My Unfunny Thoughts on 3D Printing

I started to write this in response to some know-it-all dickhead’s comment on one of my posts. When you talk about 3D printing, know-it-all dickheads come out of the woodwork. Five paragraphs in, I decided to make it into its own post. Seemed like a great way to make everyone hate me.

I use 3D printers. I have purchased STLs, I have commissioned friends to design parts for me (I don’t have this skill-set yet) and I have printed the occasional free part from assorted skanky STL download sites. Filament always seemed like an inherently limited, dead end technology to me, though it does have occasional uses. Photo resin printers are finally at a point where I am happy with the quality of the final product. 4K and now 8k LCD printers have really made a big leap for me, personally. I can finally make parts that look pretty close to cast ones.

Cheaper/faster/better?

Printing is a decent amount of work, and it takes a lot of time and energy to get a printer dialed in and up and running. It almost becomes a hobby in and of itself. Personally, If I can avoid it by buying a model that already looks exactly how I want it to, I take that route. Printers and supplies have certainly come down in price, but they are still not free. Every guy I see bragging about how much money he is saving by 3D printing seems to have one working printer and five broken ones that are sitting idle. I am a painter and a modeler, that is what I enjoy doing. I get no particular joy from being a printer technician. I would rather spend more of my limited free time painting. To be fair, I am a 40-something (that does not make me a boomer, kids) with a good career and a family. In other words, I have more money than time. I’m not loaded, but I understand I have more disposable income than a 20-something. I understand if your calculations are different based on your own income and free time.

Stealing?

I use printing to enhance and supplement my plastic and resin models – to allow me to make things I wouldn’t otherwise able to make. I also use printing to make entire new models which otherwise would not exist. Some of the files I use sometimes border on IP infringement. I’m almost always combining them with GW/FW models that I purchased, so I don’t see any great harm here.

I don’t care if you buy recasts or print duplicates of GW models any more than I care if you walk into Walmart and shoplift. GW is doing fine (most people still find it a lot more fun and easy to buy plastic kits than 3D print) and I assume Walmart is doing fine too. Here’s the thing though, you don’t get to think you are better than a kid who steals shit from Walmart. You sure as fuck don’t get to strut around like you are fucking Robin Hood. You are a middle class person stealing luxury goods which you do not need, but feel entitled to. I find this attitude especially asinine among the “Law and Order” conservative types who think the aforementioned kid should go to prison for 20 years for shoplifting some Skittles from Walmart.

At this point, almost all of us have some parts of dubious origin. I do too. I also have a few totally unlicensed figures and busts from tiny 1-person companies. There is plenty of gray area. All in all though, at this point in my life, I do my best to support the designers who make the models I build and paint.

Are you cool?

I laughed out loud when I saw nerds grappling with this question in the comments. I guess it gets to the heart of what the average nerd is really worried about. Nobody asked me, but I’ll tell you what I think anyway. You are cool if your models look good and you are cool if you are not an asshole. Take a long hard look at those two things. I have creeped the profile of many a “goes Brrr” commenter, and their prints always look like shit. In the unlikely event they have any paint on their models, it is laughable. If you want to be cool, put in your 10,000 hours and get good at something – anything. Until then, shut the fuck up, kiddo.

And now that you probably hate me… All funds from my merch sales go to the International Rescue Committee these days. So buy a fanny pack or something – Or don’t I guess I should make this its own post.

https://tabletop-inquirer.creator-spring.com/