I've seen ads for ths new machine that basically lets you do up a design on a computer, put in a piece of wood and WHIRRRRRR! carve a computer generated design into wood and make it real.

OK, the damn thing costs 2000$ or close enough, and it's fairly limited on what it can do, but it's a step towards the person at home being able to create something on a computer and make it a physical reality in solid form.

I can't help thinking that someday, they're going to have something that will let people make their own miniatures at home, maybe even paint them with something like a 3d inkjet process.

Once this is done, BTW, we can make our own dice too.

It's just something  was thinking about, the future of gaming and how technology may effect it.

Quote from: Dominus NoxI can't help thinking that someday, they're going to have something that will let people make their own miniatures at home, maybe even paint them with something like a 3d inkjet process.

I don't want to be a smart ass...and I do know what you are saying (about being able to take all the creativity and work out of it)...but you can make your own minis at home for pretty cheap. All you need is to carve your original figure out of wax, make a plaster molds of it (and melt it (the wax figure) out in the oven.  Then you fill the mold with lead you melted on the stove top (It helps if you build a simple apperatus to spin the mold after you pour in the lead to make sure to get into all the cracks.

Not really refined, but, just in case you didn't know you could already do this.

You are right grub, but it sure doesn't sound easy. I'm not much of a carver, so CAD would make it easier, and more forgiving than going through lots of wax because I'm bad at sculpture.

I see larger implications for the ease of home manufacturing than simple gaming, but it just may happen where folks will make their own personalized, decent quality, miniatures.

You'll like this article...

3D Prints of World of Warcraft Characters

QuoteA World of Warcraft player has had her/his favorite character -- a gnome -- run off a Zcorp 3D printer. You could do a land office business if you could make these into articulated action figures, produced on demand for WoW freaks who want to immortalize their Level 60-mitzvah with a figurine.

Here's a review of the Zcorp 3D printer. It can be yours for about $40,000.

Edit: Nox, do you know the name of the $2,000 machine?

Stuart, now that sounds like fun! Maybe a wee bit excessive, but fun anyway. I wonder how much that would cost.

Quote from: StuartYou'll like this article...

3D Prints of World of Warcraft Characters



Here's a review of the Zcorp 3D printer. It can be yours for about $40,000.

Edit: Nox, do you know the name of the $2,000 machine?

I looked for it for a few minutes, couldn't find it. I think it's a craftsman brand.

It's the Craftsman CNC -- $1800 (US) from Sears.  It's the same machine as the Carvewright Woodworking System.  If you're into woodworking / DIY building projects (like me) this is really cool! :keke:

The CarveWright site has a gallery, video, FAQ, etc.

Thanks for mentioning this!

Back on topic here, you could someday have a 3d printer type dingus that would not only make your miniature for you but paint it in photorealistic quality.

Cooool.

When I was playtesting for Aetherverse, I got the idea in my head that I wanted to hand craft an army of Dragon Quest slimes.  I wrote up an army list and everything.

My plan was just to use Sculpey, or some similar bakable modeling clay.

But I also realized it was going to be a ton of work and probably more money than I had at the time, so I never got 'round to it.  I'd still like to one day.  Slimes are rad.  And a whole legion, or maybe just a few as ornamental pieces, would be really neat.

I like Dragon Quest.

EDIT:  Crap!  Triskele seems to have gone off into non-existence!  I am deeply sad.  They had kind of a cool game going there.  

Actually, it is fun to cast your own minis...

http://www.dunken.com/

I bought some of the stuff for the old-school fantasy minis a while back...cool stuff!