3D printing for head sculpts and accesories

[TheGDBatman]

With advances in 3D printing I'm just wondering how accurate/detailed 3D printing can be. The Micro 3D printer project just hit over 2 Million $ and I wonder if it could be used for 1/6 toys. Any thoughts on this?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/m3d/the-micro-the-first-truly-consumer-3d-printer

 

[darthviper107]

Those types of printers have the most difficulty with quality, I've never seen good enough results come from those types of printers. Plus there's the issue of support material. The advantage of that one is that it's assembled and it's pretty cheap, it can also calibrate automatically which makes it easier to use.

 

[CREG Customs]

I think desk-top systems to have very high quality prints are a few years (if ever) down the road. In general though the technology is already there. The guy I use at Visionproto can get skin details to print on the work he does for me.

The LOTR sculpts I am doing for ACI are digital too.

I think you will see a lot more going the 3D route.

 

[darthviper107]

Some of the patents on the better printing technology are expiring so we may see some cheaper printers that use the same techniques as the really expensive ones pretty soon.

 

[Darklord Dave]

I think desk-top systems to have very high quality prints are a few years (if ever) down the road. In general though the technology is already there. The guy I use at Visionproto can get skin details to print on the work he does for me.

The LOTR sculpts I am doing for ACI are digital too.

I think you will see a lot more going the 3D route.

Do the sculpts need a ton of refining and detailing after printing? Or can you just drill a neck hole and get to painting?

 

[darthviper107]

There's lots of printing services like that, for the home user though you can't afford one of those printers, they cost $15,000 for something like Envisiontec Micro to $100,000 for others. There's some that are actually better, ones that print in wax mainly for jewelry but have extremely good detail.

 

[shocktrooper_au]

My brother has just built his own and just tweaking with some issues and then to calibrate it, generally the print heads are available to print ABS jewellers clay and metals, accuracy is supposed to be .02mm so will see in the coming weeks what exactly can be done

 

[CREG Customs]

Do the sculpts need a ton of refining and detailing after printing? Or can you just drill a neck hole and get to painting?

Not at all. However depends on the machine as the how much post work is needed. The objets have a waxy support material that can be a pin to clean up if the print house does not do it well. Their resolution is getting better and I have a new sculpt coming in to see how it looks.

Anywho - the machine my guy uses only leaves a thin support structure that needs to be trimmed away (like a honey comb) and lightly sanded but it's only on the under side of areas like the hair or ears. Nothing else to be done to the surface.

I also build the hole in the neck for neck connectors as part of the model. It's correct down to a 100th of a MM I think. It's really amazing. I have a buddy that did some nice dslr pics of my last two heads to show off the details. I will add a shot of each here when I get them in.