Chaps, I just had a brainwave (steady on....) whilst slumbering in bed this morning - well I am on holiday, so I think I'm entitled to a bit of a slumber. I apologise if this is not a new idea though.
Don't you agree that producing highly detailed figures in 1/43 would be a great project for 3-D printing? I wonder if it would be possible to generate 3D-CAD data from a series of all-round photos of the subject? Using real-life subjects, the possibilities and poses are endless.
Tim
(BTW, Richards figure painting is superb, when seen "in the flesh")
You can get off the web for free and for pay 3D figures already, usually in Studio Max format, pilots, ground crew, passenger, even naked women etc etc.
Turbosquid will probably have loads to choose from, you don't need the textures as your going to print them not use them in a simulator.
We used to do it all the time in Flight sim for pilots and crew etc all you need do for model railways is scale them in your 3D cad program and send off to whomever you choose to print.
Don't reinvent the wheel just use what someone else has already done and trust me, there's some seriously good 3D figure models out there and if you don't trust me on that then trust me that making them yourself is bloody difficult, hence I paid for mine and spent the time on something else more worthy.
Example
http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-military-pilot-v3-static/619682
Once you have the figure in 3D you can change the pose as much as you like, print out and then paint to suit.
With Turbosquid, once you have paid for the model you can sell it on in what ever format you like, but not as a single 3D model, part of another model embedded in the code is fine, printed out in 3D would probably also be fine, there are other sites for 3D figures (free and pay) and I'll wager they out weight us model train buffs by about 10:1
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