SO Shapeways??

[Munkey Joe]

Ok well I was looking at doing a bunch of my plastic garbage marines that are painted in several colors and such in a unified scheme as Dark Hunters. I chose it as its easy and can be a large force for tabletop. Also the Dark blue with a quick overbrush highlight and some Blue/black oil wash will set them right up not to mention be dark enough to cover the existing paint easy.

This brings me to a search for Shoulder pads. I found some wonderful shapeways pads to fit my purpose:



NOw I remember someone saying Shapeways has a very stepped model and requires alot of cleanup, and I heard that its great and smooth. So I was wondering if I could ask again if these would be a good model to purchase and use as my masters. and if not (I have not plunged into shapeways yet obviously) if I could commissioned a quick 3d mesh artist and get some made up for myself to cast via a better company.

Mad Robot, Zac, Deadmeat, and O1i Im looking to you ESP.....

[Deadmeat30]

Ive been sent some shapeways stuff to try and cast before, the stepping is apparent on them. I would look at having some made (im sure someone on the forum could sort you out) then get it cast up by visionpronto or someone.

[mangozac]

Surely Ben (Fleafa) would be your man here? He's already got a whole heap of shoulderpads on his store so I would expect to be able to qhip you up some pretty quickly. I personally have not seen a Shapeways mastered part that I'd be happy using on my models - the stepping is pretty bad and really doesn't compare to high quality prints.

[Munkey Joe]

Yea I sent him a PM Zac...


Well I thought I did.. tis not in my outbox or sent folder.... Huh I'll resend it I suppose!

[Fleafa]

Initially, I thought those were my Executioners pads which I printed through Shapeways but, having looked at them properly, I realise they are not. The shape is just plain wrong and the veteran rim is different, and not as nice as mine
As for Shapeways' quality... it is inconsistent. I have had fantastic prints and unusable prints from them. Luckily, I have more usable than not and they appear to be improving on average. For the cost, they are always worth a test print. I never really do much clean-up except for some vigorous tooth-brushing!
With the exception of the flames shoulderpad, which was wax-printed here in the UK, all my products are from Shapeways masters.

[mangozac]

[Munkey Joe]

OH cool!! Ben You have another PM.

I have wondered about shapeways and such and it seems like a great idea but I i get mixed results. I was chatting with Justin from Secret Weapon minis last night on Facebook and he was telling me almost ALL of his stuff thats rapid prototyped was done at shapeways and it blew me away. im sure He still has old school sculptors but alot of the workload has been done in shapeways too... Also Jeff From Dragon Forge (and here!!) says that shapeways pads are acceptable in quality... BOTH of them I know are known for great quality products.... And now Fleafa says they're good too.... 3 good recommendations!!!

Also Justin warned me that Jan 2013 hes releasing a ton of new product.... Watch out!!

[mangozac]

Wow I'm very surprised to hear that! I'd be interested to hear Steve's comments, since he did a lot of experimenting and comparing different services in the early days...