Bob McCown said:
Im not sure what Im trying to mimic, either.
Yes you are !
This is always an interesting argument. As a resin caster, it seemed like 3d printing was cheating. But a resin caster is cheating compared to making everything from scratch. Is buying details from Ozark some how more acceptable than 3d printing. In my case I have a huge and wide array of resources available to me. I have wood, a full wood shop, resin casting ability, a supply of stuff acquired from friends, multiple molds and resin and white metal on hand, etc. Now I own a printer.
The point is I think the Spirit of MIK is just modeling, scratch building, using what WE have. Some of us have deep resorts because we love scratch building, should we be punished because we have our toys?