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Not a tank, but I think a good example of what you can get printing wargaming vehicles yourself. The model file.was.about £5 and it needed a whole spool costing £15 over about 3 days. I dread to think the cost from.a traditional outlet.

the_scotsman wrote:
Unless I just used a real expensive model of printer, the resin we used was 30$/liter, and with the amount it used for support struts it went a lot faster than you would expect that volume to go. The first thing I did was print a bunch of ork boyz i found a 3d file for and they worked out to 45$/10, which is more expensive than the GW kit that comes with extra bits, to say nothing of grabbing them secondhand off ebay.

I've been printing in resin for a few years now, and I was kind of curious by this story. You said it cost $45 to print 10 Ork Boyz, and the resin was $30 a liter, so you used a bottle and a half, yeah? I've printed off an enormous Scythed Hierodule - 8 inches long, 7 inches wide, maybe 5 inches tall - for maybe half a bottle, and done a whole ton of Battlemechs that are 5 or 6 ounces each, but I've never printed Ork Boyz, and don't know what their volume is. So, I did an experiment.

I got a tumbler and filled it half full of water, and marked the fill line with tape. Then I chucked in 10 Ork Boyz: legs, a choppa arm, a shoota arm, and a head, times ten. I marked that line, too.



Then I poured off this displaced water to see how much volume the 10 boyz parts displaced. I poured it into a 2 ounce cup. I didn't measure this, but I'd guess it's about an ounce.



So, I have to say - I am stumped. Like I said, I've been printing for a few years now, both in resin and in FDM. I am very well versed in how much support material you need and how supports work. There is literally no way I can think of that you needed one and a half of these bottles of the left to fill the volume of the cup on the right:



I mean, I'm not saying you just made it up, but it's the only explanation that makes sense to me. Maybe there is something I didn't consider: Did you make the supports solid bars an inch thick and elevate the boys to the top of the Z for your printer? Did you put the boyz on top of a solid block of resin 7 inches thick? Is there a crack in your screen, where the printer works, but it leaked out 45 ounces to print 5 ounces? Truly, I wish to know.

Maybe they also included power etc in the cost. Not sure how much that is for Resin prints, seems a bit much though,

Unrelated note - that Anycubic Maroon resin is just for illustrative purposes, it is garbage. I got it for free and I'm still not using it.

Anycubic Grey and Green are both excellent though.

 Ouze wrote:
Unrelated note - that Anycubic Maroon resin is just for illustrative purposes, it is garbage. I got it for free and I'm still not using it.

The what? I was busy looking at the lego T-rex that isn't the center of attention in a picture of a lego t-rex

 LordofHats wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
Unrelated note - that Anycubic Maroon resin is just for illustrative purposes, it is garbage. I got it for free and I'm still not using it.

The what? I was busy looking at the lego T-rex that isn't the center of attention in a picture of a lego t-rex

It looks like a cool LEGO T-Rex.

Oh, that's a Chinese knock-off of the T-Rex from the Jurassic Park set.



I haven't put together the gate yet, I've been busy abandoning other projects halfway through instead.

You guys think we're ever going to get an answer on how those 10 orks needed a liter and a half of resin? I think of this often.

That seems like a lot of resin.

 Ouze wrote:
You guys think we're ever going to get an answer on how those 10 orks needed a liter and a half of resin? I think of this often.

I've wondered the same thing. There's definitely something funky with those numbers.

We're at the point where for $200 you can get a plug-and-play resin 3D printer that will produce comparable models for a small fraction of what the 'real' models cost, more than paying for itself over even a small army. Leaving aside any questions of ethics, the remaining advantages to buying plastic kits are just not having to handle resin, clean up supports, or wait for prints to complete.

3D printing as a practical alternative to purchasing injection molded plastic kits isn't ten years off; it's already here. These ethical questions are no longer hypotheticals.

 Ouze wrote:
You guys think we're ever going to get an answer on how those 10 orks needed a liter and a half of resin? I think of this often.

tbh, I wasn't on dakka for a few days and forgot entirely about this thread. Maybe my memory from my college years is completely shot and maybe 3d printers are great and economical now, that'd be awesome. You're obviously more of an expert than I am.

Was that the Illogical SJW Destroyed Checkmate Atheists internet argument dunk you wanted out of this?

It's not a question of if it's economical or if it's available. Hell, it really isn't a question on copyright, as Thingiverse pulls stuff down all the time but there are no consequences for the creators, as they just move their gak to Patreon and you can "support" the creator to gain access to their models.

I have a D7. I print some weapons that look sweet (like cool force swords or autoguns for some cultists or such) or iconography like for my Knight Tyrant, but it has never, and will never print a model intended to serve in a game as a "proxy".

Stores in my area do not want 3D printed stuff in their stores, and if they know you are running a 3d printed army they'll ask you not to play it. Whether I agree or not is immaterial, It's just the way it is. If I want to play in an event (even casually) the expectation is that my army is GW product, and if it isn't, I won't get to play, So I just don't. So to me, its a lot less of a question of whether or not where the line is in the sand of legality, and more of a question of whether or not I have intentions of playing in events and if I want to play at the local stores, which I do.

Resin printers do some amazing work, And I've printed everything from wall mounting key holders to mounting brackets, and even replacement components for my lawnmower on it.

if I draw a space marine on a piece of paper cut it out and make it stand up as a 'flat' that would be copyright wouldn't it!

Pyroalchi wrote:
Surfing around a bit on various sites for cool proxy models I came to think a bit: are there any guidelines what is lets say "a proxy inspired by a GW model" and where it becomes a copyright infringement? In a sense that one might get in trouble bringing something like that in a GW store that is OK with bringing one or two third-party proxies, as long as the majority of models is from GW?

Two specific examples:
1. feudal guard tank:
https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-print-models/miniatures/sci-fi/feudal-guard-battle-tank-769cac64-ad48-4ceb-aa15-22c1931e131d
=> I think this is reasonably far away from GWs stuff, while still recognizable

2. "Taman reccon car"
https://www.shapeways.com/product/FFVBRC243/28mm-6x6-taman-mk-b-recon-car?optionId=63167526&li=marketplace
While it is slightly altered, the similiarities in design are rather obvious.

I would say both are fair game designs. The second one is in the grey area, but it has significant differences with the original tauros venator that make it clearly not a 1:1 copy - which is where the actual line starts - the closer it gets to being a 1:1 copy the closer it is to an infringing design