The Grenadiers hat is too tall and musket too fine and fed this feedback to Dan but I like the position and it's going to be a good figure. The Prussian Fusilier NCO came out really well and I like him.
Onto the Vauban - I mentioned I was going to print this at 90% size quite an arbitrary reduction but as you know the CT figures are quite slender and I'm hoping it works ok if not we shall have to scale up! So the first two parts of the bastion are on the go and as it shows on the screen - estimated 22 hours so will post results tomorrow!
So at the club last night we got talking about the future of the hobby with all this technology - as it turns out there are now 6 of us with 3D printers - only me with a resin printer and whilst I'm new to the hobby some of the chaps have been very busy. Robbo had printed out the start of his Roman city wall! in 28mm - gate house towers etc and about 4 town houses in material about £12!!
When I did the 15mm Sherman it cost around £1 in resin the Bren carriers 0.35p the recent 40mm figure prints I did were about 30p each!
Now of course we discussed the initial outlay but in terms of the maths if 2 or 3 people grouped together it wouldn't take long to recoup the costs of both the machine and the materials.
Now I think it will be a long time before the figure manufacturers have to worry although I would be quite happy printing 20mm or smaller figures on the resin printer for use on the table.
However in terms of terrain - with so many free files on offer or bundles of terrain at not a lot I really can't see me buying any more buildings add to that the ability to print in almost any scale so I can print the Vauban for example for 6mm right up to 40mm! then why would I. In terms of time then really apart from making sure everything is fine at the start then really the machines can be left to their own devices so we said for companies such as Hovels etc then maybe their days are numbered? It may even have an impact on the plethora of MDF makers out there
As with all things rather than being a doom merchant I would prefer to embrace the change and see where it takes us.
Only 21 hours to go :)
4 comments:
Hi Graham, not long to wait then! I guess as the technology improves things will speed up but so long as it's a safe and quiet process that's fine.
Those figures are lovely, are those changes/tweaks easy to do by Dan? Forgive my ignorance I'm still trying to get my head round this. From my point of view the opportunity to produce a sculpt/3D master and then a mould by Griffin for around £150.00 opens up a lot of opportunities commercially for the future, trouble is that the market is saturated already. I know that for Ian and myself the plan to produce metal 40mm Portuguese is an affordable reality. I like the new skin colour resin. I might even invest in a 3D printer myself when back in the Uk, I just wonder if I could ever work out how to use it :)
Lee,
There's lots of 'opportunities ' even in a saturated market - I guess if you approach it with eyes wide open and don't have unrealistic expectations then any monies raised is a bonus. I'm very tempted with the 40's I'm going to do to be careful how the moulds are made and run small stocks and just advise people they're effectively cast to order. For myself I'd be really happy just printing the figures for my own use, I'd still be printing them faster than I can paint.
I'm no expert, I watched lots of videos on YouTube and then just took my time and still do. There's the occasional failure but it's no big issue. Certainly worth considering for printing out some 40's for yourself.
Your figures are on their way.
It's not like I need more Prussians and Austrians , but 40mm would catch my interest if done in the Stadden-like figures that you are experimenting with. I've always been interested in the Elastolin-Preiser Prussians, but they are too hard to find and quite expensive.
Jim
when I have the full set I shall print you a set off in 40mm and possibly larger and send them out - see what you think
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