3D Scanner options, opinions and recommendations

[Grimmnar]

3D scanners. Getting a good amount of ads in my feed for 3D scanners. Thoughts and opinions on one to purchase to scan all the way down to miniature sized objects? I know there are industrial use scanners and ones that are thousands of dollars. I am more interested in the home use type of scale scanners. So, what ya got?

Grimm

[Mammoth miniatures]

I can't speak fo the stuff being advertised, but I've been using an einscan pro hd and that gives wonderful results on models down to about 50mm in height. it's quite an old system now by 3d standards, and I know einscan do a fixed distance tabletop unit for smaller objects that may be worth looking into.

[Daeothar]

I've been eying this particular scanner for a while; I saw some good reviews of it on Youtube.

But truth be told; I just stumbled onto it and have not done any research into the subject yet. It's a starting point though...

https://openscan.eu/products/openscan-mini

[modelwarrior]

Not knowing anything about this subject but are just using scanners to replicate models that already exist or scanning new stuff into being so to say ?

[fred]

I've been eying this particular scanner for a while; I saw some good reviews of it on Youtube.

But truth be told; I just stumbled onto it and have not done any research into the subject yet. It's a starting point though...

https://openscan.eu/products/openscan-mini

Interesting - that is an order of magnitude cheaper than I was expecting!

[Daeothar]

True, but bear in mind that that's a kit; it will require a bit of effort and knowhow to put together and get it to actually work I reckon.

Like 3D printers, which initially also were a hobby in and of themselves. I take it in a few years there will be off the shelf, plug and play options in the same price range that will work right out of the box...

[fred]

Thanks - good context

[FifteensAway]

Know nothing about this area but my first impression is that this looks suspiciously like a way to scan an existing model and then replicate it via 3D prints.  And that would violate a lot of copyright laws.  And scare a lot of would be figures out of the market.  Harkens back to the RTV molding of commercial figure models and doing self-pours at home to avoid having to buy more figures.  Had an acquaintance in junior high school doing exactly that back in the early 70s.

Not saying that is in any way the OPs goal.  But sure seems easy to do. 

Having said that, it could also be a way to create a lot of stuff - I think this is probably how miniprints does a lot of the real people it offers for sale in 3D prints - scanned at model train shows, or something similar.  But I still foresee a lot of potential copyright infringement going on with this technology.  And it will be orders of magnitude easier than the RTV mold route, that took serious dedication.

[Mammoth miniatures]

Know nothing about this area but my first impression is that this looks suspiciously like a way to scan an existing model and then replicate it via 3D prints.  And that would violate a lot of copyright laws.  And scare a lot of would be figures out of the market.  Harkens back to the RTV molding of commercial figure models and doing self-pours at home to avoid having to buy more figures.  Had an acquaintance in junior high school doing exactly that back in the early 70s.

Not saying that is in any way the OPs goal.  But sure seems easy to do. 

Having said that, it could also be a way to create a lot of stuff - I think this is probably how miniprints does a lot of the real people it offers for sale in 3D prints - scanned at model train shows, or something similar.  But I still see a lot of potential copyright infringement going on.

I personally use it for scanning large traditional sculpts so I can work on hybrid sculpts. I've posted about some experiments with it here https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=130790.60

To be honest you'd really struggle to get a nice scan of an existing 28mm scale figure - although some people are trying it, you need ALOT of work afterwards to get anything presentable.
industrial dental scanners would do the job but you're going to suffer detail loss at each step. so whilst you could pirate figures with it, it'd be a bloody long way round when there's likely someone online selling rip of STL files of whatever it is you're copying.

Like any tool is has some amazing potential - A cheap scanner could allow someone with a background in custume design to produce miniatures of their creations, or allow historic weapons/uniforms to be scanned in as 3d assets.