The SteelNavy.Com Message Board: Re: Quality and price

We all always hope for better and cheaper kits...

We have different recollections of Shapeways.

While I never bought it, I distinctly remember the PA-12 version at $80. Then sales tax, shipping, and some sort of a fee they tacked on to review designs (!) Put the crappy PA-12 version up toward $120. I am less certain of the acrylic resin price, but as earlier noted I am thinking about $106. The same additional costs then drove that one to/towards $150. And the fuzzy memory of the CAD image for it which I have in my head was not showing me $150 worth of ship. So, while I looked a lot, I never pulled the trigger.

Shapeways had a European branch, so your memories of exceptional, high quality kits for whatever price it was listed for in Europe do not match what I encountered. (And this may well be why it was the US branch which sank Shapeways.) What I found on Shapeways is what you are complaining about here. By the time the other costs got added in, lots of their stuff (particularly larger items above the size of 1/700 planes) were simply not worth it to me.

My 3D-Wild order cost me $90, plus $12 shipping. $102 total. Nothing else. IF the actual kit matches the images shown (and taking everything else into account) I will have gotten a better product for a better price out of this than I would have from Shapeways.

And that's the difference. Shapeways had a branch in Europe, and it made your experience with them better. I don't miss Shapeways, myself.

Previous Message

Thank you for letting me know when you will receive the kit!

From the five available kits by DFNM at 3D Wild, I have for two of ship classes kits by EV Model (Type 26 and Constellation). I am thinking about the three others (River class, Hunter class, ASWF). All these cases, the real ships are in very early stages of building. Combined with what I see from the kits so far, my tendency is to hope for better and cheaper kits.

To the price shown at 3D Wild of one of such frigates, 90$, I have to add 28$ shipping and similar amount in taxes and handling fees, i.e. close to 150$ (at this cost, it is currently still free of tariffs; if I would add the US tariffs for EU products, another 15% would have to be added). That is very expensive for a 1/700 kit of a modern frigate, even if these are very large frigates. In comparison, even DFNM kits at Shapeways were not that expensive. For such a price, an exceptional, high quality kit could be expected.

I usually do not compare costs to 1/350 kits, because I am not interested in them - but in this case, the comparison is provided by 3D Wild. And these comparison again hints to the disproportional high price of the 1/700 kit. The 1/350 kit is printed in several parts, i.e. likely on a similar printer.

I had bought and built quite a few DFNM kits from Shapeways. But these were all of already existing ships - and all much cheaper.