Reply To: "This technology will DISRUPT miniature companies." says Maker's Muse

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3d printing will be disruptive to whole host of industries, tabletop hobby included.

Let me illustrate that statement with an example form different and very traditional branch: at this point in time automotive companies actually work on introducing 3d printers in their dealerships and service centres, as it is much cheaper to 3d print on site than store, transport and keep track of every gasket or plastic coupling needed in their work, the real challenge for them are materials.  This is way to cut logistics costs much further than driverless cars or delivery robots, and cutting costs is always interesting for any business thus my certainty in the first sentence.

Now, will printing occur at your home or local store, that is real question for now IMO.

To comment on Makers Muse video, the quality of the model shown is low down to, pretty much exclusively, crappy design (this is some kind of free, almost low polygon type of model), contemporary printers are capable of quality on par with cast resin, provided they are fed proper model.

I can’t really understand time concerns some of you have, you guys have to live very close (an hour drive?) to extremely well supplied miniature stores. My experience is that time needed between decision to buy a model and holding it ready to paint in my hand is:

1.      For physical model – 2-3 working days (if I decide to pay premium on shipping which usually doubles the price of model in question and if it is available in Europe),

2.      For digital model – 2-3 hours, and no extra shipping cost (I’d pay for the Internet anyway, and the designer/seller may live in Mongolia or Hawaii).