WSF vs FUD

This is a direct comparison between Shapeways WSF (White Strong & Flexible) and FUD (Frosted Ultra Detail) materials. This is what you get when you pay for the premium stuff vs. the cheaper stuff.

They're not exactly the same model, but both are based on pretty much the same chassis, and both use the same sizing parameters for things like rivets and what-not. You can see that in the WSF, the rivets have pretty much disappeared.

You can pull out a bit more detail in the WSF by judicious painting, and it does look fine at tabletop distances, but the FUD is clearly superior. Where the FUD might fall down as a material for gaming pieces is that it's quite brittle — you can see a spot on the starboard track-guard where I knocked off a headlight when I was cleaning off the waxy shit that it comes covered in. The WSF is, on the other hand, practically indestructible.

Shapeways are trialling a much tougher acrylate high-resolution material; I've ordered some things in it, and I shall be interested to see how they stack up.