Dark Webb and Figurines IMHO

[Mirofsoft]

To many deceiving links , info and the song of Abba begin in my head Money, Money, Money

Facebook Instagram and others links with a figurines somewhere between the last birthday cake's pictures, or the wedding of the sister, mixed with a picture of a figurine, without size, origin, price, availability or ...

Direct email adresses where to ask price and availability ....

Patreon ( and others ) a bit like buying a cat in a bag ...

And the STL ...

It's so easy to make you own webb page, and those coasting almost nothing . OR at least, open a ebay account, with price, delivery time, sending cost and protected payement system

Today, even if I like what I see presented here and on other forum, I don't even bother to follow the links


Oh ! Yes ! IMHO

 

[Blind Pew]

Eh?

I'm not sure that's tabacco.

 

[Rob]

Although I despise them, in practice and concept, Facebook, Instagram, Patreon et al are not really Dark Web. That is something far worse entirely.

It won't be too long before 99% of figure releases are stl. Just like flats are now hand sculpting figures will be restricted to a dying breed of traditionalists who love the process for the craft. The next steps will be in refining a service like Heroforge so that, as buyers, we can create our own figures and generate the stl without any programming or design training.
Then, for people who don't want to go down the road of home printing, sites like Etsy will become the major marketplace, and in all honesty if you find a reliable printing service near to your location it is brilliant.
I have had a lot of figures and scenics done via European print services from Estonia to Spain (I am currently awaiting orders from a service in Germany and one in Poland). At the worst they have been as good as the majority of wargaming figures, at best they are indistinguishable from traditional castings from top line suppliers.

Inevitably there will be bad actors, there always are, but that is as much a function of laws and regulations not keeping pace with technology as it is human nature.

 

[kevininpdx]

It seems 3d printing is the future of figure modeling and AI generated sculptures are the future of 3d printing. It’s sad if you ask me. Nothing can touch a hand sculpted figure by Adriano Laruccia for example.

 

[Steve headley]

3D is here to stay but just like with casting you will always get the pirates, it’s part of the course, the platforms that carry the adds for the stl files have next to no control and if they do they are not that interested, e bay for years has let the pirates get away with it. So the 3D stuff is going to be the same.

As far as production goes it’s still more effective casting than printing, printing can take hours to do, so if you get orders in and your printing it could take awhile to get what you order. And as be said it’s hit and miss on quality. That can be down to meany things from the original sculpt the the printer and of course the resin that’s used.

Yes things are moving fast in the 3D printing world. We have just received our 12k printer. Which is super fast but you do lose a little bit of detail if you set it on the high speed settings. And use the high speed resin. But we use a lower setting and get the best results. But again we use it as a tool to bring outa quality master to traditionally cast from.

It’s certainly not the dark web that’s something else,but you do have to be careful as new sites spring up all the time,they are slick and the promise of some great work can draw you in. But that’s the way of the world just be carful check things out ask questions and see if others have had dealings with them,then you can judge for yourself.

Steve

TFB Miniatures Team