and puts 100% confidence in the machine and the computer to do all the work and troubleshoot and keep itself working.
The reality of the home 3D printer is that we might be more than decades off that level of self automated production; especially for high detail and complex products.



Also will GW want to go down that path of distribution - the nightmare of licences and trying to avoid people just copying them way more than they should. Of having a single hobby club just buy one and then print off what everyone needs. I can see it being the kind of business model that, unless there are huge social changes; just wouldn't work for any company more than a handful of employees large because the potential profits would drop dramatically. Plus consider how much people complain about buying just models in a box and price; now consider if you're only buying a licence to print.

Part of me just thinks that the consumer society we've built is not ready for a time when we shut down manufacture and product creation by companies. That we are still a long way off a society which can basically abandon a vast area of production, shipping, transportaion and the work, jobs and whole infrastructure that supports

That tank looks good enough I’d spend some time putting it into useable shape and using it. I’ve bought enough stuff from Ebay second hand that looked worse.

I know a local whom is busy building a Marine army out of none GW manufactures and 3D prints. Raw material isn’t that expensive, and after you have done 3 Rhino’s, printing a 4th or a 5th to sell to offset your material cost is just time, on something that he can set, go to work, and then unload the next day.