3DPrinting
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"“But this constructor is both efficient and flexible. I feed magnetronic plastics — the stuff they make houses and ships of nowadays — into this moving arm. It makes drawings in the air following drawings it scans with photo-cells. But plastic comes out of the end of the drawing arm and hardens as it comes ... following drawings only”"
- – Murray Langster's Things Pass By, hitting the nail on the head on what the tech would become almost 70 years before it actually happened.
3D Printing is, putting it simply, the home modelers new best friend. Discontinued games, long since given up hope of reprints, are now almost completely supported by use of hobbyists and printers alike.
Overview
How many cars will you download?
3D Printing is the catch-all term for use of a specialized printer that is fed some form of plastic or other, similar malleable material to turn into a three dimensional object via use of a computer that has a renderable 3D file. The technology was first described in a sci-fi story in the forties, and has since become not only science fact, but a commercial success. Prior to the 2000's, it was mostly only ever used in an industrial capacity, up until 1988 when the company Stratasys came up with the concept of Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printing, which brought the complex process to the consumer grade market for a hefty, Forge World-esque price right up until 2009, when the process became public domain, and as a result, more and more companies and builders could get in on the process, making the process still yet far more accessible than ever before. By now, a former $2000 printer may only cost as much as a new video game console.
The accessibility of printer technology, continued availability and sharing of 3d Modeling files, and the complete boredom of lock-downs thanks to the 2020 pandemic has created a boom in 3d printer use for table-top gaming. This is assuming of course you buy your own, and don't just cheap out the work to a company that specializes in 3D printing, like Shapeways.
Types of Printing
Since no one has access to Electron beam melting desktop technology this wiki will cover the most commonly used home printers.
Digital Light Processing (DLP) DLP (also called SLA) technology uses a digital light projector screen under a vat of UV resin. DLP 3D printers can image an entire layer of the build all at once, resulting in faster build speeds. While frequently used for rapid prototyping, the fine detail allows for quality minis to be printed. However, this type of printing is significantly more complicated, and thus costlier, than FDM printing.
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)
FDM is a common desktop 3D printing technology for plastic parts. An FDM printer functions by extruding a plastic filament layer-by-layer onto the build platform. It’s stinky (just use PLA) but a cost-effective (up to 30 times cheaper than GW) and relatively quick method for producing physical models. This is best for creating terrain or larger models.
