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PostPosted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:48 pm 
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Stratego
Stratego

Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2001 8:00 pm
Posts: 10855
Location: Ft. Hood Texas
Okay, so owning a 3D Printers and knowing what it can and can't do, as well as learning those two differences, I am wondering what the impact these will have on the world of miniature gaming in general, both long and short term planning and thinking for different companies. I see the pros and cons of this and at the same time I see it as being able to bring new life to the hobby as well as headache.

Also many of these have scanners in them and thus I could see many extinct and OPP miniatures making a come back and thus leading many to have the moral delimia of do they buy or make these or even use them as well as companies crying over lost revenue since it's easier, well once you figure it out, to make your own then to buy them. But at the same time I could them also selling 3D Print files that allow you to download and print these and thus you have given them something and gotten something in return.

So what are your thoughts on this?

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 10:17 pm 
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Supreme Mugwump
Supreme Mugwump

Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2006 3:42 pm
Posts: 3183
well, as you say it is a coin with two sides, on one side you can produce stuff yourself, wich you do not have to buy.
OTOH companys could sell the blueprints instead of models.

it is a bit like with books: on one side they sell fewer books, on the other side many ppl will download the books as ebooks. here you need a 3D printer, there you need an ebook-reader.

the business of producing miniatures for miniature-gaming will change drastically.

there are other interesting points: for selling a miniature "oldstyle" it is required to sell a certain number, just to pay for the cast.
with 3d-printers around the sold number might drop below the needed minimum, wich is BAD.
OTOH miniatures that would NEVER sell "oldstyle", because they are not expected to pay for the cast, either because they would not sell in the required number, or because they(and the respective casts) are too complicated and the cast would be too expensive, could be markeded as "blueprint" instead.
This way 3D-printing allows for the development of buisenesses that are totally different.

I see that instead of selling a hundred models that have to sell one-hundred-thousand each to pay for the casts and production equipment a buiseness could sell ten thousand variants of blueprints that sell a thousand times each.

the next step is to allow the customer to add together virtual parts and print out the results, this way one hundred ork-bodies could combine with one-hundred left arms and one-hundred right arms to allow for tens of thousands of versions(not all combinations make sense, else it would be one million possibilities)
the glueing of the model is simply done in the computer and the result would be a seamless model in exactly the wanted pose.

another developmend could be the printing of wax or another meltable material. the printed wax figure would then be embedded in sand and a metal figure could be cheaply cast in the lost cast.
this method would allow the production of individual metal figures at a relatively low price.
one of the main factors of cost for the casting of metal in this method always was the creation of the wax original.

a main use for 3D printing will be the creation of accessories like weapons, replacement arms or details that are added to a model. The improvement of Kits that are bought. "I want my model-jeep with other rims..." " my soldier needs to carry the correct model and version of the SMLE-Rifle" etc.

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PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 5:39 pm 
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Village Drunk
Village Drunk

Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2001 8:00 pm
Posts: 4113
Location: Worcester, MA
Quote:
Okay, so owning a 3D Printers and knowing what it can and can't do, as well as learning those two differences, I am wondering what the impact these will have on the world of miniature gaming in general, both long and short term planning and thinking for different companies. I see the pros and cons of this and at the same time I see it as being able to bring new life to the hobby as well as headache.

Also many of these have scanners in them and thus I could see many extinct and OPP miniatures making a come back and thus leading many to have the moral delimia of do they buy or make these or even use them as well as companies crying over lost revenue since it's easier, well once you figure it out, to make your own then to buy them. But at the same time I could them also selling 3D Print files that allow you to download and print these and thus you have given them something and gotten something in return.

So what are your thoughts on this?
I have a friend that is printing some incredible terrain for minis games with his 3D printer, and he has printed some long OOP D&D minis...and other than the weight they're hard to tell from the originals.

I think in the long run it's a good thing, but in the short term it's going to cause some issues with people pirating (and that's essentially what they're doing) current, "in print" minis. Companies are going to have to figure out how to deal with this issue once 3D printing because cheap enough for the masses to do.

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2017 3:26 am 
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Loki
Loki

Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2001 8:00 pm
Posts: 11444
Location: Minnesnowta
It is the first step towards the replicators of star trek fame.

I walk into the brave new world of 3d printers with a smile on my face and hope to see it be great. :)

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 6:12 pm 
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Master Sergeant
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Joined: Fri Feb 26, 2016 11:28 am
Posts: 89
Karagin, i thank you for starting current topic (i was thinking of starting similar topic); 3D Printers controlled by robots could perhaps make making gigantic quantities of miniatures as easy as 1 2 3; how about having miniatures made from hempcrete (hemp version of concrete)? a videogame known as Dune The Battle For Arrakis has hemp like spice fields harvested to make buildings and vehicles;


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