Nation- (and City-) Specific Victory City Markers

Hello All! Things have been fairly busy in my life lately; I usually model these pieces in my down time at work, and frankly there hasn’t been any!

That being said, I’m going to try and knock out the rest of these, as I am anxious to get them out to you guys (and admittedly I want a set for myself as well :-D).

As a reward for your patience, I give you…SHANGHAI!!

Thanks to all of you for your continued support and encouragement. I couldn’t even have gotten as far as I have without your interest and input.

I SHALL RETURN

Hello All!

I wanted to provide a quick update on the project, as I’ve been AWOL for a few months…I apologize to everyone who has been patiently waiting. I promise your patience will be rewarded!

As you all probably know, the models for the Victory Cities themselves are nearly complete, I only have a few more to go!

Manufacturability is something I am looking into, however. You see, for every material choice on Shapeways, there is a different design requirement. So, for instance, Shanghai can be printed in “Frosted Ultra Detail” but not in the much less expensive “Polished White Plastic”. I would like to have a good balance between quality and affordability, and be able to offer a wide range of materials for those that want them.

So, to address this concern, I’ve ordered some sample pieces of the cities I’ve designed so far in various materials that Shapeways offers. I hope to receive this by around Christmas time, and I will post comparison pictures of the same pieces in different materials.

In the mean time, I will continue to crank out designs for cities, so that I can make them active for sale ASAP.

Thanks again to everyone who is continuing to follow this project, and hopefully we will see these beautiful cities gracing our G40 boards soon!

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.**