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The year of the 3D printed miniature and other lies we tell ourselves

matduggan.com

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Re: The year of the 3D printed miniature and other lies we tell ourselves

#91

Post by antonhand »

I think it's also worth mentioning, along with all the very valid points of the article, that 3d printed figures, even at their best, simply cannot match the properties of GW's injection molded plastic at the same time.

FDM prints have visual artifacts you cannot escape with many shapes, and even the most flexible of the expensive resins isn't nearly as durable as a plastic model. Plus plastic models insta-bond with plastic glue making them both easier to assemble and repair (as everything will eventually get damaged through years of play).

I've been doing model work for 30 years, and while 3d print stuff has many uses within the hobby (like making epic terrain way more accessible), replacing the core figures for something like warhammer, to anyone who cares about finish quality and durability at the same time is not one of them.

Re: The year of the 3D printed miniature and other lies we tell ourselves

#92

Post by Suppafly »

antonhand wrote: post #91

I think it's also worth mentioning, along with all the very valid points of the article, that 3d printed figures, even at their best, simply cannot match the properties of GW's injection molded plastic at the same time. FDM prints have visual artifacts you cannot escape with many shapes, and even the most flexible of the expensive resins isn't nearly as durable as a plastic model. Plus plastic models insta-bond with…

Weird to mention FDM prints when people, including the author's examples, generally use resin prints which don't have any of the artifacts that you get from FDM prints.

Re: The year of the 3D printed miniature and other lies we tell ourselves

#93

Post by samplatt »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #5
neonnoodle wrote: post #2

This was a very enjoyable read for me. I’ve never played 40K but have always been impressed with the craftsmanship and dedication of the community. I remember a lot of the early hype around 3D printing, most of which hasn’t panned out where the consumer-hobbyist-level machines are concerned. My local game shop makes a lot of cool 3D printed stuff and sells it online or at cons, but even Etsy is now cracking down on p…

> I remember a lot of the early hype around 3D printing, most of which hasn’t panned out where the consumer-hobbyist-level machines are concerned. In my opinion people simply stopped following the big visions of that time and got satisfied with the current state of 3D printers instead of continuing to iterate on highly experimental designs that could bring the world nearer to these visions.

Cory Doctorow waxed lyrical for many years about the ability to 3d-print clothes and other Maslow-hierarchy needs. Even the most experimental of designs haven't approached that yet... and I think we'd now be scared of increased PFAS levels even if we could.

Re: The year of the 3D printed miniature and other lies we tell ourselves

#94

Post by Doortree »

Really enjoyed the article! I'm someone who could never afford 40K as a kid, but since gettinga 3D printer have been fascinated by the potential for printing minis and toys for my own kids. I'd definitely be planning to print my kids minis if they show an interest in future, now I have some knowledge and experience, especially as I find the games workshop business model too predatory for my liking. I'd much rather buy smaller artists model designs and stick to only heading down official routes for rulebooks, codexes and lore.

I'm seeing a lot of people in comments dismiss FMD printers for minis, and thought I'd highlight the work of a youtuber called 'Once in a six side' who did a deep-dive into FDM mini pronting and got some really impressive results with even stock settings and basic PLA filament (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8fuNDTQJCY).

Once he really explored support placement, settings and ideal configurations his best prints rivalled resin in some cases once painted. Really cool to see as someone who isn't interested in messing with resin anytime soon.

Re: The year of the 3D printed miniature and other lies we tell ourselves

#96

Post by taeric »

"I have a high tolerance for tedious bullshit. This exceeded it."

That has to be one of the more amusing reads I've had in a while. And agreed, dealing with all of the extraneous crap that comes along with 3d printing is amazingly high on the tedious scale. Frustratingly so.

Re: The year of the 3D printed miniature and other lies we tell ourselves

#97

Post by 0x38B »

> [about W40K] ... while still providing frightening amounts of depth if you're the kind of person who finds "frightening amounts of depth" appealing rather than exhausting.

This is me looking at Kenshi, Rimworld, Dwarf Fortress, and most recently Stationeers in my "last played" games.

Re: The year of the 3D printed miniature and other lies we tell ourselves

#98

Post by arjie »

That is a funny read. I love my Bambu P1S for the flexibility it gives us in our house. The 3d printing community is also only matched by the software community in terms of the open-source ecosystem. There's a big culture of remixing and this and that. My wife and I have printed half a dozen things around the house that are useful. I've only ever made one tiny item and I don't think it's of much use to most people because I just used an LLM to build it: a mount for my Eufy E21 baby camera. It's just a box with two pins that end in a cone shape for lateral strength. It works surprisingly well and all I needed was my calipers, a few minutes with Claude Code, and some iteration with the print. Great fun!

Re: The year of the 3D printed miniature and other lies we tell ourselves

#99

Post by RobotToaster »

nancyminusone wrote: post #53

I'm part mechanical engineer and I 3D print things on a near daily basis. My job would be a lot slower and more cumbersome without it. Mind you this is all FDM. I only played with resin printers briefly, and not only do they produce extremely brittle and off-dimenension parts, they are extremely messy and use chemicals that you really should think twice or three times or four times about having under the same roof as…

Some of the limited edition miniatures produced by GW are sold by scalpers for nearly as much as a 3d printer.
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