What happens when 3D printing becomes more mainstream and you

The resolution isn't there yet. Industrial printers are the only ones fine enough for gunpla work and they already use them for prototyping.

Bandai still controls the secret formula to gunpla plastic.

>>15667198
I'll grind up bargain bin kits for the Plavsky particles.

What happens when you can 3D print not only a whole functioning super robot, but 3D print the power of the human fighting spirit?

>>15667194
>You wouldn't download a car would you??

>>15667290
>3D print the power of the human fighting spirit?
Why would you need to 3D print something you already have an infinite amount of?

I'll have a room full of them.

Gunpla torrents.jpg

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>>15667194
I use it to build articulated models of Mobile Suits with huge boobs.

>>15667197
It's there on those liquid printers. But those are usually a lot more expensive.

I can't wait for the Gunpla Police from Build Fighters to be a real thing

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>>15667194
what exactly pirated gunpla do you mean?

we already have multitudes of pirated gunpla

>>15667194
I'd post that picture of the thread about Burning discovering those pirated Gunpla files, but apparently I've never saved a copy of it in all my years here. And I don't even know if there's anybody left who still has it.

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>>15671235
>>15669393

no one will pirate gunpla. think of it rationally.
having access to the files needed, you still have to get a printer for big money. while gunpla is cheap, printers are not.
even if printers would turn crazy cheap, it'd be cheaper to just buy the kits. unless you're hoarding them so badly. don't forget the time needed to print the pieces and you still need to pay for the materials.

>>15671269
Same way people thought about burning CDs.
>CD burners are too expensive!

You would still need the blueprints, which bandai could easily keep secret in their factory
Its not like with movies where hundreds of discs and digital copies have to be sent out for distribution, only a handful of files for factories

>>15671269
>PGs
>cheap

>>15671269
They still haven't even mastered home printing for digital photos, after all.

>>15667194
It will probably work out the same way that sewing machines didn't end the clothing market

>>15671268
I honestly wasn't expecting someone to have it.

>>15671280
They never really were though. Even when burners were a couple hundo they never hit the prices you pay for a gunpla-grade FDM printer ($2k).

Non-issue, 3d printers are absurdly expensive

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The way I see it, 3D printing is never going to reach the efficiency of mold-injecting that Bandai already does. But who's to say that you can't complement your Gunpla with 3D printed accessories?

Remember the problems MG Unicorn had with the knees? What if you could print out a replacement part that completely fixes the problem? Or just in general, if you accidentally snap a joint you could fashion a replacement.

Have an old MG Zeta 1.0 rifle that you want to repurpose but the grips don't work on the kit you want to use it with? Print out a new set of grips that do work. Bought a MG ReZEL-C and pissed that it doesn't have the rifle? Print out the rifle itself. Have some pieces of a weapon for another kit because they share runners? Print out the rest of the pieces and use your spare polycaps to build the rest of the weapon.

Want to kitbash two kits but they don't quite fit together? Print out a joint piece that connects them flawlessly. Want to go full custom mode and give angel wings to your 00 Qan[T]? Print out the wings.

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>>15672238
>3D printing Harute's space legs

>>15667194
Only for printing masters and duplicating them with resin casting

>>15667194
In all seriousness, as 3D printing becomes more mature and consumer affordable, and people start uploading scans of gunpla parts, Bandai will just start using more dual injection parts. You can't 3d print those.
Also
>when the uploader is a shitter and his part scans have gouge marks and are mislabeled

Even better
>Modding the fuck out of kits by printing parts instead of buying another kit and bashing

>>15671269
Depends if you're running a cheaper, domestic black market of counterfeit gunpla or printing for your own personal want. If you're autistic enough, you could just print enough gunpla to model a massive-scaled battle in your basement for far cheaper than bulk ordering gunpla online.

>>15667321
He doesn't believe, but I'd reckon that isn't enough either. He just hasn't learned how to use it, nor how to train it.

>>15667194
Kit makers will keep upping their quality to stay ahead of what 3D printers can do. People who are willing to put the time and effort in will be able to make 3D printed gunpla that look just as good as the real thing, but for most people it's going to be too much time and effort compared to buying a kit and snapfitting.

>>15671313
>what is 3d scanning
>>15671316
This, someday it will be cheaper just to buy a good 3d printer than a PG, in fact you can buy those DIY 3d printers for the price a PG in these days, so this probably will happen more earlier than later.

>>15667194
then bandai will have to amp up their competitivity, making more gimmicky kits and stuff that would be harder to 3d print

>>15667194
it still will be more expensive than buying gunpla

>>15676162
you're seriously underestimating 3D printing. People said the same about CD burners.
And if you have one anyway, and somebody scans the parts, I guarantee the raw plastic will be cheaper than gunpla

>>15676167
wrong comparison honestly. It would be better to compare to regular printers, they are mainstream? Yeah. They are high quality? yeah. Does anyone prints their books or magazines at home? Fuck no, they don't. Unless it's some sort of fanzine or something which not sold anywhere.
3D printing at best will help with some kitbashing or aftermarket - I can agree there, but whole kit will always will be cheaper to buy even including shipping.
So no pirating that's for sure.

>>15676167
From what I can tell, CDs were introduced in 1983, and became massively popular by 1988, conservatively. By contrast, 3D printers have had a much slower adoption rate. Consumer units have been available since 2009, but the hype peak of ~'13 seems to be actually declining (an off-the-cuff metric I can find is that 3D Systems' valuation is only a tenth of what it was then), and from personal experience the only places to find 3D printers are in large organizations.

If there is a revolution brought about by 3D printing, I think it will be closer to a "Let's go to Kinkos" model than a "Let's burn a CD" model.

>>15667194
sell Gundam grade tm colours extruding material

>>15676195
CD-Rs are a different technology than the standard mass produceable CDs. The first consumer writable CD-Rs were developed in 88, with burners that were huge and ludicrously expensive and didn't work very well(sound familiar?). It took a full 12 years for the technology to mature enough to become a viable consumer product, after which it almost instantly exploded in popularity. What we've seen so far with 3D printing is just the first whispers, and yes the hype has died but 3D printing, with all kinds of materials, would be useful to a whole lot of people. It's a tech niche that exists, waiting to be filled. When mature 3D printing technology becomes cheaper, the market will explode.

>>15676217
That sounds reasonable. I didn't have the dates on specifically consumer targetted CD writers. I'm not sure about the 12 year timeline, my estimate is 8 (from '83 to '91), but no serious difference.

We've had industrial 3D printers since the '80s. We first had consumer-oriented models in 2009, sub-$5k models by (at latest) 2012, sub-$1k models by 2013 or 2014. By today, ~4 years later, the low end seems to be $400 or $500, so they seem to be bottoming out. If popularity exploded tomorrow, that would look like a 30 year timeline to success rather than a 12 year timeline. I'm reading that as evidence that 3D printers have a more specialized audience than a CD burner, which sounds pretty intuitive. Average Joe probably doesn't care about 3D printing, so the target market is already people like Gunpla hobbyists and 40k players: people who have disposable income.

The thing that makes me skeptical of a 3D printing revolution is that, for those hobbyists, this price point should already be "good enough". I would sort of expect 3D printing to be already doing gangbusters if was something that hobbyists really, really wanted. We certainly don't appear to be in the state of perpetual, massive improvement that makes people say "if I wait 3 months I'll get a better deal... okay, now another 3 months...".

Perhaps it's just that people got their hype up too early a few years ago, when prices were exorbitant? Perhaps in the next few years people will decide to look into 3D printing again, find it's viable, and buy?

Sounds like the consensus is that in the near future, 3D printing Gunpla will be so expensive and time-consuming (and low-quality straight out of the printer) that it will make more sense to buy a commercially available kit than replicate it; however, die-hards may use 3D printing to replace parts or make some custom parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkI24AoKl4o

>>15667290
>power of the human fighting spirit
You could just go to any comment section on youtube for that

Piracy is totally bad you guys.

You wouldn't download a Gundam, would you /m/?