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Do not order the Gameprint ships! Pics included.
lexusk19
Member Posts: 1,407 Arc User
I just recived my 4inch model of the stock and default ToS Connie that I had printed from Gameprint... Its utterly terrible... The colors arnt right, the model is bent, its over all cheap, the paint is low rez, and feels like sandpaper... Im going to be requesting a full refund, this is an utter scam...
Pic of the model I submitted ~
Note that this is the default ship in STO other then the name.
Pics of what I received ~
Cryptic, you need to get a hold of Gameprint and get them to sort this out... This is just embarrassingly bad.
Also note, the camera makes it look lighter then it is. It's a deep dark gray in rl.
Pic of the model I submitted ~
Note that this is the default ship in STO other then the name.Pics of what I received ~
Cryptic, you need to get a hold of Gameprint and get them to sort this out... This is just embarrassingly bad.
Also note, the camera makes it look lighter then it is. It's a deep dark gray in rl.
Post edited by lexusk19 on
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As a modelmaker/miniature painter, I can tell this is subpar execution.
And these pics are not out of focus, that just how bad the paint resolution is...
> That does indeed look terrible but I thought the 4-inch model was supposed to be color printed not painted? Also how'd you get yours so quick? I ordered shortly after they announced the new sizes and they won't even start working on mine until September
I expected it to be color printed. But the show model they had looked wonderful. And I have no idea how it came so fast. I wasnt expecting it for another couple months.
Sounds like they rushed the entire thing and just botched the whole casting/painting. At any rate, that does not encourage me into ordering anything from them, especially considering the prices
I hope you get a proper refund
> lexusk19 wrote: »
>
> > @evilmark444 said:
> > That does indeed look terrible but I thought the 4-inch model was supposed to be color printed not painted? Also how'd you get yours so quick? I ordered shortly after they announced the new sizes and they won't even start working on mine until September
>
> I expected it to be color printed. But the show model they had looked wonderful. And I have no idea how it came so fast. I wasnt expecting it for another couple months.
>
>
>
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> Sounds like they rushed the entire thing and just botched the whole casting/painting. At any rate, that does not encourage me into ordering anything from them, especially considering the prices
>
> I hope you get a proper refund
I will post here if I do. With the holiday I doubt I'll get a response for a few days.
Not considering the awful paint job but...
The shape of the ship, seeing the Constituion has some "fragile" limbs, could it have been warped / bent because of the warm weather we're having? Like it's been "melted" into a bent shape? How was the box it arrived in?
My 12 inch ship is waiting for painting, it looks a lot better than yours.
Gameprint sent me a picture of my ship a while ago, since it's waiting for painting.
So the 12 inch model of my Galaxy Class seems a lot better!
Honestly, I'd think the bent warp nacelle pylon would be unforgiveable, even at that scale.
> Other than small thin parts being kinda melty...not seeing the issue. The color seems close to the 3D rendering. The details are a bit blurry...but that is to be expected in a 4 inch color print. The concentric circle is a trade mark of 3D printing. The fact that they got those small windows printed on a 4 inch model is actually quite amazing. It has WAY more detail than I would have expected. So other than the thin parts being melty...not sure what the issue is. What exactly were you expecting at the 4 inch level? I'm not sure I like the resin they used however if they are going to have structural issues with small parts like that however.
Like I stated above, the color is way off in RL. Its Deep dark gray.
Look at the amazing level of detail and sound shape in the advertised 4inch ship and then look at what I got... Its false advertising.
Ok, I give up on you, no idea why your being such a white knight for these scammers. O.o But to each their own. Take care, no hard feelings.
Could it have been straighter? Yes.
Could it have happened during the printing process? Yes.
Could it have happened in transit? Depending on the environmental conditions and packing? Yes.
The sample picture you provided was of the T6 Intrepid, a rather squat, sturdy ship. Your ship is a pre-refit Connie, a ship with skinny parts that aren't as sturdy.
Neither coldnapalm or I are bashing you. Hell... in some instances we agree that the job could have been better. BUT... we're also pointing out a few details that do need to be considered. Some designs will be more sturdy in the printing process than others. And also at the size you picked, that would mean less material to make those skinny parts more sturdy.
So honestly... it wasn't false advertising, it was plain bad luck with the chosen ship design and size.
Heck, that's even the canon reason as to why the class was phased out of service while the Miranda class and other older classes were kept in service up towards and through the TNG/VOY/DS9 era..
It's also the reason the Excelsior Class has it's nacelle's close to it's body, and the neck is short and thick.
How was the packaging it arrived in though? I have a feeling it may have been bent because of the warm weather, I highly doubt they packaged a ship looking that bad...
OP....Hope that you can get a replacement...or another ship that can be reproduced in a smaller size with less issues.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
This. The material is somewhat flexible so if you've specified a ship with long+thin pylons supporting large components at some angle then bending is a big risk. I got a 4" patrol escort, looks good, feels great, and it's perfectly specified (no issues with the pylons, correct angle). You can get good results, the Constitution class (from this and another example I've seen) just looks like it's difficult to print in this way and at this scale.
As to the color resolution: that's evident from the PR picture as well (if you zoom in a bit) and something discussed on ten forward weekly. It is a little blurry but that's the compromise of the 4" model. It's not hand painted and the technology can't yet (economically) insert color at high enough resolution to, say, get a fully legible registry. But, it can do detail down to the creases in the hull material and if you're holding the model at any distance the human eye can focus (camera close ups are cheating a bit) then the effect is barely noticeable (if you notice at all.)
What I wouldn't recommend: basically what the OP ordered, a ship with flat colors (makes the printing ridges stand out) and spindly components supporting larger sections. Heat may have been a factor too (there's a warning in the box and a heatwave across much of the US.) Hopefully they get their refund soon, though I should note for folks here that there is a card in the box saying "contact us if you're the least bit unsatisfied" which I'm sure they'll be referencing.
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They also shipped in packing peanuts and a small plastic bag...
So in regards to color matching...it's actually pretty close to spot on on the print. I'm actually impressed for a 3D Print how close they got it. Fun Trivia Fact. Did you know the Enterprise D wasn't that nice flat grey that they showed on screen. The studio model in-person was primarily Duck-Egg Blue, with some grey and eggshell-whites. With that in mind, Gameprint has to make a lot of adjustments and tweaks to compromise between a real-world accurate color vs what you see on your screen.
To further complicate things, a majority of monitors and displays used by consumers are not color calibrated. So what you think is white on your monitor is actually very very far from "true white". I'm banking on the fact that you likely have not used a colorimeter to calibrate your screen. That means the picture you see on your screen may vary in color to what someone else see's on their screen. Which means unless everyone in the pipeline has calibrated their displays and colors exactly the same, you're going to see a difference in color from what you saw on your capture image vs what gameprint ACTUALLY uses for printing.
This is a very common problem between photographers, printers, and customers. The customer sees one thing when they get their proofs, while the photographer (and ideally printer) are calibrated a specific way.
Next up. The ship you chose is not very conducive to 3D printing. A lot of Federation Ships are poorly designed in terms of practical engineering terms. The nacelle/pylon concept leads to incredibly weak structural elements. The Saucer / Neck / Engineering Hull has similar issues.
The only part I can fault Gameprint here is the bent pylons. They have to choose between 2 poor choices structurally.
1) They print it as is in scale to the model (which they did). The problem is you then end up with a structurally weak support holding up a structurally heavy part.
2) They modify the print capture for smaller models with these kind of issues to thicken and increase the size of the pylons. The problem here is that you'd have another camp of people screaming bloody murder for not matching the scale properly.
Further more, you choose a very simple finish with a lot of wide open spans of the same color with little variation.
This translates very poorly to current 3d printing technologies. Most resin and similar "build-up" print methods will end up with a 'powdery' finish unless you get a lot of finishing work done on them (sanding, wet-sanding, priming, painting). That and you're trying to print a plane model with specific areas of 'fine' detail in a 4-inch model. Overall it was a very poor combination of choices. Not entirely your fault for not knowing this.
Here's where the issue comes in. Custom Miniatures are very much a 'you get what you pay for' area. You may think $25 is a lot of money for a model and honestly...for a mass market, die-cast or mass built piece, I'd agree with you. But you ordered a custom piece. Custom Miniatures usually go for 20 to 60 bucks or more just for UNPAINTED / PLAIN finishes in cheap plastic. Resin pieces go for even more, and in color go for even more. I'm actually surprised that Gameprint was able to even provide a 25$ price point. For 25 bucks, it actually came out pretty well (asides from the bent-pylon).
My 2 12 inch models got delayed so they sent me a Pathfinder. And it looks spot on to what they had on their images. I was actually impressed with how much detail they were able to fit on the piece for a 4inch size. There are definite shortcomings in the process but at $25, you get what you pay for.
https://imgur.com/a/hmqgG4w
The issue is your expectations are out of whack with what you actually bought/paid for. And in terms of 'false advertising' claims...they showed off their best product. You could have waited to see what more of them looked like.
That being said, Gameprint should definitely look into dealing with the bent pylon with a refund or a fix of some kind.
I personally understand what you're saying, but if I'd known all of this beforehand, or if I'd seen a close up of the 4 inch Pathfinder like what you posted, I probably would not have ordered my 4 inch Excalibur class. I was looking forward to getting my ship in the mail, but after reading everything in this thread now I'm kind of dreading it.
And now the site wont do the URL...
https://i.imgur.com/mnjvUaR.jpg
And what I sent over was the stock ToS Connie which appears like that ref over ESD. So either Cryptic is sending the wrong shades out or Gameprint is receiving the wrong colors. No amount of proof will ever convince you... I can tell.