Just read an article over at Wired.com about hobby rooms. They mention something called a makerbot cupcake cnc printer.

http://www.makerbot.com

I looked into it and it would seem like an excellent addition to any modellers tool box...although it is not cheap. Apart from it only being able to produce items that are 10 x 10 x 15 cm, it opens up alot doors, or am I completly off my rocker?

Very interesting! And of course, for the first project, it makes a ten sided D&D die

Not too shabby! And the price for a "home CNC unit" really isn't bad all things considered but what I question is what OS is it using and how or what program or files are used to comunicate with it? I'd like to see some close ups of finished products to see what the actual surface renders out like. I do like this, with the ABS, better than the current twin lasers in wax rapid prototyping that's out there...and this one you'd own rather than rent a project from someone else's machine - but I give that alittle time before someone buys one of these and that happens too!
Hmmm...homemade custom rims and tires, paxton superchargers for the drag cars, semi truck hood ornaments, carson tops for the lead sleds....wonder if it'll extrude clear styrene rod for tranparent parts like new clear bells for the star fury or other lightable pieces for the sci-fi kits....dang...drooled all over the keyboard!!!

Don't know if you found this yourself, but covers just about all the questions that I had about the little critter.

http://wiki.makerbot.com/cupcake

Some pretty cool stuff being showcased here:

https://www.thingiverse.com/

A friend of mine has access to an industrial printer, and the stuff he gets made has a simillar ribbed or nubbed surface texture.

This is definatly going on my xmas wish list.

Very cool. I'll have to budget one of these into my five year plan.

Now that is a cool bit of tech! Think i best start savin! Any idea what a base unit may cost? Cant seem to find a price on it?