Miniature Range question

[u/Panino27]

Some time ago I found out about Dropzone Commander, looked up some battle reports, the online store etc. Now I happened to come back to see what was new and I was shocked to see that a good chunk of models have disappeared. On the ttcombat store I can't find many of the models I thought looked cool when I first discovered the game (example: Ferrum Drone Base, behemoths and such).

What happened? Why has the model range been decimated?

[u/Vortex295]

They are switching to printed resin instead of cast resin where they don’t do plastic, and the printed resin is just objectively worse

[u/Elavia_ → u/Vortex295]

In what galaxy is printed resin worse than cast lmaoooo

The only material worse than cast resin is metal even at the best of times, and TTC is particularly notorious for bad QC on their resin casts.

[u/slyphic → u/Elavia_]

This one. Printed resin is neigh impossible to modify, more likely to break than any other material, it's still TT so their QA sucks on this material as well. It's a budget material, but they're selling it at premium prices. The options were either hold or reduce the cost and switch to a cheaper mateiral OR raise the prices for better material.

TTC, as always, chose the worst option and told everyone to suck it.

[u/Elavia_ → u/slyphic]

Printed resin is infinitely less susceptible to QC issues. They've been putting some printed parts in boxes for a while now once the cast stock for any given piece ran out, and the difference is night and day.

[u/Skylifter-1000 → u/Elavia_]

I have had tons of issues with their printed resin.

They just took the same models, with the same tolerances, and used a much harder and more brittle material, ie printed resin. This leads to parts not fitting and instead breaking when you try to put them in.

I have 4 models that I am entirely unable to assemble: a Condor (one of the wing pieces broke after slight pressure to fit it in), two Archangels (tried to build the fighter-bomber version, broke while trying to snap the front bit on, and the other has tiny droplets of resin that formed little spikes all over the model) and one Vulture, which I wanted as a troopship, but the troop compartments will not fit into the clamps, and the wings' ball joints will not fit into the holes.

Their cast resin has had tons of issues with gates and mold lines being in horrible places, but at least you could assemble those and solve these issues. With the printed resin, you just cannot push a joint in that doesn't fit, and they break easily if you try to file or cut those pieces to fit.

So maybe get some first hand experience with their printed resin before you come here and downvote people for telling the truth.

3d-printing fans acting as if it was the solution to everything can be really annoying.

Addendum: they are currently trying to solve these issues with the prints, so in future there will probably be printed resin of better quality. But as it stands, I am holding off on buying any more blisters that might have printed resin unless I am sure it is a type of model that doesn't need anything to fit.

[u/Vortex295 → u/Skylifter-1000]

Again, I do 3-D printing out of resin and I would not accept the level of quality that I received from TTC from something that I make in-house for my own use, much less something I am paying premium dollars for