Ok all, samples are here! Overall, I was very happy with how these came out, with a few caveats.
Before I get into posting pictures, let me make a point out a few things:
Camera
Some of the pictures aren’t the best quality…I’m not a professional photographer and these things are VERY small. The camera had particular trouble with the Warsaw marker; the detail is very fine on this piece.
Polished vs. Unpolished
I made the mistake of ordering most of these in a “polished” variety of plastic…what this ended up doing for many of them was destroying many of the fine features and making some of them look like melted snow. I now know to only use the “unpolished” selection for strong and flexible plastic. The Honolulu marker is a great example of polished vs. unpolished.
Detail Plastic vs. Strong & Flexible Plastic
These samples have determined that I will offer two materials for the pieces: 1) Strong and Flexible Plastic, which is a white material and is the cheapest option, and 2) Detail Plastic, which is a clear plastic with better detail, but about double the cost. This should meet my goal of offering different price points for those who want better detail. The London marker is a great example of Strong & Flexible vs. Detail.
Without further ado…here we go!
**City: Paris
Material: Strong & Flexible Plastic, Polished
Notes: This one didn’t fare too badly with the polished option; this was the first one out of the box, and I was very pleased with how it came out.**
**City: London
Material: Strong & Flexible Plastic, Polished (Left) and Detail Plastic (Right)
Notes: As you can see, this one got a little mushy looking with the polished option. The detail plastic looks great.**
**City: Honolulu
Material: Strong & Flexible Plastic, Polished (Left) and Strong & Flexible Plastic (Right).
Notes: You can definitely see the difference between polished and unpolished here. I think going with unpolished will solve many of the issues some of the following markers have.**
**City: Washington D.C.
Material: Strong & Flexible Plastic, Polished.
Notes: Pretty disappointed with how the polished variety affected this one. Think Detail and Unpolished will be much better.**
**City: Berlin
Material: Strong & Flexible Plastic, Polished.
Notes: Really like how this one came out, even though it’s a little mushy looking.**
**City: Moscow
Material: Strong & Flexible Plastic, Polished.
Notes: This one got pretty beat up during polishing.**
**City: Tokyo
Material: Strong & Flexible Plastic, Polished.
Notes: Really like how this one came out.**
**City: San Francisco.
Material: Strong & Flexible Plastic, Polished.
Notes: Really like how this one came out, even though it’s a little mushy looking.**
**City: Rome
Material: Metallic Plastic.
Notes: I ordered one piece in this material to see how it would come out, I wasn’t pleased with the level of detail, so I won’t be offering this material for sale.**
**City: Warsaw
Material: Detail Plastic.
Notes: This one was pretty amazing quality; my camera couldn’t even pick up a lot of the detail.**
Excellent and superb job on these! You put a lot of work on these and it shows.:-D
Here’s another shot of the London marker on the actual board. I personally think it looks great.
Thank you again to all of those who helped me research and provided input for these markers. I hope to finish up the remaining cities so you all can have a complete set.
I hope to make these available for sale very soon!
Forgot the pic.
Forgot the pic.
That is awesome! I can’t wait for these to grace my new metal map! :-D
Will these come in different colors?
Forgot the pic.
That is awesome! I can’t wait for these to grace my new metal map! :-D
Will these come in different colors?
Unfortunately, it’s looking like white and clear (for detail plastic) will be the only colors available directly from Shapeways, however these should be fairly simple to paint. I’ll try to throw some paint on one of mine and see how it comes out.
Forgot the pic.
That is awesome! I can’t wait for these to grace my new metal map! :-D
Will these come in different colors?
Unfortunately, it’s looking like white and clear (for detail plastic) will be the only colors available directly from Shapeways, however these should be fairly simple to paint. I’ll try to throw some paint on one of mine and see how it comes out.
OK, that would be cool! :-)
WOW! They look so great. Really impressed that you are taking the extra step of ordering them in different types of material to find out which one will work the best for each model. Look forward to buying a set, must have for a Global 40 board.
Thanks for the sample pictures! Great to see these designs materializing as actual pieces that can be put on an actual game board. I agree with your assessment that, for capturing the fine details of the designs, the unpolished option is far better than the polished option and that the Detail Plastic material is far better than the Strong & Flexible Plastic. So to me, the best high-detail combination would be unpolished Detail Plastic. The higher cost of the Detail Plastic material would be well worth it, in my opinion, for players who want the nicest-looking pieces possible. I’d leave mine unpainted, since I’m not a sculpt painter and since, frankly, I think the clear plastic looks quite attractive in its own right; it certainly gives the cities a distinctive look that is unlike any of the OOB sculpt colours, which highlights nicely their special status. The single drawback to leaving them unpainted would be that the engraved city names on the base are visible from the top – but I don’t see this as being a serious enough issue that it would incite me to paint mine. For the forum’s many sculpt-painters, this naturally won’t be a problem at all.
the other question is how do i order a set?
