Model Railroading > Shapeways plastic choices

I haven't purchased from Shapeways in a while and noticed that there are now three choices for purchasing castings: "smooth fine detail plastic", "gray fine detail plstic", and "clear ultra-fine detail plastic". I was wondering what experiences people have had in terms of strength, detail and ease of painting. I am currently thinking of purchasing an N scale industrial stairway for an structure so strenth is most important, but was interested in others' experiences.
Thanks to everyone in advance for your imputs!

Should not be a huge expense to get one of each that will be the true test. I am very careful after buying a printed piece only to find out it had a thin surface and underneat have very little structure to it making the part worthelss. Also the printing had lines in it that had to be filled not an easy process that removed any detail. Just my experiance with printed items. I have also bought  O scale power transformers and other items from another company that needed nothing other than a coat of paint. Some were large O scale pipes which had bolt holes in the flanges about 1/64" and were perfect.

Someone reported here that Shapeways can outsource printing if capaicity is limited resulting in the use of lower end printers. All the things I have purchased have been fine.

Victor Baird

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> Someone reported here that Shapeways can outsource
> printing if capaicity is limited resulting in the
> use of lower end printers. All the things I have
> purchased have been fine.
>
> Victor Baird
Bought some items 5yrs or so ago it was a vendor not shapeways themselves which provided the parts. Thought that they were just a store front for vendors who did the work. Have learned the hard way about poor quality  printing as getting the surface streaks out of the printing is hard to do and no detail is left either. Now I will buy one small item rather than spend 50.00 for something that I round filed again.Found great quality work can be done that has detail, holes and such that just needs cleaning and paint. The items are O scale electrical equipment like transformers.