3D Printing and Our Beloved Hobby

[Ramshackle_Curtis]

Hey, I get what you are saying Company B, about printing 100 copies. I had a laser printer. I got it for £1, and yes it was expensive to maintain. Hoever, for 30p I can get a full colour print down at staples, so why print at home? I dont have to worry about maintenece, materials, etc. I hope the same will happen with 3d printing, ie take it down staples. Fingers crossed! But really, Im sure there is a mahoosive market for small print out, say less than 10cm cubes. Certainly key fobs, small toys, mobile phone cases etc etc. And Im sure we will see colour printing pretty soon too.....

[jamii]

you all have summed up what i was trying to express. The technology for cost effective home use is still quite some ways away.

So I dont think people should be crying wolf just yet, until you actually see the wolf.

But i fully agree with copyright laws being enforced.

Im not against 3D printing technology. I hope that it will be used to further medical science for example, which in turn will benefit all of us. (Maybe one day we'll all be walking around wearing jumpsuits in the mess hall of the Star Ship Enterprise, and look back and laugh )

But youre right about getting a good 3D model that works for a prototype. I saw that issue a lot in college. A good model is still going to require a considerable amount of dedication and work. Quality is the word we're after. 3D or hand sculpted. The computer isnt just going to magically do it all for you.

[beefcake]

I got one of these on kickstarter. Not arrived yet but they are taking pre orders now.
http://pirate3d.com/preorder $497 plus shipping.

[HerbyF]

I think that 3-D printers for the consumer are still a few years off. But you never know the rate of advances in technology has been astounding lately. Right now I think it can be a great tool for the producers & manufacterers in the hobby. Resizing or rescaling can be a easy as setting a program & pushing a button.

[maxxon]

The porn industry has financially collapsed already due to everyone having a go at home made porn and flooding the web with it, where its then rebroadcast for free making their product valueless. (all jokes aside they have been hit the hardest by copyright infringement and changing tech I assure you the rest of the film industry is watching how they deal with it because its the writing on the wall for them.)

I haven't heard about this, so I'm assuming your sources are correct...

...in which case this NOT a copyright infringement issue. It is simply a case of being replaced by a competing cheaper (free) product, the making and distribution of which has been made possible by advances in technology.

For other examples, see what happened to Encyclopedia Britannica. And good luck selling an encyclopedia these days, with Wikipedia out there and all.

Triple-A movies are not being replaced by home videos (for the most part anyway). Real authors are not being replaced by free fanfic on the net. It still takes considerable skill (and money in the case of movies) to make product people really want. I actually liked Star Wreck, but I still wouldn't call it a very good movie.

I would say the real writing on the wall is that you can't get away with publishing an inferior product just because you're the traditional, established publisher. In some cases, even a superior product won't be good enough if the free/cheap alternative is good enough.
 
The adult entertainment industry has been digging their own grave by lowering production standards to rock bottom. If you publish stuff anyone with a handycam can make, well, someone with handycam will make it just for the heck of it.

[ErikB]

One advantage to printing minis is that we can pick the scale pretty easily.

Disadvantage is that the detail will be costly.  Cheap printers will not have the fine granularity that is required for the really good minis.  That will cost a lot for quite some time.

[Gary Peach]

The 3d printing will be the easy bit...  the actual creation will always be the bit that calls for good software and good interface with the machines.  Then it comes to using that software.  Many people have all the graphics packages available, but still produce rough stuff, or they produce over blown stuff that will only be thrown away.

Im not sure about the similarity to the music industry either.  Working in 3D to any detailed enough level will result in file sizes that will be massive so not really easily loaded, un-loaded etc.  and if you box clever and make things multi part and keep bits out of free domains you keep control, like releasing snippets of songs not the whole.

It will have its real uses where small batches can be made to order, low or no stock.  It may result in there never being the concept of an OOP ever again.

[Brian Smaller]

I guess it depends on the material used but I suspect that for most wargaming applications 3D printed models would be even more brittle than a Victrix bayonet.

[ushistoryprof]

If this is the tech today, what will it be in five or ten years?  I wouldn't be surprised if 3D printers are as common in the homes of 2020 as computers are today, seen as common a necessity as flat screens and the microwave.  Technology marches on and we are all pulled along with it...like it or not.

[Conquistador]

 Not everyone agrees it is the "next big thing" though...

http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00219?pg=all

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/willardfoxton2/100008357/stop-talking-rubbish-about-3d-printing/

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3018312/posts

http://www.firstpost.com/tech/makerbot-says-buyers-ready-for-3d-printer-opens-two-new-stores-1246081.html

An example of unintended proving the lack of value added products: http://www.hackthings.com/ten-practical-things-to-make-with-a-3d-printer/

Gracias,

Glenn

[WillieB]

I guess it depends on the material used but I suspect that for most wargaming applications 3D printed models would be even more brittle than a Victrix bayonet.

Absolutely true if using resin. But you can also (have) prints in metal. Quite expensive but if the prices come down as expected we might all be playing with aluminum figures 5 years from now.

[Vermis]

http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00219?pg=all

A September 2013 report from investment advisor the Motley Fool even went so far as to assert that the new technology will “close down 112,000 Chinese factories...and launch a 21st-century industrial revolution right here in the U.S.A.”

No wonder Tony Reidy was all fired up about it.

[Momotaro]

There were some lads at Recon last Saturday putting on a demo game with home-printed spaceship models, and they were kind enough to show AndrewBeasley and I some of the vehicles they had made.

They were good models.  The chaps pointed out the sprue points where the printer fills in underneath an overhang, and there were some texture on the surfaces, but not as much as I've seen on prototypes in the past.  While not as crisply detailed as, say a vehicle from Old Crow or Antenociti, they were certainly a lot better than the cheap plastic toys you see in pound shops (I know, that's damning them with faint praise).

They had a range of scales - 28mm, 15mm, 10mm all printed from the same file.  In comparison with the Shapeways model they had for comparison, the home-printed stuff really was as good.

I know nothing of the technology, but their opinion was:

1)  Printing time is the killer - 4 hours for the big models, the same for the smaller ones at higher resolution;
2)  Material costs are trivial - a couple of quid for the 28mm models.  They were using a £2000 printer though
3)  They reckoned the next generation of printers would do away with the support sprue problem by having a second printing head that used a soluble material to build up the printing surface.  After printing, simply wash it away;

Fascinating stuff.

[Conquistador]

No wonder Tony Reidy was all fired up about it.

Cruel!   

Not saying you are wrong...   

Okay, seriously, if it happens to be commonly used technology in my lifetime- say 20 more years - (and I can afford it in retirement -  I think we are looking at 5 years before it is practical but still expensive but this prediction is worth what you paid for it, nothing,) I don't think it will affect me much other than drive down the price of miniatures sold on EvilBay... guess I better get rid of them in 2014!     Oh, and convert from 25+ mm to 15/6/3 mm figures.

Gracias,

Glenn

[beefcake]

There were some lads at Recon last Saturday putting on a demo game with home-printed spaceship models, and they were kind enough to show AndrewBeasley and I some of the vehicles they had made.

They were good models.  The chaps pointed out the sprue points where the printer fills in underneath an overhang, and there were some texture on the surfaces, but not as much as I've seen on prototypes in the past.  While not as crisply detailed as, say a vehicle from Old Crow or Antenociti, they were certainly a lot better than the cheap plastic toys you see in pound shops (I know, that's damning them with faint praise).

They had a range of scales - 28mm, 15mm, 10mm all printed from the same file.  In comparison with the Shapeways model they had for comparison, the home-printed stuff really was as good.

I know nothing of the technology, but their opinion was:

1)  Printing time is the killer - 4 hours for the big models, the same for the smaller ones at higher resolution;
2)  Material costs are trivial - a couple of quid for the 28mm models.  They were using a £2000 printer though
3)  They reckoned the next generation of printers would do away with the support sprue problem by having a second printing head that used a soluble material to build up the printing surface.  After printing, simply wash it away;

Fascinating stuff.

I like point three. That sounds very practical.