Slightly OT, but since we're discussing Shapeways/FUD - has anyone tried prepping a FUD model by giving it the soapy lukewarm water bath & gentle scrub treatment as you usually would with a new model, then giving the model an extremely thinned down wash of liquid green stuff/milliput? I would think that one or two(to make sure application is even) of those would eliminate any remaining visible "stepping" once the undercoat was applied, no?
Very curious about this! Production costs, as Pix rightfully pointed out, is indeed a tricky thing. High-end prints are still rather expensive, so you need something for that, either good sales, crowdfunding, or a friendly discount. I know that
Wasteland Studio also has their stuff printing in FUD and then clean up the models before casting, that might be an option...
As for the evolution of 3D printing, I've been experimenting and dealing with various parties now: from Shapeways to universities in the Netherlands, UK and US, independent printing services and so on. I've visited seminars on the whole 'makers movement' (which is what we kinda are here), Third Industrial Revolution and so on. The impression I'm getting is that whilst 3D printing will indeed improve and become more affordable, there will still be two main issues: (1) high end, so very detailed and smooth prints, will still be a limited service, sort of like very specialized prints on paper for lets say posters. (2) forget about mass production through printing, at least for the stuff we are doing. So a print on demand might be something, akin to Shapeways, but as soon as you want to level it up a little bit, like lets say a boutique setup (both
Miniatures of the North and
Battlegroup Helios seem to work this way) in which you just produce/sell a limited stock, casting is still the only way to go.
