On the topic of 3D printing for those of you who've done it or had it done and shipped to you, do you prefer SLA/DLP for the detail or SLS for the sturdiness? Any experience with shapeways? Also, which materials and print methods lead to better results when painting the model? Or, is it better as
>>7297210 said to use full color printing, or is the detail simply not there with the tech available?
Actually, how the heck does full color in DLP work, it's all the same resin bath, is there a kind of resin that can cure to different colors based on exposure over the UV panel?
Pic related is why I'm interested, I've been working on this in medium for the past few days and am getting ready to import it to blender and do some cleanup. Right now there's a fairly high poly count, is it worth doing a complete resurfacing and making it all clean quads and edge loops or is that really only important for computer rendering and animation stuff? Does it matter for ease of printing? As it stands every individual piece (base, body, hair) is self contained, non-overlapping with the others, and watertight so they should all slice okay. The only thing, I was initially considering SLS with shapeways because then there would be no need for support structures and would save me the stress of clipping and sanding, which I've never done on anything this small/delicate. I also don't really know how sturdy SLA/DLP print materials are, and am not sure if the mounting insert (white rectangle extending into the left foot) would handle the weight well. Same as the ankle on that leg as well, actually. I've only ever used and handled prints from FDM machines, so past that I'm really a total beginner. Is the powder used in sintering fine enough or would details get lost in something about this size? Imagine it roughly equivalent to any other weeb figure.
