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I know of a company, that could make parts without ANY tooling, and could even make things as complex as a case for a computer monitor, complete with mounting hardware, printed logos, mixed colors of plastic too.

You would pay a single fee for the computer programming for the part(s), and then a fee based on volume to produce the final parts. The goal was to reduce the cost of getting your item made, and even the first run production, without having the cost of tooling to deal with. Then, with the money you hopefully made on that first run, you would then have the capital to make the tooling for a full production run of product. They didn't like to make any larger a run of something, beyond I think, of about 1500 to maybe 5000 parts.

This was based on using technology used to make sheet metal parts, converted to work with plastics, with parts being cut from sheets, then heated and bent, then glued or heated welded together, into the final item, with the "printing" done at some time when the parts needing that were "flat". I was stunned at the samples they showed me of items, yes as complex as a monitor case, all made from this process.

I thought about making some kind of vehicle with this process years ago, but as this process is really only good for making "bodies" and not things like sprockets and wheels, or track links, I just gave up on it. By the time I added up what it would take to have those other parts made, even with the lower cost of having a real and strong plastic body made, I doubted anyone could afford to buy one, and that could be a real problem with only 500 bodies made, let alone 1500.

The company also really wasn't thrilled at the idea of me using them to make a short run of product, and not wanting to buy tooling later to make more later through them.

Face it, 1500 halftracks or command cars is a huge run in our niche of the hobby, making 50,000 or 100,000 is almost in my mind, clearly out the question. While it was tempting to think of making 500 bodies, the thought of being stuck with any of them didn't appeal to me. At $1500 USD for the programming alone, spreading that out over 500 units may only be $3 a unit, but I think the production run was going to be about $300 each even without the cost of tooling. I just couldn't see people going for that, without having tracks or wheels, etc. Still, those would have been some sweet, tough, good looking bodies.

These are some pieces we made for plasticpanzers a couple of years ago, for his Semovente Tank kits.

The gas can never went beyond the prototype phase, but the main gun barrel was a go from the first piece out of the machine.







These were the barrels straight out of the printer ...





These are those barrels after clean up, but before priming and other such prep work ...





Other items made by this same type of 3D printer ...





The prices on these machines have dropped further since then, and the quality of printing improved. Could be used to make molds, to make other parts, and computations built into the software to allow for shrinkage of known types of materials.

There has been a company out there, making items for train hobbyists for years now, using this process, and since then, another company can make finished parts of much higher quality, straight from your spec, to finished part, that look incredible, and are strong to boot.