September 2026 - Price Rises

[Captain Idaho]

You really don't need a ventilated area, that's an inaccurate assessment people heard, usually from a critical hit piece on 3D printers. Sure don't do it in a cupboard, but any room with a door, window or supply or oxygen is fine.

 

Resin printers all the way though. You'll get much more cost effective and decent results.

[Ahzek451]

For filament, yeah ventilation not really a big deal. It would be better if it was vented, but isolated from your main living space is ideal.

Resin printing on the other hand, I would highly recommend a good ventilation setup. But one can be creative as long as you have access to a window/door/vent. As far as knowledge entry, I don't consider it much different than any other hobby aspect. The amount of research and effort I put into understanding and working with 3d printing(to be fair I dive deeeeeep), is about as much effort as I have researching painting techniques(give or take). Filament has an easier learning curve (IMHO) over resin and is pretty easy to pick up. 

I know it depends on how much use you get out of it, but with the things I have cranked out with my printer....has long past paid for itself and saved me a few(A lot of bucks actually) bucks over GW (particularly with larger items like war machines, terrain, and titans). 

[01RTB01]

10 hours ago, Mogger351 said:

I have no ventillated space for a 3d printer, of which a PLA isn't really correct for 40k scale minis anyway regardless how good the A1 is. I don't want to lean 3d sculpting either.

 

You're literally pointing out the price of a tool for a different hobby with different requirements and assuming it makes a cohesive point.

I hope you're got a ventilated space for your toaster.

[Mogger351]

5 hours ago, 01RTB01 said:

I hope you're got a ventilated space for your toaster.

Sufficiently thank you, less microplastic particulates since I stopped putting sprues in it too

[Antarius]

16 hours ago, phandaal said:

PLA is also just fine for 28mm gaming. Resin generally gives finer detail, but I regularly play against people who use PLA-printed models and they work just fine on the tabletop.

I think 3D printing has its uses, but the "works just fine on the tabletop" does a lot of work here, because depending on your point of view, so do bottlecaps with cardboard silhouettes glued on. This example is putting too fine a point on it obviously, but print lines and artifacts are a real issue when it comes to producing visually pleasing stuff, in my experience.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to personally get a 3D printer (at least not until the learning curve becomes a lot more manageable), but I think it's great for some things. I have yet to see printed minis and bits that are actually as good as moulded ones, though - and that's just my "objective" assessment, not because I want it to be that way. I've had a couple of friends print a lot of different bits for me and while they're great and really useful, I can't honestly say they're as good as similar moulded bits would have been.
I believe we'll eventually get there (assuming the developers of the technology think it's worthwhile, of course), but I don't think we're there yet.

[Antarius]

17 hours ago, Lord Marshal said:

Although I will say that it was funny yet another launch box has the box-splitters struggling to move the non-LSM half considering how much Armageddon's Marine half was lambasted for being boring. 

That always seem to be the way. For every commenter online who says Marine kit X is lame/boring/not as good as it used to be back in the day*, there are ten people out there who can't wait to take out another mortgage on their house to get hold of the new kit.

 

And yeah, the characters frames from the box sets have always been priced at what I can only term "spontaneous laugh of disbelief, shock and derision" levels. Personally, I think it's to make people just buy the box sets instead, but who knows.

 

*which is where I frequently find myself these days, btw.

[01RTB01]

3 hours ago, Mogger351 said:

Sufficiently thank you, less microplastic particulates since I stopped putting sprues in it too

Sprue glue on toast however, even better than jam! 

[phandaal]

2 hours ago, Antarius said:

I think 3D printing has its uses, but the "works just fine on the tabletop" does a lot of work here, because depending on your point of view, so do bottlecaps with cardboard silhouettes glued on. This example is putting too fine a point on it obviously, but print lines and artifacts are a real issue when it comes to producing visually pleasing stuff, in my experience.

 

It is doing work, yes, because saying "PLA isn't really correct for 40k scale minis anyway regardless how good the printer is" is simply not accurate.

 

Is it good enough for me? No, which is why I personally use a resin printer when I print miniatures.

 

Is it good enough for one of our regular guys? Obviously yes.

 

And agreed, we probably do not need to take the argument to absurdity with rocks and bottlecaps. I think we can all understand that one of these things looks more like a miniature than the others. 

 

The main thing is - a personal lack of ventilation for SLA or a personal lack of enjoyment from PLA is not a blanket refutation of the concept of printable miniatures. Printing is a relevant topic to bring up in discussions about ever-increasing GW kit prices.

[Matcap86]

17 minutes ago, phandaal said:

 

It is doing work, yes, because saying "PLA isn't really correct for 40k scale minis anyway regardless how good the printer is" is simply not accurate.

 

Is it good enough for me? No, which is why I personally use a resin printer when I print miniatures.

 

Is it good enough for one of our regular guys? Obviously yes.

 

And agreed, we probably do not need to take the argument to absurdity with rocks and bottlecaps. I think we can all understand that one of these things looks more like a miniature than the others. 

 

The main thing is - a personal lack of ventilation for SLA or a personal lack of enjoyment from PLA is not a blanket refutation of the concept of printable miniatures. Printing is a relevant topic to bring up in discussions about ever-increasing GW kit prices.

 

Tbh I view the discussions about 3d printing and cost similar as the timeless "just buy these household items and mix your own Nuln oil for pennies!!" 

 

Yeah sure you could make a 5 liter batch of the stuff and make it work, and yet nuln oil is one of the best selling items GW has ever had.

 

The vast majority of people want an out of the box experience and are willing to pay for it. Hell most people look at you weird when you tell them you need to put the minis together yourself.

[01RTB01]

This is why I continue buying and building GW kits. Are they crazily priced? Yes. However, I also build and play bolt action and star wars legion. I much prefer the GW kits. BA is objectively a better game than 40k but the minis I can't say are especially fun to build. I've friends with 3d printers and on occasions I've had bits and pieces printed. It's really not the same experience. Even when they're able to print minis from 2nd/ 3rd edition, there's something (for me) in the tactile nature of building, weight and texture that you don't get with printed minis. I'm not against it, but it really isn't the same.

[Mogger351]

43 minutes ago, phandaal said:

 

It is doing work, yes, because saying "PLA isn't really correct for 40k scale minis anyway regardless how good the printer is" is simply not accurate.

 

Is it good enough for me? No, which is why I personally use a resin printer when I print miniatures.

 

Is it good enough for one of our regular guys? Obviously yes.

 

And agreed, we probably do not need to take the argument to absurdity with rocks and bottlecaps. I think we can all understand that one of these things looks more like a miniature than the others. 

 

The main thing is - a personal lack of ventilation for SLA or a personal lack of enjoyment from PLA is not a blanket refutation of the concept of printable miniatures. Printing is a relevant topic to bring up in discussions about ever-increasing GW kit prices.

It's slightly more nuanced, I agree printing is certainly an alternative but it irks me when people just wade in like the pink suit guy vs bane meme and point at a printer like it's an everyman's instant overnight solution, when evidently it isn't.

 

It is however valid to highlight as an alternative for those that want it, but comes with the other prong of this discussion, in that you're either singing up to 24/7 proxy hammer or piracy. Both of which hold issue for some people, again on an individual basis.

So in short, it's the cross training of Warhammer. Someone has to shove it into the conversation as if it's the obvious easy superior solution for everyone to convert them, which is tiring to deal with. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of us in here know about printing it's relative costs and quirks. If it was appropriate/enticing for us, we'd be doing it already.

[Mazer Rackham]

23 minutes ago, Matcap86 said:

Yeah sure you could make a 5 liter batch of the stuff and make it work...

 

Son, don't judge my drinking habits.

[Captain Idaho]

Here is a 3d printed model that looks great so the argument no one has ever seen good 3d printed models is a little flawed:

 

[Mogger351]

27 minutes ago, Captain Idaho said:

Here is a 3d printed model that looks great so the argument no one has ever seen good 3d printed models is a little flawed:

 

Looks great is inherently subjective. I don't mind it, I'd happily paint and field it if gifted but wouldn't hunt it down to own it. 

[DemonGSides]

Wouldn't have been my first choice to use as evidence for non-ugly models.

[Orange Knight]

It looks pretty good but I'm still against printing fake 40k models.

Conversion bits? Totally cool

Entirely orginial things? Totally cool

 

Whole models that have official releases? Not cool

 

[MoriyaSchism]

27 minutes ago, Orange Knight said:

It looks pretty good but I'm still against printing fake 40k models.

Conversion bits? Totally cool

Entirely orginial things? Totally cool

 

Whole models that have official releases? Not cool

 

Luckily all the 3rd party stuff and 3D prints I got are things that got discontinued. How kind of Games Workshop. 

[Mogger351]

5 minutes ago, MoriyaSchism said:

Luckily all the 3rd party stuff and 3D prints I got are things that got discontinued. How kind of Games Workshop. 

Playing devils advocate I'd wager they didn't fall under "entirely original things" either

[MoriyaSchism]

1 minute ago, Mogger351 said:

Playing devils advocate I'd wager they didn't fall under "entirely original things" either

Yes, I wouldn't have bought them otherwise. If only there was a way to still get Mars Pattern and Mark IV jump packs. A some sort of upgrade sprue or perhaps even a unit of Mark IV Assault Legionaries with that jump pack. I guess the CAD desk jockey couldn't be bothered to sculpt one for the new Mark IV frame and he pressed control+C while looking at the Mark VI squad files. 

[Evil Eye]

42 minutes ago, MoriyaSchism said:

Yes, I wouldn't have bought them otherwise. If only there was a way to still get Mars Pattern and Mark IV jump packs. A some sort of upgrade sprue or perhaps even a unit of Mark IV Assault Legionaries with that jump pack. I guess the CAD desk jockey couldn't be bothered to sculpt one for the new Mark IV frame and he pressed control+C while looking at the Mark VI squad files. 

This is exactly it. If GW aren't going to make the things I want to buy, I will source them from elsewhere.

 

Have a 100% printed Marine.

And another one (of the Tech variety)!

[Captain Idaho]

Look at GW official miniature:

 

 

and then compare it to the below miniature:

 

 

the following quote I feel covers those who still go to bat for GW that they're superior to 3D printed stuff:

 

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears."

 

Now, I can appreciate people wanting "the real thing" totally. I do in some aspects too. That's a decent position to take.

 

Just not most GW stuff. They burnt me too much and made my models obsolete.

 

But I do want official some stuff for collector's pieces of course. My Mordheim Vampire count is a favourite model from ancient Heresy, my Adeptus titanicus are legit.

 

However, saying "the quality isn't as good" is an awfully incorrect position to take.

Edited yesterday at 04:46 PM by Captain Idaho

[Marshal Reinhard]

There's variance in the quality of what GW puts out for sure. That one mini is certainly not their best.  But neither is the one you're thumping your chest over. A lot of things of it feel off. like how the leg attaches to the body, the very small torso. Arms out of ears syndrome (present on the GW example too, for certain). etc

[Captain Idaho]

Indeed, there's variance. There's variance out of 3D printed stuff as well.

 

But to say 3D printed stuff is inferior is just wrong.

[Mogger351]

17 minutes ago, Captain Idaho said:

Indeed, there's variance. There's variance out of 3D printed stuff as well.

 

But to say 3D printed stuff is inferior is just wrong.

It's personal preference, it can't be wrong by default.

[phandaal]

11 minutes ago, Captain Idaho said:

Indeed, there's variance. There's variance out of 3D printed stuff as well.

 

But to say 3D printed stuff is inferior is just wrong.

 

Yeah, the legs/torso stuff seems to be one of the hardest things for people to get right. But there are some really incredible printable models out there nowadays. For example, Victoria Lamb just wrapped up her latest release: https://victoriaminiatures.com/collections/grimdark-empire

 

https://victoriaminiatures.com/collections/grimdark-empire/products/lt-sean-blackthorn

https://victoriaminiatures.com/collections/grimdark-empire/products/tannenburg-colonel

 

Look at those and tell me GW's recent Guard releases have better-sculpted faces.

 

I would go as far as saying that calling those "low quality" is objectively incorrect. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that, but this would be a case where someone might need to get their eyes checked.