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Popular mechanics article on rapid prototyping with 3d printing. Just for fun, I like thinking about GW trying to control this so that models can't be recreated.
How to Fabricate a Toy Model from Scratch

There have been other posts about this, just avoiding threadomancy.

It would not work very well with the majority of GW models. I've held these 3d prints and been in contact with quite a few, and it is really hard to get fine detail with them.

If you look closely at the car, you can see the ridges on all the flat planes. Now imagine that on a SM's face. Small detail is lost, flat or large areas are fine. The resin versions may be better.

I guess it would be ok for vehicles though, but it can also have issues taking to paint due to the odd consistency of the material, and it would have to be sanded a lot first, as it feels a bit like sandpaper to the touch.

Agreed, the technology isn't (currently) suitable for rounded shapes. But it can be great for flat boxy things like buildings and even some vehicles, which is rather useful for us gamers. Places like http://www.ponoko.com/ allow anyone to design and manufacture this stuff themselves, it would be great to see some GW-compatible bits designed, e.g. something like Rhino Extra Armour shouldn't be that hard.

The only barrier I've encountered so far is the amount they charge you by volume. It's something like a few dollars per cubic centimeter, at least where I've checked.

Were only a few years away from GW selling the files to print a unit of Space marines.....

HP and many other companies already have test models ready for the public when it becomes affordable mark my words this is going to change how we shop

Lately, I'm playing with Blender in my free time. Mostly just for something to do, but it would be quite interesting if I could use Blender to make model prototypes, and then have a printer service print masters, and then work them into mass-producible resin molds.

Not of copyrighted models mind, I'm thinking my own original stuff.

sworth9411 wrote:Were only a few years away from GW selling the files to print a unit of Space marines.....

HP and many other companies already have test models ready for the public when it becomes affordable mark my words this is going to change how we shop

This is exactly what I was thinking. Of course there will be something akin to DRM to make sure you don't print more copies than you paid for...maybe GW will market its own 3D printer

We are not just a few years away from a time where we are shopping from home and manufacture what we buy with one of these machines. First of all the output of these machines is virtually useless as a functional object, as in an object that does anything other than just look decorative, especially in low end machines. If I had to guess I would say that this idea will never practically happen. That's not to say we won't see the day where semi capable versions will be available for someone with a home workshop. (in fact we are there now). But there isn't going to be a "revolution" it's just another tool that has a niche.

I don't really see this taking off as a mass consumer market thing really ever. Unless someone can come up with an easy way for Joe Sixpack to learn how to use 3D / cad programs which I doubt would ever be more than pre-made drag & drop shapes that get real boring real fast.

But I could see it being something that's used for making model prototypes, but the equipment needed will be expensive and require a lot of techie knowledge, like laser cutting stuff is now.

A lot of this is actually already used at the high end to make model prototypes. I have seen some fairly high quality reproductions created from 3-d scanners - in the aerospace industry primarily.

The technology will probably get there eventually, but whole sale reproduction of models would (of course) be illegal and probably more expensive than just buying mass produced models.

This could be something Games Workshop will fear maybe 10 or 15 years down the road.

Right now, I don't think we will see a massive market for these 3-D printers yet.

This gets brought up every so often at The Miniatures Page; this will certainly become household tech eventually, because everything eventually does.

M.

I have to disagree with you there. CNC has been around a long time, and we don't see home versions of those being common. I would even say a CNC machine is more capable and can do right now what is being promised by these home RP machines. You could download a CNC program and make just about whatever you wanted, and it would be functional.
however a CNC machine in each home is not cost effective. In the same way a RP machine in every home will also not be cost effective.

To do the machining required for a CNC you would need a thousand dollar solid modeling package, expertise in solid modeling and conversion to machine instructions and a 500k+ 5 axis CNC.

Rapid prototyping is less expensive, and will continue to be so but that term is relative. A RP machine costs 50k+ (depending on the quality) and has the same solid model requirements for software.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see 3-d printers begin to penetrate the consumer market, but as it has been said - it is at least two decades out. (i.e. computers were around for almost 40 years before they began to become accessible to a single household)

Your argument is just not true. CNCs are cheaper than RP machines for higher capability. They don't get the same final results or work in the same way. A 500K CNC is way more capable than an equivalent cost RP machine. it can make more parts from more materials of higher quality. The same is true of a 10K CNC machine, or a 2K CNC machine (these all exist). If you were downloading either of the files from the internet neither would need high end CAD packages. I was just using CNC as an example of a more mature technology that never made it into the home. There's not really that much of a difference between them.

I'm going to have to hunt around for that article about the guys who made a really cheap RP machine. Something like costing 300USD. It even made parts of itself to make another one.

M.

trust me when i say, when we were working on avatar, the 3d printers we used to make some of the AMP suit props, as well as parts for the weapons, these things can create amazing detail (no it isnt cheap, not in the least)

Infantryman wrote: It even made parts of itself to make another one.

This is dangerous, it can replicate itself...I am keeping this thing in a cage.

My reference points come from work where a CNC mill capable of reproducing subtle features on miniatures will be in the hundreds of thousands of US dollars range. A RP machine capable of similar 'performance' is cheaper by its very nature - they typically use a laser to 'set' a polymer, spray down a curing agent or a glue to create the part to vertically print cross sectional slices. The level of control required for this process is significantly less intensive than for a milling machine operating in 3 dimensions - all the mills I see, naturally, work on much larger pieces (taking generally 1 foot cube ingots) and work on steel, aluminum or titanium which is certainly more expensive than milling wax models. The cost would definitely be lower for a machine focused on plastics.

However - how many thousands are people really willing to spend? Also, if it is cheaper then I imagine GW would adopt this technology and be able to leverage economies of scale to undercut the break even point for most people

asmith wrote:Your argument is just not true. CNCs are cheaper than RP machines for higher capability. They don't get the same final results or work in the same way. A 500K CNC is way more capable than an equivalent cost RP machine. it can make more parts from more materials of higher quality. The same is true of a 10K CNC machine, or a 2K CNC machine (these all exist). If you were downloading either of the files from the internet neither would need high end CAD packages. I was just using CNC as an example of a more mature technology that never made it into the home. There's not really that much of a difference between them.

You're incorrect. In order to produce the majority of shapes that an RP can produce requires a five axis machine. This is enormously expensive. You suggested a 2K CNC - 2K will only get you a basic three axis machine. This is not capable of producing anything remotely resembling a miniature. (because the tool always comes at the material from above - as such it cannot produce undercuts)

In contrast, all RPs are capable of producing any shape at all with only three axis. The difference between cheap and expensive RPs is in the level of detail and the properties of the material.


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Infantryman wrote:I'm going to have to hunt around for that article about the guys who made a really cheap RP machine. Something like costing 300USD. It even made parts of itself to make another one.

M.

http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

It's a little more expensive than that but pretty reasonable.


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WarOne wrote:This could be something Games Workshop will fear maybe 10 or 15 years down the road.

Right now, I don't think we will see a massive market for these 3-D printers yet.

Prices are about to plummet. The cost of the machines and materials is artificially high as the current makers hold patents on them. These are all currently expiring. Several big name manufacturers (mostly notably HP who produce parts for RP machines currently) have machines in the works and several Chinese companies have models pending.

A friend of mine made his own giant crystal thing for his necron monolyth. It came out all bubbly though! He wanted to replace the green one with a red one and so he could also put a light inside of it that would pulse inside...

...if he would had actually painted the damn thing it would had looked incredible.

Two useful services for this:

Shapeways.com and emachineshop.com

Emachineshop has a free CAD program that's easy to use, and easy to learn. Great for parts, weapons, vehicles, not so much troops.

Shapeways allows you to upload your models and order them in a variety of materials. It also allows you to order community models, so you can get prints of others work. The minimum $25USD order is kind of a pain, but it is what it is.

I've designed some lascannons and meltas that I'm getting ready to have printed once I have the CAD files converted.

Given how many people don't even bother to paint their figures I can't see too many players making entire armies at home.


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A 3D automatic painter machine would be a lot more useful.

There are RPs that produce in colour.

http://www.figureprints.com/

Yeah well if we some day see a 3d printer that can actually compete with current prizes and quality of miniatures I guess that GW and other companies would have no reasons to make seperate molds and cast miniatures anymore. Then they could also start using the 3d printer technology to make miniatures and sell them cheaper. In that case I think many people would rather still buy stock miniatures instead of printing them self. But I am sure we are still very far from cheap and working 3d printer.

Becouse really.. Lets think about it.. How many of you have normal paper printer? And how well are they working? And are they cheap to use? So what if we add third dimension? For me it all just sounds disastrous and expensive thing thats not going to happen in a while.

Prices are about to plummet.

The cost of the materials currently does not reflect that actual cost at all - they are being maintained at artificially high prices by the patent holders. The first of these patents has already expired and the majority will expire in the very near future.

Take a look at this:

This is a 6" pre-painted figure produced by RP (note that it's a single piece - there is no other method that could produce that in one piece). FigurePrint are selling these for $130. The actual material cost on a piece like that is in the region of $40-50. We can expect to see that drop to around $10-20 shortly when the material can be bought for realistic prices.