Well, I did promise an update on the last print. The box arrived at the office and I opened it up, looked pretty good .... at first.
The surface didn't have any errors like print 2, and there didn't seem to be a snowy issue like in print 1. However this time, the colour seems to look like it's faded and has a tinge of cream throughout.
As always below are some pictures to explain the problem.
Here a picture of all 3 prints I've had done to date of this model (the oldest is on the left and the most recent is on the right). It's been progressively been getting better, but as you can just about make out in this picture, the latest's prints colour is off. It seems to be faded and have somewhat of a tinge of cream to the colour. The previous two prints had issues but as you can see their colours match whilst the latest doesn't.
HiRes link
This picture shows the 2nd print and the 3rd print (most recent) side by side and a bit closer together. The latest print on the right has a cream tinge to it.
HiRes link
Here's I've stacked the 2 pieces ontop of each other to make it much easier to compare. The latest print is on the bottom and the previous print is on top. As you can see there is a cream tinge to it and some of the colours look faded. In the previous version (the top one), you can see a difference between the black and dark grey 'legs' of the piece. In the most recent (bottom piece), there's not that much of a difference between the two.
HiRes link
This shows the bottom of the piece. ot too concerned about the bottom, but this does show the colour difference. The most recent print is on the left and the previous print is on the right. It has a cream tinge and is much more faded than the previous version.
HiRes link
So the history so far is:-
[list type=1]
[*] Print 1 - Snowy finish and very 'noisy' colours as a result. No problems with the surface as such
[*] Print 2 - Colours were good, no snowy issues and colours were smooth. Surface had divots and layer chunks missing
[*] Print 3 - Surface was good and smooth, pretty glossy I might add which I liked. Colours look wrong as they seem to have a tinge of cream and looks faded (more obvious in some areas than others)
[/list]
So, I'm off to contact Shapeways again for attempt number 4. I bet they must love my emails(!)
On the plus side, I did order a second item in strong and flexible, and that came through and looks fine from what I can tell. I'll post that one up in a week or two once I've finished processing it.