Switch Theme:

Hobby Shops and 3D Printing  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
»
Author Message
Advert


Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
  • No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
  • Times and dates in your local timezone.
  • Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
  • Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
  • Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.




Made in us
Commoragh-bound Peer





Do you think 3D printing will help or harm hobby shops? As the tech improves, the 3D artists improve, will the shops lose more customers to dwindling interest in official products, or will the affordability and access to anything the playerbase want, see more traffic, for hosting games. I skim over most of these videos about 3D printing. The ones I've heard make the question about GW, when GW have already shifted to a media company. They can just license 40K and Age of Sigmar to video game companies, and still be profitable. They haven't needed hobby shops to sell minis for years, either. The question is how local shops will feel the spread of 3D printing? Maybe they won't feel an impact at all, because in my city only has two local shops: where else would we go? Maybe the owners are into printing, and sense space is a premium, can print stuff for a fee. Or maybe they'll see more people using their tables, because players can catch up to army rules with cheaper units, and potentially buy something, while they're in the store. I don't think 3D prints or open source rules will effect GW at all, financially. Thoughts?

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2024/09/12 11:06:37


 
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut




I can see a few hobby places having 3d machines and renting time on them
   
Made in us
Shadowy Grot Kommittee Memba




The Great State of New Jersey

For now - help. It opens up new business opportunities for hobby shops, they no longer need to keep inventory of specific product, they just need a repository of licenses and files, and raw material which they can use to produce almost anything on demand.

If and when 3d printers become a common household appliance, then that may no longer be the case, but even then I suspect there will always be a majority who prefer "the real thing" and buy conventionally manufactured minis, though I suspect that there will be a broad category of more generic products abd product lines that cease to exist as shekfable mass manufactured consumer goods as a result of 3d printing.

I also suspect as 3d printing becomes more widespread that there will be brands that move to a model where they sell licenses to retailers rather than to consumers (this is a social hobby, ensuring that there are hobby ships for people to see and learn about the hobby is a big deal to most of the major minis manufacturers), so that there are tighter controls on IP and quality while ensuring that the all the links in the industry supply chain continue to function.

CoALabaer wrote:
Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
 
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

I think 3D printing still has a very long way to go before its "plug and play" levels of home friendly. Not just in how they are setup and calibrated or how mass marketing can pull the price down on higher end models that have more built in features (eg temperature control); but also with the materials itself.

3D printing resin is nasty stuff when in liquid form and even fully cured most resins are not 100% skin-safe for prolonged skin contact. Models are fine since contact is limited and paint+varnish on a completed model creates a barrier.
There are skinsafe resins out there, but they also cost most and require other curing setups (eg thermal curing).


Plus its slow. Sometimes you 100% do want to just go to the store, pick up a model and get going not wait half to a whole day or more for the model to print.



Brand control is also another thing, but so is quality control. Home printing right now can be highly variable. Some people are uncalibrated using poor choice resins and getting results that are wildly different to those printing with good calibration with a suitable resin. So a firm might well not want to just throw everything into the STL market because they want their product to achieve a known standard.




Personally I think we are already seeing 3D printing being the alternative production method for firms that want into the market but won't have the money for plastics and don't want to contend with the rapid rising costs of metals or traditional resin production. The difficulty is that 3D printing doesn't scale up as well as cast resin/plastics. So as market demand grows it can be more challenging to meet demand.

A Blog in Miniature

3D Printing, hobbying and model fun! 
   
Made in us
Is 'Eavy Metal Calling?





Affton, MO. USA

Like everything it will depend upon how the shop handles the new technology.

The shop closest to me has a small display case where a local guy offers his printing services. He has examples of his prints in the case with the contact info. He does purchase the commercial rights to the models he offers.
I think this is a good step, and as long as they get a cut (Not sure if they do), it can be a good source of revenue for them. Someone might purchase a whole army 3d printed for 1/2 the price of GW (Probably way less), where they wouldn't purchase the army at all. Makes the customer happy, the printer happy and helps the store not have to carry as much on the shelf/ better turn over.

They have also allowed people to use printed armies at their location. The store has a very active gaming community which is very open to allow people to use printed models as long as they are easy to tell what they represent. It is after all getting harder to tell 3d printed models from store bought models anyway, so then there are no problems with butthurt. This opens up the community to allow for more diversity and less snobbish behavior. I've seen people who can afford to drop full price on a new army every time a new book is released who treat players who buy second hand like garbage (to be fair I've seen it the other way as well). Having 3D printing as an option lowers the cost of getting into a game system dramatically. The more people you have to play the more chance you will remain playing. If it is just 4-6 players your opponent pool gets really stale quickly.

Availability. 3D printing opens up the availability of models 10 fold. Just look at the news and rumors section to see how People can't get the new releases of GW products due to demand. 3d printing allows for manufacturing the product at or near the point of sale. All the costs involved with shipping, packaging and handling of the items is greatly reduced. Depending upon the size of the print farm supporting the store, turn around time can be quicker as well.

Stores need to have less on hand product as well. While print supplies will be needed, the same resin can be used to print a counts as space marine as a counts as Skaven, Drow, Battlemech, Zombie or whatever. Inventory will be managed by the fluid ounce instead of game design company. Stores can stock the basic troops and save the shelf space and costs of stocking the special troops/characters for 3D variants. There are plenty of designers out there that cover just about all of the Space Marine faction special Characters with minor changes to style. If GW ever went to a digital service (eventually it will happen), then there would be actual GW models to print. No More $30-40 clampack special characters. The cost of those models can be cycled back into other parts of the store instead.

Terrain for stores has always been hit or miss. I have handmade terrain for shops previously, and more recently I have printed pieces. Some places don't have that sort of set up and the store winds up purchasing terrain, which given GW prices, can get expensive quickly. A store could invest in a $300 filament printer and some files and start building terrain for the shop and to sell. $300 worth of terrain from GW is not going to cover a full table. Yes, there is so much more involved than just the printer (filament, files, slicing the files, misprints, electricity, labor), but seriously buying the kits has similar costs as well and once you have your set up going it really does get to be almost as simple as press these 3 buttons in this order and wait. Once again, my local shop usually has 2 employees on hand at most times, one is usually on a laptop whenever I come in.

I have seen probably 20 shops open and go out of business in Saint Louis in my almost 40 years of gaming. The ones that have been managed correctly have lasted for a long time, others were just friends with no business sense thinking they would make millions. It is all about awareness of the business and how to implement a new technology. Lots of card game shops have come and gone, the ones that have an online presence where they buy and sell online tend to last much longer than ones that do not. This is just a new technology that will need to be integrated into how a store operates.


LOL, Theo your mind is an amazing place, never change.-camkierhi 9/19/13
I cant believe theo is right.. damn. -comradepanda 9/26/13
None of the strange ideas we had about you involved your sexual orientation..........-Monkeytroll 12/10/13

I'd put you on ignore for that comment, if I could...Alpharius 2/11/14 
   
 
Forum Index » 3D Printing and Digital Modeling
Go to: