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Post by deuce on Jul 13, 2019 10:38:00 GMT -5
They seem to be reasonably priced these days. They should be able to print anything up to the model body (1/25th scale) itself. If nothing else, just think of the custom parts you could make!
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Post by jbwelda on Jul 13, 2019 14:18:54 GMT -5
I have been tempted, I enrolled in a 3 week course at the local (well, nothing is actually "local" to me) community college this coming semester. The problem remains: where to get the source material files for the printing. There are libraries being built but nothing extensive in the automotive field that I know about. I am talking about pre-designed objects ready or near ready to read and produced by the printer. Plenty of dungeons and dragons sort of stuff, and Eiffel tower statues with dna strands up in them, but not many voltage regulators for a 55 Buick etc. Not to mention entire car bodies. So right now investing in a home printer is not worthwhile for myself because no way will I be able to design parts to feed into the machine, I am not an artist nor design engineer. I would need to be able to source, and probably pay for, files that have already been developed by someone else. I understand you can get some things at Shapeways, if the artist has been good enough to offer the source files, and then of course you probably have to prep them for a particular printer and do some trial and error to get an acceptable print. This is much of what the course I am taking is about, getting a "ready" file to actually print out correctly using X printer and software. I forsee a future though where there will not be actual kits per se, you will download files directly from the "manufacturer" and then build them on line if you like, and then either print out the result or not as your tastes may be. In the future the virtual world is going to be much more present so there isn't really going to be a need to have physical objects, and many people who take up modeling of any kind will not feel the need to actually have a physical object. Putting it together on line will be the fun to it, and then to have it displayed on one on-line gallery or another. That would be one way of doing it, of course you could print out the parts and then assemble the physical object as well, which would be much like what we do now. The "manufacturer" (of intellectual property in this case) will not need to produce and package product, they will not need to physically distribute them, just set up purchase points on-line, just like the music industry has done in the past 20 years. But back to the present, beside the still-present problem of the print lines in the printed piece, the source material software is what I see as the big stumbling block now. Some people of course will excel at producing that, and libraries will be built up with free or low cost access, and the resolution of cheap printers will continue to improve, but for now, I still don't think we are ready to see widespread use of home printers. Maybe this course I am taking will change my mind about that though, its just that this corner of the hobby world might be lagging in development of usable pieces. And I don't think printers are near good enough to do bodies in 1/24 or 1/25, they just take too much cleanup and that cleanup tends to remove the detail leaving basically a funny car shell for a body. Here is a very early product from TDR Innovations, one of the first 3D printing vendors that I was aware of. Took me hours and hours of sanding the (1/8 scale) block and parts to even kind of get rid of the print lines. Some pieces I remade in resin and some pieces were resin replacements that TDR later supplied (charging me an arm and a leg for the upgrade). Turned out pretty good but I am guessing something done with modern technology would put it so shame. jb
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Post by deuce on Jul 14, 2019 9:15:18 GMT -5
Thanks for the input. Maybe I should look more into the resin aspect of creating parts for now.
That little 4 cylinder sure looks nice, though!
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