How to make my models cheap?

So, I am very new to this model service stuff (before, I thought it was either a $5000 printer or you're out of luck) and I was fascinated by the cheap, practical, and artistic models in the gallery. I saw the thing about how you can make minecraft models into real ones. The first one I saw was a five inch model of the eiffel tower for 20 bucks. It seemed that all of the "featured" models are cheaper, and often round off at nice, rounded dollar marks like $5 and 20$.

I made a model of a small gun for a prop for my low budget movie and it rounded off to a cool $256.
It was only a few inches long, which by what I saw in the gallery, should cost about 20-40 bucks, and then I would make it smaller or something and buy it for 15. And the thing is, it is a sketch, no details whatsoever. If I had the details and all that, it would probably come to about 300 bucks.

So how do they do it?
How do they make such complicated, big models for so cheap?

Hi Morganwk,

Welcome to Shapeways!

When you have chosen the material you want your model printed in, head into the Materials Comparison Sheet and check out the minimum wall thickness & detail for the material.

Your goal will now be to hollow out your model as much as you can to reduce the volume of material used in the print. Less material = cheaper price.

One method of hollowing out is using MeshLab and follow the steps kindly laid out by Dizinof in this forum post.

Hope this helps,
Paul

p.s. it might be worth checking with Shapeways Customer Services first about the printability of your prop as they do have a few restrictions on what cannot be printed, this includes weapons.

Thanks!
I just kinda realized how expensive this really was.
I think I'll stick to other ways of making props.
However, I'll definitely come back if I want a stylus, geek jewlry, or a mini architecture model or something.
Now, what to design...