Makerbot 3D Printer

[Daedalus]

Printed with Ultimaker 2 v15.02.1 and Cura 15.02.1


This is impressive, but compared to an Inn image it's clear detail is lacking. It was the guy's first attempt at a scan, so maybe there's room for improvement. The die looks like a good option, however. The chest also looked okay.

[IvenBach]

With some tweaking you'd be surprised at what those things can do.

[Goblin-King]

I don't know... Maybe it's different face to face, but that skeleton is FAR from what I would call acceptable standard from a hobbyist point of view.
We are still a couple of years away from 3D printed minis becomes a thing.

[cornixt]

At least alter the poses of the models before printing. It's bad enough that all skeletons are identical (are there really that many farmers in the dungeon who were caught out during wheat/grass harvest time?). This seems worse than all the other alternatives unless you are trying to complete an existing set and postage costs a lot where you live.

[knightkrawler]

Are there really that many farmers in the dungeon who were caught out during wheat/grass harvest time?

And NAKED?! WTF!!!

I don't know... Maybe it's different face to face, but that skeleton is FAR from what I would call acceptable standard from a hobbyist point of view.
We are still a couple of years away from 3D printed minis becomes a thing.

And when it is, the miniature hobby will die. Slowly and painfully.

[whitebeard]

And when it is, the miniature hobby will die. Slowly and painfully.

Explain how the hobby will die.

[knightkrawler]

Just a hunch. But when people make their own minis, professional quality detail manufacturers like, say, DarkSword will sell less and prices will rise. Maybe the market will even become too small for these manufacturers to sustain themselves.
But it could also be that these established manufacturers use 3D printing effectively themselves which will cut down on disadvantages.
Sculptors will be payed less and, I don't know, look for different jobs, taking talent from the market.
Could be I'm much too negative, but that's me.

Take heart and comfort me into a different direction how 3D printing will be good for the hobby.

[ampersand]

Just a hunch. But when people make their own minis, professional quality detail manufacturers like, say, DarkSword will sell less and prices will rise. Maybe the market will even become too small for these manufacturers to sustain themselves.
But it could also be that these established manufacturers use 3D printing effectively themselves which will cut down on disadvantages.
Sculptors will be payed less and, I don't know, look for different jobs, taking talent from the market.
Could be I'm much too negative, but that's me.

Take heart and comfort me into a different direction how 3D printing will be good for the hobby.

i agree here. look at the music industry for example, over the years people have constantly come up with way to make the making of music easier. this in turn brought us itunes which then gave musicians a platform to sell most of their crappy music. in turn the quality of musicians went down, and now look at the music industry...its pretty much shambolic compared to a few decades ago.

whilst im all for technology. i do feel that people invent things to make life easier. if you make things easy, people get lazy, when creators get lazy. they dont create their best work.
now that being said there are a few that excel in this field. but when/if this becomes mainstream and everyone can do it. i would actually imagine prices would come down and not go up. as to compete a product simply isnt enough. prices have to be competitive. but when people are doing it for less...they are more likely to drift where the money is.......

[whitebeard]

Yes, the internet / digital revolution has upset a lot traditional models. The music industry killed itself by not making mp3's available for purchase... the easiest way to get music in this format was to steal it. Many newspapers and magazines have gone out of business because they could not adapt to open competition on a massive scale. And Sears (a monolithic department store chain peaking in the 80's) and Radio Shack recently filed bankruptcy (killed in no small part by Amazon, eBay, and others). Digital printing (scanning, copying, printing) and eReaders have also changed things.

That said, a lot of people now spend billions of dollars to buy their music though iTunes (why would you ever do this?) and Amazon (Amazon is not tied to a single player and has no DRM). It now easier than ever for an artist to be completely independent of a record label and receive 70% of the revenue from the sale of their music. This is superior. I'm going to guess that people who actually like music and go to concerts for less popular stuff tend not to steal music anyway.

Journalism is a really crappy career path now. This may never be coming back. When I can read Reuters directly, I don't need my local newspaper to re-package it and re-sell it. That kills local reporting because it is no longer subsidized. If you're REALLY good at what you do you can still make a good living. I have a relative who does this.

And frankly we are all better off with leaner "big box" stores. When I want robot parts, I buy them directly from AdaFruit, or a Cana-kit supplied through Amazon, or out of print H-bridge chips on eBay. The profits are going directly to the teams that make this stuff available and make it exciting. Not RadioShack who couldn't be bothered to stock what I need.

So how about digital books? The last book I read, "The Martian" began as a free PDF on the author's website. People begged for the Kindle version, so he posted it at the minimum price ($0.99) and look at him now (movie deal, etc.). There are numerous other self published authors who have found success this way and when you do, there is no middle man taking the profits.

Paper printing has not killed the quality of the book industry. I don't see 3D printing killing the miniatures industry. If you want a high quality miniature printed, your not going to be printing it at home. Just like you don't print your own photos (it is easier, cheaper, and higher quality to have them done somewhere professionally). The 3D model owners can license their models through an ordering system that sends the job to a local print shop and they can make more money in royalties that way, than they ever did before when getting paid fixed cost for models. And the end consumer has more freedom to scale models at will, etc. The manufacturing companies dictation of model ranges will be gone, and the artists will sell their stuff directly. So yes, without a "game" requiring a particular miniature (GW) vendors like Dark Sword and Reaper will die out in favour of the artists themselves. Maybe you cannot make a living on this? I think this was always hard. Ampersand could easily be a pro sculptor, but I think it's just a hobby for him? The great stuff will still be out there to buy. Maybe you just need one figure to go viral and you're set?

No brave new world?

[Thantos]

When consumer 3D printing get to the standard where you can print an ok mini, is going to be a disruptive presence for the industry for sure. Im sure the mini industry will survive, even if it is just transformed into some companies that are a band of digisculptors selling digital miniature files for people to 3d print (which will mean expensive prices for anyone who doesn't own a printer and wants real casts)

Not all printers are equal.
At Zealot we have the same Ultimaker 2 printer shown in the OP, and it's not good enough quality to print a real miniature. That HQ skelly looks almost passable because the details are bold, simple and very plain (lets be honest! )
Print:
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e146/ ... joh5uc.jpg

We also have a Solidscape 3Z Pro which is suitable for a miniature. But the running cost and material usage is like £20 for a single model.
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e146/ ... oc6tza.jpg

A lot of things are going to have to improve until its cost and time effective to print your models. I give it 3-4 years, Im following the development of new printers very closely, since this is a threat to my job and soon in a few years it may be time to evolve