About those 3D printers...

[knas ser]

Have a look on Shapeways to see what 3D printing can do already. I've brought up a page with 40k connections:

[url]http://www.shapeways.com/search?q=40k&s=0#more-products[/url]

Have alook through the pages and you will see some good ideas/models, many of which you can buy. Prices differ depending upon how many people order the item, how difficult it is to print, what quality of material you want it in etc. Dynarth and Custom Minis have a lot of SM specific items including weapons and moulded shoulder pads with some useful designs on them, not over-priced.

Nice. I had no idea these actually existed yet. I just expected someone to do it. I can forsee legal problems with actually doing an Aquilla in this example (well, if you're going to profit from it anyway), but gun mounts and buildings and base decorations...? Awesome

History is also littered with technologies and products that would've been fantastic, but never caught on in the marketplace. Hopefully in 2016 you'll still be able to watch your Betamax tapes and Laserdiscs and HD-DVDs.

Terrible, terrible examples. Each of these are merely implementations of an idea which has become successful. That HD-DVD was beaten out by Blu-ray says nothing about the popularity of high capacity discs, only that one implementation of it has lost to another. Ditto Betamax tapes. Had VHS not existed, Betamax would have been the default, but there would still have been video tape. Your analogy would only be correct if I were arguing type of 3D Printer X will beat out type of 3D Printer Y. I'm not - obviously. I'm just saying 3D Printers in general will take off.

Tesco has said they're looking at putting printers in large supermarkets..

There you go.

I don't know why everyone is reacting as if 3D printing is this highly expensive technology. It is right now, but it's coming down fast and there's little reason it can't approach 2D printing - it just takes up more space. After all, which is more complex - squirting lots of ink through multiple tiny colour nozzles (ink-jet printers) or squirting unset plastic through a nozzle? They're pretty similar. The latter just moves has two more motors so that the nozzle moves in Y as well as X, and slowly rises upwards as it works. There's nothing especially complex in that which isn't as complex as an ink-jet. Two more motors, three less nozzles.

[Ravingbantha]

I just genuinely doubt how well it will proliferate.

In industry, sure, totally has a place for rapid prototyping and stuff.

But for large scale production? Nope, I just don't see it ever taking over from current methods, which are faster, more reliable, and one assumes due to economy of scale, cheaper.

How do you figure that? Why have a huge factory, warehouse, and distribution network, when an item can be mae onsite? Jay Leno has one in his home that can fabricate metal parts and uses it to make replacement parts in his garage for his cars. No need to go to a store, no need for that storre to transport that item from a warehouse, and no need for that warehouse to transport it from a manufacturer, and no need for that company to make the item. Put in a raw resource and get a finished product.

How many years before each of us has one at home, able to make all sorts of items? There have already been people that have used the 4-D printers to make a functioning firearm. There are versions that are out there that people are working on synthetic organic fibers to make organ replacements. Doctors in remote areas are using these to make a number of medical devices. I've seen demo videos of these devices scan an object and make a new one in a matter on minuets. No need to degign a file, just scan and produce.

It wont be long before you will see .cad files online, made from someone who dropped a Wraithknight sprue into a scanner. All someone needs to do id download that file and print off a new Wraithknight for a fraction of the cost.