Thanks Frank. I typically play in 1/48 or 1/35 so I wonder how those would go?
Nothing at the "home" level would look good for anything under 1:1.... and maybe not even then!
Right now, Shapeways is the best way to go if you want to experiment. They ship worldwide and they're pretty inexpensive (in part because they're backed by Philips) They have a
materials samples kit which covers their more common materials. It's $30US but includes a $25 discount coupon.
Based on the samples listed, the Frosted Ultra Detail, White Detail and Black Detail are the only ones worth considering for models. The White Strong and Flexible is a possibility, but it's composed of sintered nylon particles, so no amount of sanding will remove the grain. For this material, you have to coat it in primer (often many applications, since it'll soak up the primer) then sand away.
I also wonder how one would go printing a part, then giving it a primer coat or similar to smooth everything out and then scribe in any finer details?
1 - in a 3D program, make the part, then export the part in a file format that Shaepways will recognize. STL is the standard.
2- use a program like the free version of
Netfabb to check your STL file and make sure that your object is water-tight and printable.
3 - Look at the Shapeways materials web page and
make sure that you've met or exceeded their minimum design requirements for wall thickness and details. Their design limits are usually well above the limits of the machines; this is done to decrease the printing time (fewer parts that need to be re-printed) and lowering the cost.
4 - upload the part and have them print it in the material of your choice. With luck, it'll pass their checks and after a week or two, you'll get your part.
From experience, the loop between steps 3 & 4 will take up most of your design time. They will reject parts for even tiny deviations from their design rules.
Typically, the white detail can reproduce details down to 0.2mm, so you can include quite a bit of detail. The only problem is that the printing artifacts will require a fair amount of PSR and that'll wipe out some of the finer details.
Just for that, the Frosted Ultra detail parts are the way to go. Not only are details down to 0.1mm, depending on the part, they may only require a minimum amount of sanding and a regular coat of primer will be enough to eliminate the printing artifacts.
Look at the parts samples for Frosted detail and Frosted Ultra Detail:
http://www.shapeways.com/materials/frosted_detailThe tracked gear is painted, the truck is unpainted. From the looks of it, I wouldn't bother to do any sanding - it looks ready for painting. The printing artifacts here are the slightly grainy appearance and on the tires and faint lines on the sides.
The main reason why you can't make an exact prediction on the amount of work that these parts will require once you get them back is because the printing orientation is up to Shapeways (they bunch together several orders and print them all in one batch), so the artifacts may be more or less obvious, depending on how the part was printed.
Frank
