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	Archive through December 04, 2024	25		07/05 11:23am

Currently, they have indicated they are only located in the EU. Unless they also get production going in the US, prices for most of our customers will be extremely high due to shipping and customs.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Wednesday, December 04, 2024 - 10:41 am: Edit

A friend of mine tried to do a $8 test print with the newly revived Shapeways. He ran into this: a $25 order minimum and a separate $30 minimum shipping charge. Oof.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Wednesday, December 04, 2024 - 12:46 pm: Edit

All five of the "new" management team were with the company before they went under. Three of the five were part of the old management team. Not to sound jaded, but I have almost zero hope that they will do any better this time around.


Garth L. Getgen

By John Williams (Johndw) on Wednesday, February 19, 2025 - 11:44 am: Edit

I've been away, didn't know/remember about the browser security thing. I was a little surprised when I saw a few months ago that shapeways went bankrupt over a year ago. I do think the 7000 scale ships were wonderful.

One solution might be to contract with smaller 3d printer people who work on etsy. Multiple smaller manufacturers so they can be local to different areas to reduce shipping.

By Aaron Staley (Awwwdrat) on Saturday, July 05, 2025 - 11:23 am: Edit

Any progress?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, July 05, 2025 - 01:02 pm: Edit

On what? If you mean finding a 3d printer, I bug Jean about it every day.

By Aaron Staley (Awwwdrat) on Saturday, July 05, 2025 - 02:59 pm: Edit

Thanks.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, July 05, 2025 - 04:28 pm: Edit

Jean says that two boxes of samples arrived for inspection and she and I and others will inspect them Monday and see what it takes to move ahead.

By Sean Schoonmaker (Schoon) on Tuesday, August 12, 2025 - 01:27 pm: Edit

Any update on this topic?

As a player very desirous to get my hands on the 7000-series minis...

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Tuesday, August 12, 2025 - 02:29 pm: Edit

We are still working on it.

By Sean Schoonmaker (Schoon) on Thursday, August 14, 2025 - 04:17 pm: Edit

Thank-you, Jean!

By Robert Russell Lender (Rusman) on Friday, August 15, 2025 - 01:10 am: Edit

If it works out, will there be 1/3788 scale Starline 2400 sized mini's?

That scale is mostly all I'm interested in. I don't want new purchases not fitting in with my existing collection of ships.

By Dal Downing (Rambler) on Friday, August 15, 2025 - 03:04 am: Edit

Robert Lender yes there will be all 3 (4) scales for sale eventually just maybenot all at start up.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, August 15, 2025 - 04:59 am: Edit

I know they have a few 7000s working.

By Sean Schoonmaker (Schoon) on Wednesday, August 20, 2025 - 01:24 pm: Edit

Excellent news!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, November 14, 2025 - 11:27 pm: Edit

Thursday I reviewed Draft 2 of the contract with the new 3d company and turned it into Draft 3. Monday, Albert and I will turn that into Draft 4 and send it to the company. We really don't have any issues; we're just trying to solve the puzzle of how this will work.

One example is the tricky wording (game designers are good at that) about how to pick which ships to do in which order. Basically, ADB will have the final say over what goes on the list (since we know what sells and what players need), but the print company will have the ability to say "I don't think Canadi'ens will sell and I don't want to spend 14 hours getting the file ready, so I will pass on that one." In some situations we might say "we think that the Paravian CA will sell so we will allow it to be done under Paragraph 17" under which the contractor keeps our part of the proceeds until sales reach a minimum number at which point he has to give us our profits.

It's a dynamic situation. It would be simple to say "The Tholian CA sold the best of the ones you haven't done so do that next." It's more complicated than that. The fact that we sold a lot of them through Shapeways doesn't mean that anyone who wants one doesn't already have it. The Tholian CA might not sell very well if we don't also do the PC, DD, and CW, and the total number of ships the company can prep in one month is finite.

So for example he might say "I can add 10 ships a month" and we might say "the next ship in order would be the first Lyran you have done so let's do three Lyrans, followed by four Hydrans, then for the other three do one more ship for Feds, Klingons, and Gorns."

And remember we have three main scales, and there really isn't any point in doing one ship for a scale he hasn't done yet. So maybe in one month we decide to do the first 9 ships (3 each for 3 empires) for a new scale (the tenth ship that month would be for a scale we already had in production).

I suspect we'll spend the first three(?) months doing 7000s, then do a 3x3 release for either the 2400s or the 2500s. Then in a given month we might do a couple of 7000s, one ship each for the three empires we did in the new scale, then do a new empire in that new scale, then maybe do a monster and a freighter.

It's gonna be fun and player input will be considered. But one loud player doesn't mean anyone but him wants the Seltorians in 2500 scale.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Saturday, November 15, 2025 - 01:49 pm: Edit

I look forward to this. I got a new airbrush I'll use to paint my Romulans. A Condor and Fasthawk are high on my wish list, and a D7 and B-10, ofc!

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Saturday, November 15, 2025 - 02:02 pm: Edit

I'm considering an airbrush, if only so I can use True North enamels (I truly miss my old Model Master enamels).

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Sunday, November 16, 2025 - 03:48 am: Edit

I suppose enamels are more wear resistant, although that should be a lesser problems with non-metal ships.

By Robert Russell Lender (Rusman) on Sunday, November 16, 2025 - 06:35 am: Edit

I'm exited to try out some of the new minis.
Do we have any idea yet how fine detail they'll be?
Do we have any idea of pricing yet?

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Sunday, November 16, 2025 - 09:30 am: Edit

SVC,

Just wondering, might have been mentioned...

Where does the transfer of files that were done by players for use by Shapeway stand....
Will they be available to the new company...
Don't the IP belong to ADB...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, November 16, 2025 - 12:34 pm: Edit

Mark, the sculptors who did Shapeways stuff have contracts that cover those questions. We own well over 2000 STL files produced under those contracts.