Computer modelling...!!

[Guest]

Could this be the way forward (or backwards!) for us model makers BBC News - CES 2012: 3D printer makers' rival visions of future just dial in your model and the 3D printer knocks it out, kinda takes the fun out of model making. This technology has been around for a while - using resins - but was very expensive. It might be a handy tool if you need a replacement strut for your 1/32 Hurricane (or increased accuracy).

Ivor100

[tr1ckey66]

Hi Ivor

Bring it on is what I say!...

Imagine how handy one of those machines would be for scratch building complex parts with many compound curves. I don't think it will take the fun out of modelling, I think it could open up a whole new world of possibilities and take scratch building to a whole new level. This is progress I guess, and the hobby and the industry surrounding it will need to evolve and adapt to it.

If those objects were produced by that printer then they're good quality - some 3d prints I've seen look very 'low resolution' and you can clearly see the layers but those pieces look great!

Interesting news item though, thanks for sharing

Paul

[Guest]

I'll add something from the other side of the argument and play the devils advocate here if i may

For me it would possibly take the challenge out of modeling, i seem to be scratch building the majority of the time and one thing i like about this is that i have to think outside the box and create items from what i have to hand and adjust them to suit.

If i had the option to just perfectly create a specific part then i probably would take the lazy route and do it - i don't think i'd have the same content feeling when the model was finished though as it wouldn't be completely my own inovation.

[Guest]

I'm with you there CDW it could well stifle creativity and inventiveness which is what we modellers excell at and is part of the fun - going to bed last thing after a late night modelling, agonising over how to get that intricate part to fit when it's dried!! (this sums me up!). However ... could it be regarded as another tool for building parts, I'm being my own devil's advocate here. Was the airbrush regarded in the same way by strict brush painting modellers?! More food for thought....

[stona]

There's room for everyone isn't there? If this technology became affordable,and whose to say it won't,then I'd be interested. There will always be people that will continue to scratch build parts in the traditional way and that's absolutely fine too.

I like the airbrush analogy but I've no idea how they were viewed when they first became available to the hobbyist. An interesting point.

Cheers

Steve

[tr1ckey66]

Erm... Didn't mean to thank you on that last post Steve !

Damn touch screen phones!!! Technology eh?

Some interesting points made by all, and all valid.

I'd simply see this kit as another tool and, as with all tools, they're useless without some talent behind them.

i scratch build quite a few bits and pieces now and I know from experience that this equipment would have come on useful for making copies of masters I'd already made the conventional way (hinges on my Tiger 1 build for instance).

The creativity lies within the head of the modeller as I see it, the tools he has available to him enable that creativity to come forward. I mean, winding the clock back a bit, we no longer carve models from wood as they did 50 years ago. have plastic kits spoiled the model making hobby? Perhaps to some it has.

It's an interesting topic and I think everyone's point is valid.

Cheers

Paul

Ps. I blame my phone for any typos - damn technology!

[Ian M]

I see an enormous opening in the 3D printer. One ting is if you just down load a model and print it out. If you make the 3D model in some form of cad program, I would say the resullt is the same. You have built it. Just instead of cutting up bits of plastic and sticking them together, you have first built the 3D model then got the printer to do the messy bit.

One thing I think it would be brilliant for is figure modelling. Build your 3D model in a program like Poser and you can then pose the model in which ever position you need. Result; realistic poses, clothes that change shape as the figure moves, folds and creases..... Even facial expressions. Then its just a case of printing them out. What scale do you want? no problem chose the scale you need. Want some tall or short, fat or thin. The possibilities are endless!

Ian M

[Gern]

Don't know about you guys, but I'm not sure I like this. Imagine going to the local hobby store and buying a kit which comes in the form of a computer programme on a CDrom. You take it home and put it into your machine which then generates the kit parts on a tree exactly as we get now!

But where's the fun in buying (or downloading if you get it on-line) a CD? Sure, it would save the stash taking up so much room, but, again, where's the fun in having a stash if you can't dig out the boxes and have a play with the plastic whenever you want?

As for scratchbuilding, I can see some really good uses if you have multiple parts or 'mirror image' parts to create - but then you're not a modeller, you're a computer programmer!

P'raps I'm just being a technophobe, but I think I'll stick with my boxes of plastic thanks!

Gern