Thoughts on 3D printed figures

[socko47]

I've said that we can get to a time in which model companies don't sell kits, they sell the file to print out the kit, which the modeler prints out himself.

Prost!
Brad

It reminds me of the banks and investment houses asking us to go paperless. It is transferring costs to the recipient (printer, ink, paper, resin). One advantage I have seen is the use of a design program and 3D printer to fabricate replacement parts for a rehab of old toy cars where replacements are not available.

 

[Moonraker]

Seems to me that this technology is in the same place that digital photography was fifteen to twenty years ago. Like digital photography it will take over faster than you think, and bring both benefits and problems that will not be immediately apparent. Some things are a given. 3D Printing technology will become both much cheaper and much easier to use. Digital sculpting software will also become simpler, cheaper, and much more intuitive in use. The whole will move out of the realm of the enthusiast into the everyday. It may mean that the current free sourced files disappear as the business grows, or they may be more available....who knows? The only certainty is that things will change.
There will always be a niche market for the manual sculptor and their products, but the bulk of consumer items, including models and figures, will utilise this technology to a greater or lesser degree. My guess is that there will be far more print on demand facilities than there are now, because the print time will be difficult to bring down substantially until the print technology evolves. The 3D printing age is coming wether we want it or not, so we might as well embrace it openly as grudgingly.

 

[Henkm]

The 3D printing age is coming wether we want it or not, so we might as well embrace it openly as grudgingly.

This is absolutely true. In manufacturing, it is expected that forging and casting will be (mostly) replaced by metal-3D printing (selective laser sintering). That's for production, no longer just rapid prototyping.

 

[samson]

Good thoughts and opinions here

 

[Lucas Ferron]

If you look into my post history here you'll find out I'm super pro 3d printing. Most of my stuff lately has been 3d printed.

There are a few advantages:
Distribution is way easier, I don't care if I'm purchasing a file from South Korea, Spain or Colombia. There's no shipping, no production delays, nothing like this.
There's also the fact that with a little practice I can easily resize my piece and change it. Swap a detail from the suit, print it larger or smaller, slice the file so I can print only a specific detail (or make it fit into the printer), etc. Check out what people are doing with 3d printers for terrains and vehicles, some amazing stuff.

Quality wise, I think we're certainly a bit below what you'll get from high quality casters, but if you know what you're doing you can get fantastic results. I attached some 3d printed models and you'll see for yourself the kind of quality you can get with a sub $300 resin printer.

Will it completely replace other types of miniatures? I really doubt it.
But this kind of technology will benefit those with the creative and technological mastery to sculpt in 3d and will most likely harm those that focus on the manufacturing aspect.

 

[JWM]

I recently bought a file and had someone with an expensive printer print it for me. And the one drawback I see is the little support marks. So one side of the print can be great the back side may suffer from these little dots that will require extra clean up.

 

[Forté]

I recently bought a file and had someone with an expensive printer print it for me. And the one drawback I see is the little support marks. So one side of the print can be great the back side may suffer from these little dots that will require extra clean up.

I'm seeing print lines all the way through that. Not convinced he used an "expensive" printer or he traded a quicker time rather than go for quality.

 

[1969]

Having just recently looked into 3d printing and buying a couple of printers I can see the advantages of this technology but I do not think it will be the advancement of the printers that will be a major game changer to the hobby. Rather I see that when the sculpting software advances enough to make it ultra easy to the everyday user to use without too much training/practice, that will make a major impact. When that happens there will probably be no, or very few figure manufacturers as each modeller will create and produce whatever they like at home to their own design, rather than have to settle with what the manufacturers offer.
Also the advancement of home 3d scanning will pretty much eliminate the need for sculpting at all so even those now turning toward 3d sculpting are on borrowed time.
Traditional sculpting will always be around as it has been for thousands of years but it will be more for the collector or maybe just as a hobby, the same way as say wood turning is.

Steve

 

[oierlings]

I've just bought me a 3D Printer as my birthday present. It's one of those filament printers. When printing in "hyper" modus, the result is quiet good. After sanding with sanding pads and priming with Mr. Hobby Resin Primer 1000 or Tamiya Primer, the surface is smooth
I have also a sample of a Formlabs SLA Printer (Sherlock Bust). And I've to say, that the quality of that printer is superbe, the surface is smooth even without sanding.
If you look at the figure news forum, many of the announcements are already done in 3D Software. So at least the master can be done with SLA.