Frist 3d printer suggestion

[ThePhilosopher]

Hello everyone,
I am a complete newbie in this world but I would like a suggestion about a 3d printer.

My target would be to print human/animal good miniature with colours.
Example:



Could you kindly suggest me which product can fit my target?

Thank you very much in advance!

[DavidS]

If it is a first, I would recommend building your own. Since you want multi color, build it with at least 3 print heads (it looks like 3 colors of filament would cover your needs).

For the controller you have the choice, use an underpowered AVR with TeaCup, or write your own firmware. A third choice is wait for me to complete the release version of my firmware and use a Parallax Propeller P8X32A microcontroller.

Always to build your first anything. Just like your first radio when you were a kid, or your first motorcycle, first TV, first Car, first house, etc.

[truly_bent]

The only full colour printing i'm aware of at this time uses a material known as "sandstone". Whether this is in fact sand, i don't know, but it's a service available from Shapeways. There DIY people out there working on colour mixing, but i don't think they have anything ready to market yet (no doubt someone will point out something i've missed).

[KDog]

I wouldn't recommend multi-color printing for new folks. It is NOT ready for prime time. Buy a cheap kit and figure out if you have the patience to get where you want to be.

You don't give a budget but another option would be something like the Form1. It is an SLA type printer and would likely be able to get you very high resolution.

I don't see how you will be able to avoid paint at this point.

[awerby]

Have you already got a way to produce these full-color, solid scanned figure models? If so, you're most of the way there. The ProJet printers that are used to produce that full-color output are made by 3DSystems (formerly by Z-corp). They aren't cheap to buy or to run. The material is a gypsum-based powder that's consolidated by jetting colored binder onto a powder bed. It then needs to be infiltrated with a polymer of some kind to strengthen it enough for handling. This is the same material that Shapeways calls "sandstone" (no sand is harmed in the process, though). There's a new printer that's recently been released that does a similar thing with plastic powder, so the output is more durable; I haven't tried that yet.

Unless you have a lot of capital to invest and are determined to print everything yourself, I'd suggest sending your models to Shapeways, Sculpteo or another service bureau for full-color printing. If your business model is really viable, you should be able to use the printing service and still make money.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com