Minature ~2 cm version of yourself: possible?

I'm making a 3d model of my face (if anyone knows a good scanner service, 2D to 3D software or person that could do this from photos, please advice).

I want it (my face) to be around 0.25 cm wide or less. I'm wondering if shapeways printers have the resolution to resolve fine enough features to make the model actually look like me. It just needs to be recognizable so I'm thinking it should work.

0.25 cm would be hardly recognizable, 2.5 cm is still fairly small.

Nevertheless, for a reasonably small fee, we are able to produce a 3D file from a single 2D portrait of yourself.

See here and send PM to discuss details.

Lets say the face is 0.5 cm wide and the miniature it'd go one would be about 2.5 cm tall or thereabouts.

What kind of resolution can you get with shapeways?

The charts on the SLS design rules page give a good indication of the level of detail that can be achieved.

In my experience, very good detail in WSF can be had by making the triangles in the mesh as small as 0.1mm, but even at that size, there's still a small amount of barely visable stepping due to the powder layer thickness as the model is being printed. Also, WSF has a grainy surface, which also may lead to a distortion of surface features.

The detail materials have a less grainy surface, and can be polished to a very smooth surface. The image below shows a squid as a hollow space within transparent detail. The squid is just 18mm long and has arms of 0.3mm diameter, but you can see the printed layers.

Note: this is an example of the level of detail that can be acheived, for a model with external detail you'll need to take the minimum detail (0.2mm) and wall thickness (1mm) into account, also the detail materials are somewhat brittle.

As long as proportions are not imortant for your 'mini-me', a characture with an oversized head might be a safe option.