Hi Pokrad, basically the polished wsf detail is about the same as the unpolished. It seems the polishing process gets rid of a lot of the ridges but leaves the detail pretty well intact. Unfortunately, detail in WSF isn't that great to start with. I haven't tried FUD yet, but plan to once I get some time to finish the full figure sculpt I'm working on. At least in pictures it looks really good.

I hollowed this model simply by digging a small hole with Sculptris and then expanding it. It was quite tedious and didn't cut out as much material as I would have liked. Since then I've experimented with Blender hollowing and it worked quite nicely on some simple test shapes. I've also been working with Meshmixer to combine parts and move them around.

I wish I had more time though to work on this stuff!

It should be possible to hollow the very complicated volumes using Blender. Basically you copy your mesh, scale it down in size and then put it in the middle of the original mesh...do not remember whole process, but I'll post the steps here when I try to do it on the next print...

Darko, it doesn't seem like reducing the side of one mesh and then putting it inside another will yeild a consistent thickness for shapes more complicated than a circle or a square.
Take for instance an arm that is bent at the elbow. If you reduce the mesh, the length of the forearm will change and thus my even protrude beyond.
An extrusion might work though.

with some nice brush work she would paint up just fine. well done sir.

Sure Richard, it is not enough to just put the copy inside mesh, one problem is "bent elbow" problem you mentioned, the second one is for example "removing fingers" (extremely thin an long shapes) from the copy - often in small scales they are very thin, and hollowing them would create printing problems. I wrote just "simplified" idea how to do it, there is more work involved...
I'm also wondering if it would be possible to do it using "thicknes modifier" in Blender, did not see it done this way, but I'll try for sure...

It's been a while since I've done this, but here's the blender tutorial for hollowing I used. Blender has been updated since this came out, but it guides you in the general direction. You can also see from the examples that very complex shapes can be hollowed, he's done a couple of centaurs.

http://www.wikkidwidgets.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=1

If the purpose is to have a hollow prototype for making a mold, with a hallow in it, why not just do it the old fashinoned way, make a solid object, 3D print it, and make the out side part of the mold, pour wax into it and the make the inside part of the mold. Seems to be a lot easier than messing with it in 3/d.
BTW, if 'thickness modifiers sound like positive and negative extrusions. Those are good for simple stuff, but quickly become messy when your shapes become more complicated.

No, the mold is not the problem, but price of the print. If You for example want 1/16 figure or 1/9 bust it would cost pretty much to print it without hollowing. That is the only reason

They charge by the cubic centimeter, so with larger figures and busts it significantly reduces the cost especially with the higher end materials.

Oh,,, thanks for the explanation. I did not know that.
How durable is the material they print in? I'm going to be sending some figures off for printing, but I'm going to use the proto to make molds. I vacuum my RTV to 29 hg, will those hollow prints take that kind of pressure?

WSF is very durable, you can use it in thin sections for living hinges. I tried to rip an earring off one of the prints I got back with small pliers and couldn't do it so I don't think it would be a problem vacuuming to get a good mold although I haven't tried it. It seems much stronger than sheet styrene and I have vacuumed that with no problems. It is a slightly porous material, so you'll need to seal it before molding.

I can't tell you from personal experience about FUD, but from what I've read it's rather brittle but the detail is much much better. If you test it out, please post your results in molding it, I'd love to learn more!

I wouldn't recommend the white detail material for any organic sculpts, the lines are simply terrible.

Unfortunatelly that is exactly the material I oredered (white detail). It is somewhat confusing that the material has "detail" in the name and to have less detail than for example "strong and flexible". I was looking at the sample images on their site for each material, but did not find dimensions (scale) for any of the prints, so it is hard to guess from the samples...
Are you sure you did not mixed up the prints (last hope for me )

It's white detail I didn't like even though it looks good in their pictures. I also ordered someone else's sculpture in transparent detail and didn't like that either. I have heard there is variance in quality between prints in the same material so yours may come out better. I'm very curious to see how your print turns out!

I got mail yesterday stating : "The production of your products(s) has started", so I must be paitient a bit more

How much did it cost you Darko?
Do you think it would count if I put a closed in hollow place say in the thorax area of the body and in the head and just left the limbs solid?
Will it even make hollowed out areas in material that is completely closed in?

Richard, you need to have a tiny hole to the outside but it can be very small. The one in this bust is impossible to find on the print. It is possible to hollow out any area and leave others solid. The bust here has a solid head.

Also, you can upload to shapeways and see the cost in various materials at any time during your sculpt. I have ten different versions of this one uploaded.

Richard, you can check how much it will cost you by simly uploading the model and putting it in the basket - You do not have to proceed with order
My was $17.60 for the print (did not make any holes and height is 75 mm) but $20 for the UPS. Next time I'll probably prepare more than one piece, so I can get them in one shipement...

Wow, that is a great price. 77 mm is close to 1:20 scale but closer to 1:22 I believe. Can't wait to see what they look like. I think I will go and submit an order.

Ok am I stupid or are you saying that you can "sculpt" a figure on the computer and then send your design file to a company and they make the actual sculpt for you? Really? If thats true I really wanna do that!

You can do both. Some companies will take your design and do a 3D render. Or you could download sculptris, sculpt your own and send it in. If you know how to texture and convert your 3D file to vrml97 or vrml2 then you can send them in for full color printing, though the color printing is very course and would not look good on smaller pieces.