3D - The writing on the wall - the end of an age?

[stillp]

It do raise questions. One guy buys a kit, then either builds and scans it or just scans it then sells the scan cheap to anyone with a printer - so the original manufacturer sells one kit instead of 20; 50; 100 ...... Wonder how long they are going to be able to stay in business?

And with the increasing range of materials that can be printed, the whole of the manufacturing sector could be under threat - except of course for the ones who make printers!

Huxley never saw this in his 'Brave New World'.

Surely a scan would only be the outside of a completed model? I suppose someone could scan the sprues and sell the parts, but who would buy them - that would be dearer than buying the kit.
Personally I don't think 3D printing (or any other form of additive manufacturing) will see the end of injection moulded kits, but it will probably have a big impact on resin figures and aftermarket accessories.
Pete

 

[Gary MacKenzie]

Peter,
A young lady who used to be on Facebook ( Naomi Wu ) - a reviewer of modern technology & a maker, had a full body scan ( in a bikini ) & made the files available several years ago - I have the files on my computer, I've never printed them, she doesn't appeal to me.
More troublesome is buying & scanning a model, then printing it off & selling copies!! There's absolutely no way this can be prevented, just hope that no-one would be tempted by low prices, from a doubtful source.
Ths raises a question of when something becomes your intellectual property. If, for an example I take a Panzer IV turret & add Zimmerit to it. I scan it & print models - could I legitimately sell these as my work? I have no idea about how laws cover this, I know rip-offs of resin cast busts/figures are freely available from the Far East, is scanning going to extend this & go beyond, to larger models?
Dave

There is already a ''facebook entity'' advertising a 18TB ( thats 18 Terrabytes ) of 3d files , online , that you can access remotely, download what you want for the sum of $19.99

 

[Magneto]

One aspect nobody has mentioned is the use of 3D software and 3D printers in the design process.

Take Andrea for example; they produce the same figure in multiple scales so it is safe to assume that the original master is produced using 3D sculpting software as opposed to 'pushing putty', but the products they sell seem to still be cast. i think this is the way RP models work. This way they get the best of both worlds - fast and flexible design with proven and fast production - remember casting in white metal is vastly faster than printing, even casting in resin is faster then printing.

there is one further change which has arrived - home scanning. My new Ipad has LiDAR technology and there are a number of apps to use it. i have just downloaded Polycam. In theory I can scan an object and load it into a sculpting program to manipulate. So far I have tested it by scanning a foot stool and loading ito nomad Sculpt where i have been able to maipulate it, and presumably produce a 3D print if I wanted one.

this completely revolutionises sculpting; i should be able to scan a person, so what about scanning a person in full uniform to produce a bust or full figure? scanning re-enactors could allow me to print any number of bespoke busts.

i must book tickets for next year's Military Odyssey!

Peter

The whole landscape of scale modelling will no doubt be drastically changed well within the 20 years that some have surmised. Not necessarily for the worse as I believe that the boundaries of scale modelling will go on expanding.
I have had my eye on that Luftwaffe Andres set for some time now - but i can’t find it in the UK and shipping is prohibitive. It’s funny but their other figures are annoyingly primitive - some kind of paradigm shift has obviously taken place

 

[Peter Gillson]

Andrea - i had missed that blog - nice project. i agree that as technology develops it will all become more accessable; take scanning. For instance; your blog was 4 years ago I bet at that time nobody expected Ipads to come with LiDAR.

Richard - I agree that it is the putty sculptors who will suffer. This type of thing happened in the world of 2-d art. I know a chap called Tim white who was in huge demand in the 1970's and 1980 for sci-fi book cover art, but found he could not compete with people using photoshop etc. I guess that this may already have happened to the guys who used to make physical masters for kits.

I tend to agree with Pete - will it really be worth the effort of scanning a completed kit, or the sprues to sell as forgeries? I expect injection moulded to continue for a good while yet.

to return to the original question; is it the end? I think not, in the way that resin casting was not the end. It's just a different way of getting kit/figures/busts produced and distributed. We may find sort of hybrid processes; where a person in costume/ uniform may be scanned but the files refined in either a software package or printed and refined by hand. Like resin casting, it may open the way for more small business's producing stuff the big boys don't.

i also wouldn't be surprised to see the setting up of 3rd party print services, who will print files for you. There is one locally which apparently does quite a lot of Warhammer type figures. Apparently there are website where you can mix'n'match parts to create a bespoke figure. I can see me using such services rather than getting involved with all of the hassle of a printer. I think resin printers are a bit like boats - better to know somebody who owns one that the own one yourself!

Peter

 

[Tim Marlow]

A lot of this is already happening Peter. The big producers like Games workshop have been using 3D generated masters for their injection moulded stuff for a long time. Putty generated masters are already moving to the periphery in the figure world, especially in the smaller scales. Scanned full sized figures have been used for ages. In fact, a couple of years ago in wargames shows you could get your own head scanned and added to a general figure, and then printed up so you could lead your own armies.
Here is some more future right now….design and print your own railway buildings. Pendon it ain’t, but it adds individuality with minimum effort…

EN

www.faller.de

 

[Peter Gillson]

A lot of this is already happening Peter. The big producers like Games workshop have been using 3D generated masters for their injection moulded stuff for a long time. Putty generated masters are already moving to the periphery in the figure world, especially in the smaller scales. Scanned full sized figures have been used for ages. In fact, a couple of years ago in wargames shows you could get your own head scanned and added to a general figure, and then printed up so you could lead your own armies.
Here is some more future right now….design and print your own railway buildings. Pendon it ain’t, but it adds individuality with minimum effort…

EN

www.faller.de

Exciting times - full of possibilities!

 

[Gern]

Surely a scan would only be the outside of a completed model? I suppose someone could scan the sprues and sell the parts, but who would buy them - that would be dearer than buying the kit.
Personally I don't think 3D printing (or any other form of additive manufacturing) will see the end of injection moulded kits, but it will probably have a big impact on resin figures and aftermarket accessories.
Pete

Most kits are supplied with parts which are only detailed on the outside with extra parts needing to be added to complete interior detail. Clever choice of scans of sub-assemblies might be tempting to some. I mean, how many folks would like a single 3D print of a complete set of working track links? There are models with separate working parts which are produced as a single print already.

The price of 3D printers has dropped to a level that's within the reach of a lot of modellers - comparable to an A/B set-up for example. The price of printing is also bound to fall. How long will it be before 3D printing is as cheap as injection moulding - or at least cheap enough to consider as an alternative? Would a single scan plus nine prints be cheaper than nine individual kits of the Red Arrows?

Despite that, I think you're right that there will still be a place for injection moulded kits, I just wonder how many manufacturers will still be in that market in, say, 5 years time?