Aotrs Shipyards PSA (Shapeways materials changes 25/04/2023)

[Aotrs Shipyards]

𝗔𝗼𝘁𝗿𝘀 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘆𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗣𝗦𝗔

(Cross-posted to both forums.)

Shapeways. *sigh*

So, folks, last thing last night, I got this notification through email.

“𝘏𝘪,
𝘈𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘥, 𝘸𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘜𝘭𝘵𝘳𝘢 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘵 2500𝘴. 𝘐𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘚𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭, 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩.
𝘼𝙨 𝙬𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙧𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙨, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙚𝙭𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙢𝙤𝙤𝙩𝙝 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙎𝙢𝙤𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝘿𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙡 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙗𝙮 35% 𝙤𝙣 𝙒𝙚𝙙𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙙𝙖𝙮, 𝘼𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙡 26𝙩𝙝. ”

 

So. What does that mean? Well, for a start, looking at the latest OT-65 release (a smaller vehicle):

VPN (i.e. what I recommend): £4.83/$5.98 (what I derive my mark-up from, so all money from the more expensive materials goes to Shapeways, not me.)
Smooth Detail: £8.77/$10.86
Smoothest Detail: £10.48/$12.97
Grey Fine Detail: £9.18/$11.36
Clear Ultra Fine Detail: £12.17/$15.07

(A Challenger 2, for comparison is up to £14/£19 in the new materials.)

And TOMORROW, those middle prices will be going up by 35%; which will make smooth and smoothest detail more expensive than the new grey fine detail and clear ultra fine detail. (Notice how they didn’t give anyone any real warning?)

Why is the price going up? No idea.

But, I suspect, like, me, you might well be thinking “because we want to make people use the more expensive new materials, so we’ll hike the price up of the old expensive materials to be more than that.” (One also suspects this is a self-perpetuating decision that will eventually lead them to stopping the material entirely.) Difficult to read anything *else* from that message, isn’t it?

 

 

And this is why Only-Games is so important, so that Shapeways doesn’t become the Youtube of the 3D printing business.

And at Only-Games, I remind you, the RESIN print for the OT-65 is only £3.37.

I am thus officially abandoning support for the smooth detail materials. I always thought they were well -overpriced before, but I gamely had them as an option for the collectors who were really bothered about the surface finish of VPN. I am not going to spend the hours (tens of hours?) going through my whole catalogue to delete the materials, but from this point forwards, I won’t be implementing it on new models.

IF you want one of my models from Shapeways in not-VPN and it isn’t available in one of the new materials, please let me know and I’ll enable it. (I found one where they weren’t just checking the pricing, but I’m not going through all 500 or so models to check, even with the XML editor.)

But really, if you want higher fidelity materials than VPN… Just get the models from Only-Games, folks. Seriously. I mean, really, you should be doing that *anyway*, because it’s a better product for cheaper EVEN counting international shipping.

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