If I came across as not supporting your idea I apologize. My intent was to say the sculpt was already fantastic and yet the printer used could do even better, which is wondrous for the imagination to consider! I am like you and hope that sculptors begin to get excited about the prospect of digital printing. Companies like Legacy Effects and Sideshow Collectibles have used professional and home printers for years to produce not only full size props and collectibles but also miniature maquettes that show beyond-tremendous quality very much like your example. It is truly enspiring! I work in digital 3D for a living and the idea that I can make sculptures that I and others would love on my computer and print and paint them; it's fantastic!

I think it is pretty incredible that at 120mm the sculptor was able to get those level of details and I can only hope that at 1/8 scale I am able to get to that quality with the Robox we have on order. Even if I have to waste-cast in wax to help remove inconsistencies from a 25 micron print I will call that a win towards our goal of getting affordable like you said! Of course it would go a long way if we can get a 16 micron printer with the proper technology next year for less than 2000.00 I have heard the patent is coming due this year for that tech so the smaller companies should be able to produce something more affordable as early as 2015. Then we can start talking about 54mm, 75mm, and 90mm! Until then, to the traditional sculptors of small scale; it's unbelievable what you guys can do, pulling such infinite details from needle small spaces! It's a professional sport just painting these figures, I can't imagine the genius it takes to sculpt them!

Kelvin (or is it Nick?), get some perspective. I thought the quality of your photographs was something we agreed on, after all you did say they didn't do the figure justice and the statement on my part was in response to you calling my (and Colin's) input rubbish (is this not a cheap shot on your part?). I also qualified my comment as tongue in cheek by adding the and beginning the next sentence with "but being serious". I think it's more than a touch over-sensitive to consider that a "nasty cheap shot" but then perhaps you deliberately pick up on comments like this and use them as justification to attack people and then accuse them of starting and argument. What ever do you mean by a "54mm wombat"?

In my first post on this thread I feel I have expressed non-confrontational opinions on the quality of the figure and the economic viability of using the high-end printers, but you choose to be dismissive of these with your "whatever boss" reply. It's strange behavior to start trolling your own thread but it seems it's not the only time you've done this. Obviously the future of 3D sculpting and printing is very important to you but I feel some tolerance of other people's views is seriously remiss in your responses and it's entirely hypocritical of you to say the discussion is not conducted in an adult fashion and then also denounce differing opinions by saying there is nothing to debate, you seem quite happy to fan the flames but you can't take the conflagration. It must be pretty mind-numbing to be involved in a conversation on a serious issue with you and I've got figures to paint so I'll leave it there, no doubt you'll want the last word.

Alex.

I'd like to thank Ethan for giving some information on this subject with the tie in to how it will contribute to the advancement of our hobby. To Richard, I have seen the postings of your digital sculpting work and, though I don't fully understand the technology involved, I see you improving with leaps and bounds with each new piece.
Though I will probably never get a chance to try these tools (it's a daily battle just to get the damn computer up and running) I do find the work being done to be very interesting. I draw with pen and ink and have tried my hand at drawing and animating digitally but between my stone-aged computer and physically not getting a good "feel" for the tools, I found myself frustrated. Not the fault of the medium... upgrading my computer may have allowed me a better experience but imagine how much paper and ink I could by for the price of a new computer and decent software

BUT... just because, for the immediate future, I probably won't be able to get involved in 3d sculpting... it certainly doesn't mean I don't respect the time and effort put into the work done by 3d sculptors. The example of the zombie certainly shows what is possible... IT IS A FANTASTIC SCULPT!!

So, though I don't do digital sculpting, I appreciate the input of members like Ethan, Richard and others who share this new medium in a positive manner and can tell the difference between those taking shots and those who, though they may not ever get into it, still appreciate what you do.

I hope this doesn't make me a "tosser" or require me to "piss off"

Respectfully yours

Colin

I can't help but admire your people skills zodiac

Cheers,
Billy

I can't see this thread getting back on track without further abusive language unfortunately, so it will now be locked.