3d Prinitng future of 15mm?

[Hayden]

on TMP has discussion about 3d printing of your own 3d models usable in wargaming. there companies like Shapeways or Ponoku and Moddler who recreate your concept to reality which in my way is cool - you can personalize your army even more than now - in reality they are still little costly but six- twelve dollars for such big drone?

[inrepose]

That model is very close to the GZG larger drones. I would think for the money it would be cheaper to go GZG but I guess you get your own distinct model if you go shapeways. I have heard that some of the printing can also be very rough and need a lot of tidy up.

[droffset]

I think in the short term it's the best way to create a master to make a mold from. Eventually it will be affordable enough to just buy the print itself in bulk. I'm definitely going to try it out.

[dassenkop]

I don't see me doing this. Time (and money) wise I would like to spend my energy on other parts of the hobby. Before stepping into this I probably will try to get the hang on modification of existing models first.

Perhaps in 25 years when I retire

[mech_dude]

I've been using Moddler to print out a number of parts, for one off prints it's not all that cheap but I use them as master models for casting in resin.

This was a test model, needs to have the details enlarged as they came out too shallow but the printing process is very detailed. (model is 28mm)




These were weapons I had printed in 28mm scale, but could easily be scaled down. These are straight from the printers so you can see minor amounts of layering, it does clean up fairly easily with light sanding or scraping witha hobby knife. Something that works for doing master parts but maybe not mass printings of infantry.









Placed on an N-Scale model for reference.



I've used shapeways for printing parts but they are a lot rougher than I wanted, the layering was very pronounced and fine details got lost. I switched over to www.moddler.com which is a bit more expensive but well worth it as they are much cleaner and easier to remove any stepping from.

Comperable in price and quality is print-a-part which I think just changed to fine line printing, they run about the same but also offer microgreen printing which is insanely fine resolution although very expensive.

[droffset]

That's great work mech-dude, I'm definitely going to try Moddler.

[jeffw75]

Hey, pics from my blog in the OP

Moddler does very nice work, but right now the quality of the prints is very nearly indistinguishable from the best materials available at Shapeways and Ponoko for a fraction of the cost. I had moddler do some custom 28mm parts before I switched over to 15mm earlier this year. Absolutely great customer service from Moddler.

picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/NfYvxUKRHhYpq6LpipagCg?feat=directlink

The bolter in the pic above is from moddler, you can see the z-axis stepping on the drum especially. There was less stepping apparent in the drone I had printed above, and mostly on the underside of the print. I did use different CAD software for each, so I don't know if that affected the end result in any way.

Just to address part of Dassenkop's response regarding time- you would be surprised how quickly you can pick up basic proficiency in some of the CAD packages and there are some good ones that are free, too.

Right now, its more economical to buy minis unless you're willing to cast them yourself in resin. I have a brand new mortar turret that I just cast up for myself for some Combat Wombat conversions. The original print cost about $8 US and the copies I've made have cost pennies each.

Jeff