Open gaming mini license

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 0]

The question wasn’t is 3D printing replacing purchasing miniatures, it was are companies like GW still relevant. So the answer to the original question, quite simply is “Yes, companies like GW are still relevant and will remain so for many years to come”.   My own personal experience of 3D printing is what has definitely lead to that opinion.  Personally I love it and I have found I can get loads of miniatures that I wouldn’t be able to otherwise get, especially in some niche genres. Everytime I buy

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 0]

To summarise that, my opinion is 3D printing is great and I don’t think I could go back to not having one.

The bigger picture is that the technology is nowhere near ready for mass market consumption and is not even close to posing a threat to the sale of cast miniatures, so GW are and will remain relevant

[limburger 21704xp 1]

Instant meals never replaced cooking as a hobby or business.
Fast food didn’t kill the restaurants.

video/dvd/streaming didn’t kill the movie theatre.

music in all of its format never stopped concerts

All these things really did was add more ways for us to enjoy stuff.
We as consumers did benefit as the competition pushed the related industries to do just that bit extra.

GW & co are going to have to make a decision to either join or compete on a different level.
I bet someone is doing the numbers right now … we won’t know what their final decision is, because there’s a lot that can change.
Heck … MS once said that Internet was just a fad … and then they jumped in and managed to do a complete 180.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we were to see something similar in this industry.
All it takes is that one golden moment.

I think the real test will be when full colour 3D printing tech hits the hobby market.

[horati0nosebl0wer 19645xp 1]

I’m happy to assemble figures and slap paint. The benefit of 3D models and minis made with fittings engineered is the lack of trying to key with dry fits for pinning for models that lacked clean connection. Wyrd jumped into plastics and did the hard slog through various models to clear up how things should fit together (begin the legend of Yan Lo’s beard). I think that with the Star Wars Legion figures and what I’ve seen with GW’s more recent plastics fittings as an issue is being taken more seriously.

The idea of working with “prepainted” figures is to take the process of my happiness away. The success and failure of making something grey into colored chaos that attracts attention is what I think we all might be after in our own ways. Thiking of that I’m reminded of all the repaint work I used to see on Wizkid figures.

That all aside I believe that @limburger has hit the nail on the head. There are plenty of things that drive the action and different reactions to the motion in the industry. Its all interesting to watch but it doesn’t get minis painted. Analysis paralysis is about as useful as mental masturbation.

[limburger 21704xp 0]

there are always going to be those who consider the entire proces to be part of the tabletop hobby.

And then there are going to be those who rather spend money than time on getting things done.

IIRC magazines like Wargames Illustrated featured advertisements for fully painted armies before 3D printing existed.
All that is happening is that things become cheaper and part of the hobby experience is going to change.

We stopped casting lead minis in our own homes … maybe because it was more convenient to buy cast models instead ?
Or because selling molds was too complex and 3D printing is more or less a rebirth of that era ?

[ced1106Participant 6224xp 0]

> Professional 3D printer shops as the mainstay might be the outcome rather than home printing.

Good news: We already have at least one company that have the infrastructure to print and ship 3D products worldwide, with potential locations domestic to customers. This infrastructure includes support for third parties, as well as supplying electronic files to their own line of Consumer-level devices individuals own for individual use.

Bad news: It’s Amazon. 😀

Anyway, posted this in the Brexit shipping thread: As much as threads discuss 3D printers as a technology, I think increasing shipping costs will be the real push. Even if you don’t buy one, the domestic business that ships you a low-print run / customized widget may. Just imagine if a company that already has a widespread logistics to ship product to your home yet has warehouses everywhere in the world — such as Amazon — enters the 3D printing business so you and companies can purchase custom-made or otherwise unavailable 3D printed parts from them, or purchase .stl files, much like how you can purchase electronic reading material from them. (Hmm… an Alexa home 3D printer… ?

EDIT: Good ol’ CMON is charging EU backers with a VAT increase. More info in the Brexit thread. I’ve also seen hobby-level 3D printed products on Amazon, as well as KS products. So looks like selling 3D printed items through Amazon is already happening, although the printing is still being done by the 3rd party.

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 0]

@ced1106 there are plenty of companies who either have or could develop the products and the infrastructure required to really improve the home 3D printing experience to the level that it needs to be for it to compete with GW for miniature sales.  None of them will because return on investment for doing so would not be commercially viable.  I can’t think of any other use beyond printing stuff for tabletop games and that particular market isn’t that big.

@horati0nosebl0wer Not all 3D printable miniatures are single piece, some of them are multi part and you can often find pieces that don’t fit together so well.  GW’s fittings on their hard plastic miniatures have been very good for a long time now.  I would go so far as to say their tooling probably rivals companies like airfix and Tamiya.

@limburger I suspect that GW aren’t doing anything at the moment with regards to 3D printing because they don’t have to.  That’s not to say that they never will but right now it’s not a serious threat to them so they don’t need to do anything beyond monitor the progress of the technology.

[limburger 21704xp 0]

YouTube and quite a few big internet startups would be considered ‘not economically viable’ by those standards … and yet still they got their money. I think Tesla wasn’t doing that good financially speaking either, but somehow they got plenty of funding. So I’m not sure if we can trust those predictions. As I’ve said … all it takes is one lucky startup to be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.

Maybe the mini market is a tough nut to crack, because existing tech is good enough / doesn’t have any problems that need fixing ?
Design of (new) minis is probably 95% perspiration and 5% technology driven. There is nothing to be gained by digitizing the finaly part of the production/development proces as it were.

@onlyonepinman I think you’re right, but at the same time we can’t be sure what is happening behind closed doors at GW.
At the very least they may be using it within their own R&D department. I think they’re pretty good at keeping things secret if they want to.

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 0]

The difference with YouTube being that Google/Alphabet Corp clearly had a plan in mind to monetise YouTube and make their investment back. Which is what I said earlier – until someone thinks of some kind of use for a 3D printer other than making miniatures, advances in the technology will be slow.  Until that happens, home 3D printing will remain quite niche on account of the fact that it is not really very convenient especially for large volumes of miniatures.

[holly 12044xp 0]

I think in drucillacorker we’ve got a spambot – check their posts.

[Author]

Posts