Hey all,

Not sure if this has been discussed here, however what are your thoughts and opinions on 3D printing? I know we are several years from a unit that could create a 28mm model to the level of detail we have come to love, however, it will hit, and when it does, how will it change the wargaming landscape?

Games Workshop being the example I will focus on as they have the biggest slice, also the biggest (by far) shop front which would be largely affected. Considering the need for resin with these printers are already easily accessible on the internet, paints, flocks and brushes are items probably best suited to online purchase. The size in which these printers can cater for will increase in time so it seems acceptable that the larger kits could take longer to be 3D printed, however can be done in component parts.

I can see these going the way of the Dataslate? The digital right to print an item X amount of times, this would require a GW licensed software to monitor these purchases and prints. This could see the slow decline in shop fronts. And lets face it, plenty of talented people out there would be more than happy to create these models and give them out for free.

So how do you think the industry will adapt when this future comes?

I would also like to note that many thought high st book shops were a thing of the past when the Ebook arrived (time will tell though)

Thoughts?

Elvis

Are you talking about GW IP, or about dissemination of low tech manufacturing to the consumer level.. which at some point is probably going to happen over the next 20 years... Tea earl grey Hot..

Book shops have declined massively (they briefly put up a fight with the nudge to the middle classes of a place to get coffee thats less loutish) but still the number of book shops has diminished incredibly.. this is however due to a) the second spike of amazon (directly selling books as well as kindles). Internet sales generally. B) charity shops, book shops pay business rates and business taxes.. charity shops selling books for get away breaks don't. And book shops have been vocal that its been killing them.

The high street and focal centres have spread and morphed away form town centres since the 80s, the rise of out of centre shopping centres and expensive parking/ deterants have pushed away from central cbds in many towns.. thats why GW has been fairly savy in being a gaming centre+shop, go there to game+buy stuff.. because generally I don't touch the highstreet during working hours.

Random burble of half remembered GCSEs.. I'm sure bara has a lot better ways of correcting what I've said.

Bring it on. Print your own models sounds awesome. Will I be able to scan my friends and copy it. Or will I have to buy a pattern to print? Who know and who cares. I'll be dead before that all happens.

Well not unless your very unlucky.. you have squads of students and peeps maintaing high end 3-d printers.. some tank patterns are out there and GW legal focuses massively on them when they pop up..
You can technically get 3d printers for under 2 grand nowadays.. but their quality is pretty crappy.

Think of it like the jump from dot matrix to bubble jet throughout the 80s-90s.

(please note forum rules no posting of 3d model patterns or that stupid gun)

Gun?

Oh FFS.. news and current events are something that happen to other people.. its been such old news most American cop dramas have had at least one episode featuring it now
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberator_%28gun%29

I wish I only had time to read about wtf is going on in the world. I don't have a lot of time left after business and hobby. I don't even get to read all the stuff I'd like on those two either as it stands. :'(

I've seen a few places using 3D printing to prototype figures and parts for mastering. Level of detail is already there. For example, check out Mad Robot Miniatures on WIP: http://z11.invisionfree.com/Work_In_Pro ... opic=18288 . He models the parts/figs in 3D, gets them printed up by a company online in plastic, then uses them to create molds for casting resin parts. Check the heads out, especially the set with Stallone/Willis/Statham etc

Interesting site Spack. That guy is doing some nice work.
Anvil Industries does pretty much the same thing, CAD to 3D printer to casting resin parts.

3D printing will eventually be affordable and will eventually allow people to duplicate parts.

Right now if you are so inclined you can use silicon rubber to make a mold of parts and then cast them in resin or plastic.

Difference is having to make a mold vs being able to just print out a part. I don't think it will spell the end of GW and other model makers. I think the number of people that will go through the time and trouble to 3D print entire models will be few and far between.

ive often thought about making terrain pieces and doing molds of those.. How realistic a thought it that, and what pitfalls would there be?

well, funny you should ask.
I made a couple of molds of buildings for flames of war.
First effort so could have turned out better.
I'm currently working on a video tutorial on how to make a silicon mold.
Should have it done this week.

wooohoooo we can put on the channel?

I would hope so.

hmm, my concerns for the hard working modellers, tbh, is the piracy side of it (not that I can get on my high horse too much).

Would GW sack having kits on shelves too a certain degree and just print peoples requests? this could lower the merchandise transportation?

Elvis

KInG wrote:Bring it on. Print your own models sounds awesome. Will I be able to scan my friends and copy it. Or will I have to buy a pattern to print? Who know and who cares. I'll be dead before that all happens.

Have to say if you could do this then we could FINALLY represent ourselves on the board with our own little model (be it head or full on model depending on game)

I think the costs right now are still far too high to be viable. Printing out masters for casting works because the casting cost is very low, printing out every part would push the costs so high nobody would bother buying them. For large scale production injection moulded plastic is far cheaper despite the massive initial costs for creating the moulds.

Until home 3D printers are high res and can produce fine detail at a costs lower than production figures piracy won't be an issue as it will cost more for copies than the originals. There would also need to be a way to get hold of 3D scans of models which would also require access to expensive scanners unless someone comes up with a cheap way of doing this too.

dan, we are getting there slowly, I guarantee it will all be affordable before people forget about this thread

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/15/crowdfund-this-rubicons-200-3d-scanner-lasers-webcam

And how much for a printer?

KInG wrote:And how much for a printer?

Good god I can hear the creaking of your brain wheel from here. As I say consumer ones are under 2 grand.. maplins have one for 700.. but at the moment..the quality of those is pants.. you want access to a lab or pro printers where hey have a 30grand plus one to do any decent tiny part replication consistently (hence spack saying the alts are still currently more viable).. but its all a work in progress.

For items that need low res printing, like garden gnomes, I agree printers and scanners are now "affordable" (if you happen to have a spare £1500 or so kicking around). But for the high res required for 28mm figures, as KMB says you're looking at £30k+ for equipment so you'd have to print and sell a lot to make it pay, and the figures you'd print would cost more than the originals right now due to the high relative cost of ABS for printing compared to that used for injection moulding. I think it's going to be 5 years or more before home tech reaches a quality and price that makes it viable, and this thread will be long forgotten by then ...

As if by magic
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25878078

Wow, beam me up.

Omg just flicked quickly through this thread which I need to read properly. Amazing stuff.

http://forum.wwpd.net/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=8377&start=0

Does this mean GF will be acquiring a 3d printer anytime soon?

I'll help out with the molds!

End of the year could be interesting - Hasbro are apparently working with 3DSystems to release a low-cost 3D printer aimed at kids with the idea being that they can print out their own parts for games.

http://investor.hasbro.com/releasedetai ... eid=825857

Cue expensive digital games bought online direct from Hasbro, printing out the board and pieces at home so the packaging/warehousing/distribution costs for Hasbro as gone. Could be an interesting start, although maybe a little early as the low-cost printer resolution is still is a bit "crap", had a look at the Denford 2UP printers at the Big Bang science fair at the NEC on Saturday and the results were pretty basic and mostly misshapen.