I found out last night that my dad's company uses some crazy techmology to create concept models from CAD software.

I know GW makes moulds using this sort of tech, so here is my proposal:

apparently it costs the same to use the machine to produce a tiny thing or a big thing out of titanium or plastic - they often get things made, but have capacity to do extra stuff to make it more worthwhile.  Therefore, if anyone has some CAD models they would like to see produced, get in touch and I'll add it to the queue of work - perhaps suitable for a master model?

PM me if you're interested - no promises, but we'll see what can be done!

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Is it a 'subtractive' method, where cutters remove material, or an 'additive' method, like 3D printing?

Hello Otterman (and others who have PM'd me)

It is the additive method where layers of plastic, polycarbon or titanium are fused by layers of "dust" with lasers.

It costs pennies to do a polycarbon or plastic run and about £1200 to do a titanium one (although spare titanium can be re-used).  So we could potentially get some freebie stuff or one off models worth a ton!

It is accurate up to a 100 thousandth of an inch and components are used in aircraft and engines (including micro components).  Anything can be done from tiny machine parts to large items - the largest done by dad's company is an F1 racing car head rest!

They do one run a month so it depends if they have space, but it should be ok as there is always lots of space and things can be made "hanging" in the space.

Other detail questions I'll get answers for in due course.

Hope that helps?

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*Having visions of entire armies being printed before his eyes*

Hang on - can it make plastic injection moulds? From titanium? How big a mould?

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LOL. I had the same image  

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Sounds like a sintering method (I think that's how it's spelled). Do you know if the printed parts com out with a rough surface?

In the past, I'm pretty sure it was the surface roughness that prevents sintering from being the best method for printing game parts.

I may be mistaken though, in which case I'm sure someone will correct me.

They are so detailed that they shouldn't look rough.  Apparently you're standard 40k metal model looks rough compared to what this machine produces.

No idea re moulds, but assum eit could be done - I know nothing of the size and dimensions of these things unfortunately.

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