Is it viable to 3d print Warhammer miniatures? I've seen some 3dprinters with an incredible level of detail...

I got a question semi-related to OP, what programs do people use to design 3d-printer-ready models? I've got some ideas and I want to see if I have any talent for 3d modeling.

The nerve of people expecting payment for providing services.

I was talking about those, they basically grow the thing out of liquid resin. I held in one hand one of their products, and it's detailed down to cellular level

>It's a gimmick, a toy like VR

VR's had research and scientific application for 40 years now, it's just not affordable enough to be a commodity.

Same with printers, all the cool shit is industrial.

Shit like this takes decades to get to the consumer level. Doesn't change the fact that it will eventually get to the consumer level and when that happens, it will kill miniature companies unless they find a way to adapt (which I'm not entirely sure is possible).

Just because idiots were a little too optimistic with the timeframe doesn't change the final outcome.

Just like printers killed books and card games.

3d printing is a lot better than it was a few years ago when those shitty dreadnoughts were going around.

It's still not viable to purchase armies worth of dudes but things like marine shoulder pads and D&D figures are becoming more common.

Just buy one model and then make your own molds and mix up some resin. Better quality results than 3d printing

3D printers are used for prototyping in the industry, not for production at all.

Not the same at all. A printer can't bind a book and a deck of cards are usually made of card stock or plastic, not printer paper. And both are cheap as fuck.

If a 3D printer can print a model that is indistinguishable from one made using a mold just for the price of the material used to print it, how does GW compete? I don't think mold line nostalgia is going to justify $40 for a squad of Space Marines.

Pretty much this.

The printing technology isn't cheap enough to compete with GW's kits but there are shoulder pads on shapeways that are now cheaper than Forgeworld's.

>just like online retailers killed physical stores
Oh wait that actually happened

Things should be free because I want them.

>If a 3D printer can print a model that is indistinguishable from one made using a mold just for the price of the material used to print it

Yeah, that ain't happening, even in 20 years time.

Funny thing is with the current true scale marine talk going around these days at the time when 3d printing became more affordable and more user firendly only thing you would need to do it enlarge the scanned miniature to the required amonut to get the true-scale marines wtihotu even needing to buy gw new marines and converting them.
Hell you can even have the old papa dreadnaught in true scale this way.

laughingeveryphysicalstorethatstillexists
laughingFLGS

>ı am denying something without providing a counter argument because i would feel like an idiot for paying ridiculous amounts for plastic army man,

The post.

I plan on having some bits SLS printed and then copying them in resin.

I have an FDM printer, which gets loads of use, but not for minis. Could probably do a passable vehicle, with some effort put into dividing up the parts, but I don't really feel like bothering.

That kind of thing isn't affordable at the moment. Plus you don't want to keep current marinelet proportions.

>doesn't know what sunk cost fallacy is
>strawmans

What is wrong with them? Heads look just a little bit bigger but that can be adjusted too.

That's sure stopping all the people buying FW instead of recasts
>i am claiming something without providing evidence because i would feel like an idiot for spending 20 years pretending my poorfaggotry will end without any effort

The problem with the recasts is
1- Most people dont know where to find them
2- The quality varies a lot with each recaster
3-Shipping times and seller communications are a bother.

For those reasons most people will prefer buying from fw.
If they had the option to print their own minis easily they would do it immediately.

No they wouldn't dumbass

See: single player video games and movies vs pirating

You act as if 3D printing won't come with its own set of issues compared to simply buying models

Yeah he should have been grateful you came up with the idea for him, should have paid YOU if anything.

Yeah but by the time you've printed off your third chapter you'll be laughing all the way to the bank

>Is it viable to 3d print Warhammer miniatures?
>I've seen some 3dprinters with an incredible level of detail, down to some fraction of a millimetre.
Basically what this user said here The hardware needed to scan and print the models at the level of detail desired (best option would be to scan the sprues) would be at least a few thousand dollars, making it just not monetarily feasible for personal use unless you were planning to do something like assemble an army of thousands of models.

>See: single player video games and movies vs pirating
False equivalency. Movies are cheap enough that it's not a big deal to pay for them, same with video games to an extent (that and DRMs are more effective on games than movies).

Whereas 40k and other miniature games are an expensive niche, if 3d printers allow people to make a $100 vehicle for the price of $10 of material, they're going to do it as soon as the price of a 3d printer is acceptable. GW would either have to lower their prices drastically, which I doubt they could do without bankrupting their company, or lobby governments around the world to get miniature blueprints added to DRM laws, which they don't have enough influence to get done.

It won't happen now or anytime soon because 3d printers cost thousands of dollars, but as soon as a high-detail 3d printer gets down to the price of a medium-to-large miniature army, the miniature market is going to take a nosedive.

Unless of course they find a way to adapt.

i feel by that time companies will have used printers them selves in order to lower production cost and thereby model prices

Great for vehicles or other things that are prohibitively expensive, bad for small models with very fine detail.

3d printing the pieces for a rhino can go great and the models are probably available. Good luck getting someone to zbrush a printable model for most infantry, though.

As a caveat also consider maintenance of those printers.

Its much cheaper to change your own oil than to have it done at a shop, and you'll probably do a better job than a lot of the shops. Power of convenience is not to be underestimated.

I only know the generalities but 3D printing is still too costly. Right now it's only good for customized one of a kind pieces like prototypes.

It's still too far off unless you had a game that used custom unique models for every unit. I don't think it will kill gamesworkshop or anyone else. If anything, cheap 3d printing will help their profits. I don't think individuals will want to mess with all the cleaning, fumes, error correcting, etc.

I mean just imagine the crazy logistics/supply they could do with easy 3d printing. They would just have to locate printing centers or use 3rd party centers and do it all completely on demand. It would improve their profits tremendously and probably allow all sorts of tax breaks depending on the country.

Most home 3d scanners are not that good. They are shit, even.

Industry 3d scanners are cool as fuck. I've seen them at work. But the models they produce are not usable as-is and need cleaning up.

Furthermore the manufacturing process of 3d printing is not as easy as "push a button and a little while later you get a space marine" There is a lot of trimming and cleaning that goes into it.

It is a lot of expensive hardware and a lot of work. Very good if you want to produce 1 model. Shit if you want to make an army.

If you want to make countless models to sell, look elsewhere. 3D printing while very cool, doesn't scale as well as injection molding.

The quality is still too shit. When I can't tell a 3d printed model apart from a molded one then it's good enough.

>Just like streetlights killed the lamplighter industry.
>Just like automated milkers killed the milkmaid occupation.
>Just like refrigerators killed the ice-cutting industry.
It's like you weren't even trying to come up with a relevant example. Poor you.

Those analogies don't even work. Candles and milk and ice are all still products available on the market that have related professions. Why does Veeky Forums have so many dumb people trying to look like a smartass and then looking even stupider?

>Candles and milk and ice are all still products available on the market that have related professions.
And there'll still be a market for minis sales. But that doesn't mean it will involve the same sales structure you see today.

Printers changed the book industry a fuckton. Nowadays, you have print-on-demand companies that cut out the middleman of needing to find a distributor. That's starting to kill traditional publishing, and any company that doesn't adapt will likely die.

The same may be true here. 3D printing can change things, and force businesses to adapt. In a few years, companies might be selling STLs for their minis as well as minis themselves.

>lamplighters just become the city workers who maintain the street lights
>milkmaid just becomes dairy farmers
>ice cutters literally still exist

All you've proved is that GW will become 3D printers if history is correct.

How about you actually read discussions before posting, faglord

> it will kill miniature companies unless they find a way to adapt (which I'm not entirely sure is possible).

>How about you actually read discussions before posting, faglord
I did, dipshit. The thing I was referencing is that plenty of publishing companies DID die thanks to innovation in printers. Plenty of businesses are still dying today because they aren't adapting.

When markets are disrupted, casualties inevitably happen.