The costs, both purchase of the printer and wear and tear / repairables etc AND consumable would have to drop phenomenally in price before any of this is even considered a potential threat to styrene injected model kits.
The printer you reference, (I posted a link to recently), is a DIY self assembly unit and is only capable of printing very small items in plastic, some knowledge of 3D CAD rendering software is required and for complex stuff a quality CAD package costing additonal money will be needed.
A unit capable of printing 3D items at an industrial / marketing scale is still way beyond the price range of an average consumer, the info of this unit explains that it takes a considerable amount of time to print one item of a not too complex nature, the only way a consumer could utilise this to make a profit on aftermarket parts currently would be to design and manufacture one part, (which they'd need to test for fit / error etc then mould and cast it, even so, the profit margin would be very slim or the asking price far too high to sell anything.
Yes, ordinary printers can be had for as little as £30 nowadays, but check the price of printer ink! Theres no way, even with todays cheap printers and refill kits or refilled cartridges you could even match, let alone equal cost and production of a printing company.
I think it's a brilliant thing, friend of mine is an airbrush artist but likes to design, (motorbikes and vehicle related items), this is the kind of thing that would prove immensely useful for him to prove a CAD designed item e.g. before committing to having one cast in alloy or manufactured otherwise.
I think scratch / dio and modifying plastic kit builders would also benefit greatly from this by adding an extra dimension to their builds.
