Having been a model builder for nigh on 35+ years I’ve seen a lot of things come and go. A lot of things have come and stayed: Printing your own decals, casting your own resin parts, photo etching parts, and more. Once in a while someone mentions trademarks and copyrights involved, but since we’re all doing this stuff for our own use, it’s rarely if ever a question of legal niceties.
Along comes 3D Printing.
I can easily see this revolutionizing the model building hobby! Don’t have enough props? Laser scanner, thirty minutes later, boop out pops another prop! Need to make a turret that was only used on five tanks and need it in 1/24 scale? Laser scanner, two hours later, boop there’s your turret.
Great for the one off or two for yourself kind of deal. But the printers and media are coming down in price. Remember when laser printers were $1000@? Yeah, the low end 3D printers are that price now. What’s going to happen in a couple of years when you can scan in a master and pop out ten or twelve dozen parts for nearly nothing? And then sell them at a lucrative price.
We’ve already seen in the past what happened when Sikorsky went nuts over seeing their name on eBay, what’s going to happen when we have all the various parts all over the world for nothing? Being someone who follows the Intellectual Property saga closely and the fits and misfits of the court cases around Trademarks and Copyrights, I can foresee a huge problem on the horizon.
Granted, I don’t think that it SHOULD be a problem, it’s just an outgrowth of technology that’s going to leave resin casting in the wayside. Much like switching from gas lighting to electric lighting. But we’re going to have to deal with the legal trolls out there.
What do you guys and gals see happening with this new technology?
It is one thing to duplicate a part by actually making a mold around that part. But getting a cad file of a part is something else. I am certainly not aware of model companies publishing CAD files of the parts in their kit, so I am assuming if you want to make a part you would have to draw the file yourself. Thus, it seems to me that these printers are of more use to someone doing scratch building than someone wanting to duplicate a part. It is probably easier to make a mold than a 3D CAD file. I have never heard of a scratch builder being hauled into court on a copyright or patent violation, so I don’t think this will be much of an issue.
Is there a technology for a sensor to “read” the demensions of a part and auto generate the drawing? That software, if cheap enough would bridge the gap i suppose…
Noah, I saw something on TV where some kind of laser scanner was being used on a large scale for something like this. I have to imagine that technology is a little advanced (read expensive) for modeling at this moment.
You can now use a modified Microsoft Kinect device to scan stuff into 3D files, it requires some programming skills along with the Kinect and an Arduino microcontroller and of course a Makerbot 3D printer. There is a book on Amazon on how to get it working…still might be cheaper and eaier to buy a 2nd kit.
BOOK-Making Things See: 3D vision with Kinect, Processing, Arduino, and MakerBot
Imagine… Pirate Ships… Made-up entirely of pirated parts…
As a modler who casts a lot of parts from existing parts, I’d hate to see a bunch of pirated parts for sale anywhere… Granted, I’ve given other modelers replacement partslike seats, yokes, cowls, or the occasional figure set or aircraft canopy, which I’ve cast or vac-formed from original kit parts, but the key word is given … I don’t charge a nickel for any of them, and generally ask the modler that received the part or parts to “pay it forward”…
I don’t see 3-D printing revolutionizing the industry though… At least, not in my (remaining)modeling life-time… I think it’ll make after-market parts even more expensive as well, at least for the first “generation” of modelers that get involved with it initially… It’ll be the modelers that’re over 45-50 years old, with lots of disposable income for the stuff, that make the most use of them…
I DO however, see it as yet one more way for some folks to “buy” the Gold Medal at contests… And that it will drive the final nail into the Gizmologist’s coffin… Hell, even now many modelers are using so much after-market in their builds that nobody even bothers to scratch-build or kit-bash anymore, and the “Oohs & Ahhs” just keep coming… Contest Judges are starting to forget that “Scope of Effort” even existed as a major part of the judging criteria…
That said…
The only “good” I can see coming from the technology is that maybe some heretofore unavailable kits will be easy to get, and companies that utilize it will offer kits at far cheaper prices, since the mold-making process would be virtually nil when compared to what it costs today to make new molds… If they offer 1/35th M1008/M1009 CUCVs for 25.00, or 1/48 GMC or M35A2 Duece & a Halfs and staff cars for 15.00, then I’m all for it!
But, they’ll probably try to recover the costs of the printers with the first couple kit releases…
In my interview with Valdimir from Eduard, he believes that it won’t be as popular as many think. The cost of the printers has come down, but really good ones are still very pricey. Couple that with the cost of the software necessary to create the 3D drawings, most will shy away from them both.
The comments by the rivet counters out there will only compound when their peers start producing parts and assemblies on 3D printers of lower quality versus those high end that major manufacturers are using such as Eduard.
Sure the younger generation will be more computer savvy, but unless the cost of software comes down and is intuitive to use, I see but a handful of modelers jumping into 3D printing. I see no more than the same number who are now producing aftermarket resin bits today.
Cost/price of 3D printing WILL come down. I really don’t understand how that could be questionable. At one time VCRs were hundreds of thousands of dollars, so were HD TVs, digital cameras, and on and on and on. Laser and ink jet printing used to be prohibitively expensive, now that technology is available to most anyone. Now will 3D printing make a big splash in this hobby? Only time will tell, but the cost factor won’t ultimately be the determinant. Detail, and labor are much more prohibitive. And yes, labor can factor into the cost argument, but the argument is being made on the basis of capital accumulation; not labor.
Comparing something such as a VCR or CD player to a 3D printer isn’t the same. VCR/CD players are purchased by millions of people, where as something specialized such as a 3D has appeal to only those with an interest in such things.
The consumables a 3D printer uses also needs to be factored in, such as toner or ink does for a conventional printer.
In a society that continues to demand more turnkey or having things ready made or done for them, we’ve seen first hand its impact on scale modeling. So, I don’t see 3D printing becoming a mass rage.
Unless…at some point you can email a someone a birthday or anniversary greeting and the 3D printer produces the gift “on the spot.” Again here too, cost of operating the machine comes into play.
Remember fax machines? Those who had them soon learned that they were expensive to operate…unsolicited faxes caused mfrs to produce plain paper units with preview capability before printing so owners could screen the faxes before printing them. I can remember opening the hardware store and finding a 25’ roll of paper sprawled across the floor in the office after the fax machine ran all night long printing faxes…some wanted but most just sales solicitations.The machine beeping demanding to be refilled with more paper. Thermal paper gave way to inkjet and laser types. Now many use online fax services.
3D will no doubt in my mind follow a similar course.
You’re absolutely correct regarding the VCR example. It was a poor choice because I really don’t see 3D printers becoming an in-home item like a VCR or TV. It is still going to require a level of skill and training to CAD anything you would want to print. I can’t even figure out how to work photoshop, so most people aren’t going to develop the skill set to draw items to print. As mentioned in another tread, I suspect manufactures would be seriously hesitant to offer packages for purchase that gives you the 3D file to prof your kit at home. There is the issue of quality control. They’d also have to do something like software companies do with product keys to keep you from printing 30 kits and selling them etc.
i still believe that at the business level cost will come down enough that large manufactures could afford to use the technology if it provided a benefit. But honestly, injection molding is very advanced now, and I don’t see how detail levels such as Eduard’s photo-etc and Brassin could be much improved upon.
My apology if this video has been pointed out before, but I haven’t read the other threads on 3D printing. www.youtube.com/watch I love watching it. Anyway, to an extent, I think it IS fair to compare 3D scanners/printers to VCRs, etc. Not only modelers can use them. I think proffesional model makers would use them, like for models of buildings and structures. How about toy collectors? Being a collector of some '60s and '70s toy lines, heck yeah! I can think of all sorts of non 1/12 scale stuff that a lot of folks, myself include, would love to scan, scale up or down to 1/12 for my Major Matt Mason collection. Likewise for 1/6 for GI Joe collectors. How about a really hard to find toy and a collector doesn’t care if it’s a repro? I’m not such a diehard but I’ll take a repro over none at all most any time. Same for plastic models. Restoration people, of all things. No, I think there’s a much bigger market than some think, espcially when the prices drop. I remember 30 years ago when i bought my first VHS VCR from Sears, on sale, for $425. Now I think they’re about 5% of that if you can find them. About 15 years ago when I got online via WebTV, for about $300 including the wireless keyboard, I think they’re worthless now. I quickly found out I HAD to have a printer. the cheapest I found was a Canon of some sort at Walmart for about $110. Now printers are all over for what, $25 or so? Give 'em a few years and most of us will have 3D scanners/printerss next to our workbenches.
Ok, having watched that video I might change my mind about how much proliferation of 3D printers there will someday be into the consumer market. Being able to scan parts into 3D and print them like that is amazing. A working (moving) adjustable wrench right out of the printer? Insane.
Heh… I’m hearing, “Computer… Build Model Tank… 1/35th scale… Panzer IV Ausf H… Painted. 1st SS Panzer Division, LAH, circa September 1943, medium weathering. Add crew figures… Painted… External Stowage for five crew…”…
There ya go! You COULD print out the completed model already if you had one to scan. We really do need to preserve “modeling” as we know it. There is a potential to skip past the work with this technology.
Heh… I said the same thing about after-market parts vs scratch-building years ago… Sure enough, it came to pass… Seems that the majority of modelers out there won’t even attempt to scratch-build, and others that used to have stopped… And why should they scratch-build details when they can buy the stuff off the rack?
Even teenage beginners can conceivably walk away with the Gold now… Why bother spending years learning how to make what you need?
Gawd, I feel like such a dinosaur… I can really relate to the “Old Guard” and how they felt about them new-fangled injection-molded kits now…
I maintain that someone who is a good scratch builder will beat someone who isn’t, even if both use aftermarket detail parts. I do both. When a kit is not available of something I really want to build, I will scratch the basic structure. However, it is nice to use aftermarket details. I am not a masachist. I’ll save the effort for the basic structure. I use computers a lot in my scratch building, do resin casting for multiple parts- even bought a do-it-yourself PE making set from Micro Mark. But if resin or PE details ARE available, I’ll use them.
Reminds me of the rules that until recently were in place for scratchbuilt category at Manitow- even the rigging parts (blocks, belaying pins, etc.) had to be scratched. No one said the modeler had to grow their own cotton and spin their own thread, thank god. I believe those rules have been relaxed a bit.
Seems to me an affordable 3D printer is just a tool for scratch builders.