Is 3D printing scratch building or something else?

[TheKennanator]

My entire Gue'vessa Tau Axillery army was kitbashed between Tau and Cadians. I kitbashed the special weapons out of several crisis suit weapon systems. I spent upwards of 8 hours per special weapon manufacturing the new component out of the existing weapon bits, and by the time I figured it out I still had to make another 10-20 of them. If I could have made my prototype, took measurements with my calipers, then modeled and printed it, I would have had a much more consistent and pleasing army. At the very least I could have made fixtures to hold my remix of the GW kit together.

My intentions is to scratchbuild and fill in the gaps that GW has created. I feel its highway robbery that in order to model a Cadian with a plasma gun I either have to buy the command spru or buy a bunch of individual piece from a dubious online source or spend upwards of 10 bucks to buy them from Forge World. If they would bring back the bits store, I would probably not go in the direction 3D printing my own supplements.

I do see a future in which GW would sell DRM'd .STL or .IGES files that wouldn't be able to be modified. I also see them only supporting something like Stereolithography due to the quality that their own standards dictate.

Sorry for the ramble, I haven't had my coffee yet.

[TheKennanator]

It is piracy pure and simple. Unless a permit or licensing ploy is used, a 3D printed version of a GW model is theft. No way around it.

Oh crap, then I committed theft when I modeled and printed a replacement turret ring for my Baneblade GW shipped me that was missing the piece from the kit. Huh... imagine that.

[Kernbanks]

I think more Miniatures companies will adapt to the new environment just like everyone has to do to survive...

I'd like to see where GW gets their money from, or any rules/IP keeping company. If they switch to maintaining themselves with revenue generated from the IP in the form of novels and rule books to play the game I believe players would support them and continue to keep the company going. Then they could sell digial plans for people with 3d printers, or to a lesser extent produce miniatures themselves. (Some people will hold off getting on board the new tech or just will want to go and simply buy a model to assemble).

But if GW (or any company) attempts to maintain a kingdom, the technology will surpass them and erode at the foundation.

I personally like the idea of a living game that the 7th edition rules rumors are leaning towards. Play out of White Dwarf, keep it open, have codex entries with no models so people can create, encourage creation so people keep buying the books, magazines, dataslates... that keeps you open and the players happy.

[Arkhan Land]

dont sell it, dont take it anywhere that sells it. should be cool!

[Nabterayl]

Oh crap, then I committed theft when I modeled and printed a replacement turret ring for my Baneblade GW shipped me that was missing the piece from the kit. Huh... imagine that.

If the turret ring is a copyrightable component, then yes you did. It probably isn't, so [probably] no theft in that case. On the other hand, if you had done the exact same thing with a more visually distinctive piece (say, a missing lascannon barrel, just to pull an example out of thin air), odds that you have committed theft go way up.

[archimbald]

As usual when this topic comes up, i feel people over react, the cost of a 3d printer needed for something of 28mm scale at the quality we are used to is damn expensive, heck, people are only now getting personal laser cutters, at a £700+, with the maker bot 2 still over £2k, and at far less than optimal detail (we have them in use at work), its going to be a long time, certainly not 3years, before every day joe blogs can have one beside their HP Printer, as for the sculttping software, takes a while to learn proficiently, so congrats to builder, although their are easier ones and tuitorials/comissions may be the way they go, along with licensed files for download.


Call me a pessimist or whatever, but people need to chill out

[Theik]

As it currently stands, a 3d printer will cost you somewhere around the 2000 euro mark and it most likely won't produce the kind of details you see on an average game's workshop miniature. (Well, unless it's a finecrap miniature, but that's an entirely different situation.) Add to that the price of the material to print and the time it takes to print and it is far more convenient to simply buy the miniature and put up with the high prices. You could in theory pirate a codex, print it all, make your own hardcover and create your own exact copy of the real thing, but I have yet to see anybody do it. Why? Because you'll end up with a half-assed attempt that doesn't look anything like the original. (Unless you happen to make books for a living, then go you.)

Until the technology gets better to allow for more detail and cheaper printing, it simply isn't worth the hassle of printing your own models if you end up with the same amount of detail as the average lego figure.

[tyrela]

If it is for personal use It would not be considered theft. Is it theft to copy a CD to Itunes to play on your MP3 player? No. as long as youa re not distributing the item it is fully protected under personal use.

[BrotherAlpharius]

Ehhhh, I dunno. Keep in mind mass production techniques are also advancing. Home 2d-printers never destroyed the book industry for much the same reason.

This. Mass production by the bulk manufacturer should always be more efficient than home production. The manufacturer can negotiate better prices with its suppliers, afford better and more efficient machinery, etc. Yes, in the case of GW they have staff costs which the individual hobbyist does not and they are trying to support a network of physical stores which may become an outmoded business concept in need of change but fundamentally the home hobbyist shouldn't undermine the manufacturer. In theory I could get an electronic copy of a novel and print it out on my home printer but why bother? It's quicker, cheaper and less effort to go on Amazon and order the book for £5. The same should be true of 3d printing.

I am guessing here as I don't know the costs. Builder, would you mind telling us the approximate cost of your 3d printer and estimates of the cost of resin used for models of varying sizes?

[techsoldaten]

I don't see this primarily as a moral / legal issue, so much as how it's done these days.

Most of the sculptors I know make their models at 2x scale then scan it into a computer to add fine details before printing their casts on a 3d printer. I know several people who personally own industrial 3d printers with very high resolution and use it to print copies of their models as proofs for their clients. Saying the tech is 3 years off is a misnomer, it's there right now for the people who want to invest in it. The cost to entry is not that much worse than getting a new Mac Pro, and it's coming down.

While I understand IP and the need for creators to protect their work, 3d printing introduces a lot of new variables into the equation. I think of the future as a sharing economy, where the companies who win are going to be the ones who can effectively implement business models that incorporate people's personal tech into what they do. If you look at what has happened with music, games, etc, you find that the companies that do the best are the ones that facilitate simpler, more efficient and higher quality transactions than can be had through alternative models.

GW is experimenting with microtransactions on the rules side, and I don't think it will be long before they take a good, hard look at personal 3d printing in a similar way. I don't think they will embrace it fully, but I could see scenarios where people can order scratch-built custom models and have them delivered to stores. Eventually, they may get to the point where you can design a model through some proprietary software using their files as a base and print it locally. This would be in-line with army painters seen in various GW video games, and army builder software you can purchase today - it seems like personalization is very much a nice to have with any digital product.

No clue what they will do in the end, but there's no right or wrong involved. These are decisions about business models that need to be made by a company, anyone making copies of stuff right now is just ahead of the curve. There is no one talking about setting up their own printing business that churns out copies of GW products, which are fully protected under international IP laws. Someone doing something at home and not distributing it, or small outfits trying to get away with rip-offs, don't do much harm to the GW business model at it stands. The last annual report dealt with some of this and they are not saying it's a big deal to investors.

Anyways, it will be interesting to see which way this goes, but it's a mistake to give too much weight to the actions of a few people with 3d printers. The technology is whiz-bang but it's not a substitute with a business model designed to capitalize on a market. Quite frankly, if GW fails to capitalize in this area, someone else will find a way to do it better and succeed them - the cost of entry is too low and there will be a lot of players.