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A 3D printer can't even print a DVD case, with the transparent insert thing. There's a long way to go.
Another example is this one where the 3D print was done as a continuous printing (i.e. no slicer, or sorta like a vase mode print) to make the clear show a bit better: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sy50BrlDMo
This was a great read, and perfectly conveyed the combination of passion and anger of every WH player I’ve ever met has had. Given the time, it’s hard not to view this same argument through the lens of AI. People who love crafting their creative works will still do it, even when AI can do it. They will still inspire others because they demonstrate what humans can do, and what we can aspire to.
Great point. Also, nobody would go to a cafe where the coffee comes from a fully automated machine instead of a barista.
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 the one you sleep in.
With how useful FDM is to me, it seems really strange that resin printing's killer app has been "miniatures", like it's the niche it fell into after everyone bought one and discovered they aren't great for much else. I am in disbelief that people would willingly deal with resin printers just to do miniatures, like there's no way it could possibly be worth it even if you really like that hobby. It feels wrong even to refer to both under the same umbrella of 3D printing.
That said, if you're not regularly designing parts you need made and/or aren't a CAD user, I don't see much use in the average person having a 3D printer (I have 5 btw)
I fully agree with the article, and I have experienced the exact same pain with resin printing, which has been collecting dust since my first printing streak. But I have to say that the comparison between the time investment in resin printing and preparing official Warhammer models for painting is very incomplete. Ultimately, if everything goes well with the printing (and it usually does), the whole process will take…
Home Resin Printers should be in a vented garage, as the unpleasant odor is the least of its issues. The low-viscosity washable water-like resins tend to be much easier to handle, but even when vented outside... an activated charcoal filter is wise if you have neighbors. =3
I am a new initiate into the world of 3d printing for minis. I decided a resin printer does not suit my small apartment lifestyle, and got an Elegoo Centauri Carbon FDM printer. It's pretty plug-and-play, there was very little setup required. www.reddit.com/r/FDMminiatures/ will give you an idea of the level of quality you can reach. With the smallest 0.2mm nozzle, will it reach resin levels? Close but not really. Is…
Necroprinting isn't about printing necrons.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adw9953
> Here we report “3D necroprinting,” a biohybrid manufacturing technique that repurposes female mosquito proboscides as high-resolution 3D printing nozzles. The mosquito proboscis, with its unique geometry, structure, and mechanics, enables printed line widths as fine as 20 μm ...
(that's 0.02mm)
They are in some people's driveway. That's the remarkable part anyway
> Another fellow dork will then play you on a game board roughly the size of a door, covered in fake terrain that someone spent 40 hours making to look like a bombed-out cathedral. You will both have rulebooks with you containing as many pages as the Bible and roughly as open to interpretation. Wars have been started over less contentious texts.
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 when "Warty 40" was invented and largely supplanted Warhammer itself. I remember Citadel Miniatures and (A)D&D 1st editions, not to mention Traveler, Runequest, Tunnels and Trolls, Car Wars and many more. I was pretty decent at painting (quickly and accurately) and several kiddies used to pay me to get their latest regiment of space marines into action with the right colours. I went to a posh school and so…
I had a go at FDM printing some minis, for old times' sake, and it didn't go well. The best resolution that I can get to is around 0.1mm, which is incredibly slow to print, and still not fine enough. The print layers are still visible, the detail is blurred. Sanding doesn't help that much; the face is still a mess. You can't paint individual eyeballs on them.
If you remember the first generation of plastic gobbos and dwarves in the Warhammer (not 40K) beginner box released back in the early 90's, where they obviously had two-part moulds and there were no underhangs anywhere on the models, then my FDM versions were more shit than those.
The author is spot-on about the hobby, and about the business model, and about 3D printing's place in it.
But have a go, it's a fun challenge for a 3D printer enthusiast :)
3D printers are really cool, in a way that's hard to grasp until you use one. My apartment came with a single trash bin, conflicting with the CC+R requirement that you separate out your recycling. I designed and 3D printed a retrofit to hang two trash bags in a single can. Now I can separate my recycling without having it out in my living space.
I also had a kitchen island that came with a drawer that was shorter than my utensil tray, with a frustrating amount of dead space behind the drawer. I bought a dremel and some wood glue to mod the drawer to fit the utensil tray. I 3D printed the tools I needed to do it - like a jig and some vices.
I've been meaning to design and print some hangers for my plastic instruments - I still have my Rock Band kit from college.
Maybe people who play WH4K care about the OEM seal of approval. Maybe they look down at 3D printing. Surely, it still opens the hobby to people who _don't_ have thousands to invest in miniatures. I would 100% print miniatures if I was into that game.
But it feels like he's too focused on that particular micro-market. Maybe there's something in that subculture that makes them look down on 3D printers (and maybe not understanding that is a useful analogy to other "from the outside, this is dumb" situations). But there's a whole lot of utility in 3D printing that has nothing to do with wargames.
Also, my office has a makerspace. I've seen _plenty_ of people printing pieces for tabletop games. The author has his biases too.
His description of resin printing, especially the meth lab comparison and > At one point, he said the phrase "you really don't want to get this on your skin" with the casual tone of someone who had definitely gotten it on his skin. are spot on. There are currently 10 3d printers in my household and there have been maybe 30 unique ones in total over the past 2 years but after the first 3-4 months of resin printing tha…
But it's kind of like having an open can of paint in the middle of your house, just sitting there with the lid off. Most of the time that happens only when you're painting the walls, you don't live like that.
Similar experience as to you, I found resin printing to have too crap results given the level of effort to process them.