Editing Casting (section)

== 3D Printing ==
{{topquote|And it was foretold in the book of [http://secondmachineage.com/ The Second Machine Age] that like a rising star a new science will come to be, and all men across the globe may print their miniatures, at affordable prices, forever ending the rule of the old powers and starting a new age of wonders.|Technoprophet Anonymus}}

This is GW's nightmare come true, the Doom Made Manifest, the digital transformation of recasting, the Great Equalizer. 3D printing is a method of accurately fabricating objects using a 3D printer. [[3DPrinting|3D Printing]] works from a digital blueprint of the object in question, loading the material it will use, and then it [[Eclipse Phase|fabricates the desired object]] before your very eyes. Originally, 3D printing was restricted to industrial purposes because of its sheer size and cost. By the 2010s, the costs have come down to the point where 3D printers are commercially available to the regular consumer and are relatively easy to understand and use, so even regular neckbeards like you and me could manage to use one. Printing a model is as simple as getting your hands on a 3D printer, its printing medium, and the file of the model you want. Don't think that means you can create your own army without subjecting your financial status to GW's pricing horrors: copyright laws still apply to 3D-printed likenesses of miniatures and you '''will''' get your ass sued for doing it (although do note that the same can apply for pirating multimedia and software from the internet, and how many times have you been sued by the developers for being a filthy pirate? Basically, don't draw attention to yourself by doing something dumb like selling it through popular retail channels, or anything that would draw the direct ire of GeeDubs themselves.)

What makes 3D printing so cheap is that it cuts production down to one step. Rather than following all of the steps above to make a model by hand, a 3D printer does all the hard work for you. Further, a 3D printer means you don't need to spend money on molds; if you've ever wondered why Forge World is so expensive, one part of that is because resin is cast differently to plastic, so the molds wear down faster and have to be replaced more often. That's not really a concern for us neckbeards since we aren't making ten thousand parts with our garage-casts, but for a manufacturer it is a notable expense. On the other hand, a 3D printer works from a digital master and has no need for a physical mould. Without a mould, there's no chance of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injection_moulding#Moulding_defects all sorts of problems] that injection casting faces. Lastly, a 3D printer uses much less material; models don't have to be cut for sprues, interiors don't have to be solid, and <s>there's no injection nozzle to which material can stick</s> AHAHAHA, there totally is, but that is a negligible expense in both forms of production.

There are two major methods for consumer-level 3D printing: fused-deposition modeling (FDM) and stereolithography apparatus (SLA).
* An FDM printer runs a filament of material through a heated nozzle as it's motor-driven across a plate to create an object layer by layer.
* An SLA printer uses UV light to polymerize a liquid resin against a metal plate and create an object layer by layer.

For /tg/ purposes, SLA printers can create finer details on the end product but require washing with alcohol and final UV curing before it's ready to use. FDM printers leave very obvious layer lines, so they're more suited for less-detailed objects or terrain pieces, or larger objects like vehicles that are easier to do surface finishing work on.  

While your imagination runs wild, keep a few things in mind while thinking about how many [[Power_Armour#Mark_II:_Crusade_Armour|Mk2]]-Armoured [[Space Marine]]s you want in your army compared to how many [[Power_Armour#Mark_VI:_Corvus_Armour|Mk.6]]'s: a good quality 3D printer of either type will cost several hundred dollars for just the machine itself; you'll spend a lot of time and resources figuring out how to make the darn thing work; you'll need to restock your material and cleaning supplies regularly; your choice of material will determine what glue you can use with it; and don't forget about the copyright issue. You are not [[ChapterHouse Studios]], and you are much more likely to lose your court case than they are. 

For the time being, the downfall of GW due to widespread 3D printing is little more than a pipe dream. In truth, merely two things hold back the great resin tray tides of 3d printing from booming much like Limewire & Napster did for downloading music in the early 2000s: the aforementioned cost of printing (which only goes down and becomes more accessible for consumers each year) and availability of things to print. In order to replicate a miniature from the tabletop to be 3d printed, you must currently either:
# 1 Digitally recreate the miniature from scratch in a 3d modelling program, using the real life version as a reference, or
# Use a 3d scanning device to digitally copy the miniature into a 3d model.
Considering that most are not well versed with [https://www.blender.org/ Blender] or [https://pixologic.com/ Zbrush] , the likely option is to try out 3d scanning. This presents problems as scanning technology is ''quite far behind 3d printing currently.'' Not only is it VERY expensive but the results on anything but the most advanced technology leave poor results on small highly detailed plastic/resin/metal. So unless you have a friend who's a dentist and can lend you his [[Wat|20,000 Dollar Medical scanner]] to make STL's of lead [[Squat]]s from 30+ years ago, expect to wait a while for most miniatures to be printable. '''''But make no mistake, sooner or later, THEY WILL.''''' And it will be the day Games Workshop quivers at men printing armies of [[Beakie| Beakie marines]] to paint.

Don’t get excited too soon however. 3d printing IS magic, but it’s currently priceyish and confusing magic, and not for everyone. For a significant amount of hobbyists, a printer may not be the be-all-end-all piece of tech that a lot of this article describes. If you don’t have the kind of time to learn to operate one (or a space that won’t fill with noxious resin fumes) you won’t be using your printer often enough for it to be worth it. The printers can also break since they are complex machines and repairing one may be difficult and impractical unless you live close to the manufacturer or you got the technical know-how. Bottom-line as of 2023. is this: you can give GeeDubs the middle finger in the long run but you will need to invest money and time in the short-term, weather that's worth it is yours to decide.