After my disappointment with the last QRF order, I thought I'd try some of the 3D printing firms as an alternative. I've already bought stuff from Syborg, and although it is OK for the price, it is pretty rough and ready.
I needed a few extra bits for my WW2 British paras as well, and I had a look at Butlers Printed Models, who have been around a while and have an amazing range, including the option to print stuff in PLA (whatever that is) or resin (which is more pricy). Most of the vehicles also have several different options of stowage, turret types etc, which as they are printed on demand, is easy to do.
I picked out a few of the more delicate items to be done in resin, as after wrestling with the striations on the Syborg stuff, I didn't fancy fiddling around with with the curved shapes on a lot of the items I was getting.
These are a resin Somua and two resin Renault UE. This is exactly as they appeared in the bag, and are absolutely exquisite. I was just amazed at the quality, they are as good as injection moulded plastic kits, but no assembly at all required (the Somua turret is separate and rotates) and much better than a lot of metals.
The PLA stuff was a bit less impressive. A Char B1 bis and three jeeps, all except one clarted up with mould stuff, which didn't look very promising at all. I' ve tried cleaning this off 3D prints before, and the models end up covered in stray fibres. The one Jeep which was clean looked OK though.
I mean just look at this Char B. How on earth am I going to get the mould stuff without snapping the guns off?
My fears were unjustified however. After some careful prying with a craft knife, and some less careful sticking in of thumbnails, it all came off very cleanly with very few fibres in sight. The bits that were left were easy to carve off, and it came up much more cleanly than the Syborg stuff.
I guess it uses a better quality printer and better quality resin.
tbh I was just blown away by these. They are great quality, perfectly proportioned (no bloated '1/100th' which is actually 1//95th), virtually no assembly required and most important, dirt cheap. Although I've been a bit iffy about 3D printing in the past, this is the future and I reckon metal vehicle manufacturers should be very, very afraid. I still can't imagine doing it myself, but I'm very happy to pay firms to do it if this is what they can produce.
That's really interesting and helpful Martin. I too have had some Syborg stuff before, which was okay but entirely dependent on how much cleaning up needed to be doing; but that BPM stuff sounds quite promising. I need to give some of their 6mm stuff a go.
ReplyDeleteI only bought the Syborg stuff as they had a stand at Partisan, some interesting offerings and I like to look at things before buying them. BPM have been around a while but I recall some iffy early reviews. They have obviously come on leaps and bounds.
DeleteGotta ask, what was the problem with QRF order?
ReplyDeleteI thought now that they were taken over molds were being improved etc.
Two of the items I ordered arrived, four didn't arrive at all and three items arrived with the wrong castings in the incorrectly labelled bags. No replies to any of my emails, so I sent all the incorrect castings back and asked a refund. Still heard nothing so I wrote the whole order off. A few weeks later all the right stuff turned up, but still not a peep from QRF, and I'd already ordered it all from BPM. Teething problems with a new business I guess, but I'll be cautious with QRF in future.
DeleteIt really is the future- I'd go as far to say that any traditional metal or resin vehicle manufacturers may as well quit now and re- focus their business as 3d printing is only going to get quicker and better....
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Pete.
That certainly seems to be the case. I can't see myself printing stuff out any time soon, but I'm very happy to pay other people to do it.
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