http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heroforge/customizable-3d-printed-tabletop-miniatures?ref=discovery
The premise here is that, by using an app that this company (Hero Forge) allows anyone to utilize for free, you can then design and 3D print a 28mm (or larger) fantasy miniature; a few days later, your very own mini arrives in the mail, still warm from the California sun. There are (or will be) a myriad of options to choose the race, the pose, the weapons, the armor and clothing, the accessories, etc. for your little warrior; the computer and printers take care of the rest. The idea sounds interesting, and the prototypes have a fair amount of detail to them. . . so my bike ride into work this morning was spent thinking about the ramifications on our little world of eBay and Oldhammer blogs. I think everyone of us in the miniature collecting world has probably mulled over the possibilities of 3D printing at some time in the last few years, so it should be no surprise that we are getting this close to a new paradigm.
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| The face of a new era? Or simply a REALLY overpriced piece of plastic? |
But what does that mean really?
When it's all said and done, I believe that this technology is really only going to affect people looking for one of two things:
-A very specifically-designed miniature destined for a showcase-quality paintjob/diorama piece
-A miniature to use as a PC for role-playing games
That's really all I can see, and for the price it appears like they will be seeking after funding (probably in the $30/mini range for the "high detail" versions), that's all anyone could really afford. This isn't being marketed for those of us putting together collections; it's for your dungeon-crawling barbarian and his +1 battle axe, or it's destined to be posted on CMON.
Am I missing anything? Anyone out there have any other thoughts on this? Will any of you give this sort of thing a whorl, or would you rather spend your 30 bucks on, say, two or three OOP Citadel figs?
There are a lot of changes afoot these days. Weird.
I'd rather have my bucks on proper old lead for the time being. That said, I do like the opportunity it opens to give some models my own ugly head and to make some alternative arms for models which lack them...
ReplyDeleteSculpting an alternative head, scanning it and having it printed in muliplle copies is something I would definitely like for instance.
Complete models? well there will be a time when they will be good enough, for now, they just seem to lack something (maybe they're just too perfectly designed and lack realism somehow). Interested in seing how crisp details can get with such a technique...
I agree that being able to have multiple copies of the same figure but with different arms, heads, etc. is intriguing. As for sculpting your own head and then scanning it in- couldn't you achieve the same thing using that putty that softens/hardens depending on whether it is cold or hot water? i know that a lot of people use that stuff to duplicate simple parts, like heads or weapons.
DeleteEither way, what I am most interested in is simply watching how this all unfolds. It won't surprise me if, a year or so from now, you'll be able to go onto the GW website and custom design your entire army using 3D printing. Of course, they will charge you a mere 2500 pounds for the service, but you see what I mean.