This week the Bambu Lab saga enters a new phase: Fabbaloo drops an uncomfortable thesis on who wins the long game. Plus, Games Workshop all but confirms the Warhammer 40K 11th Edition release date, Korean scientists 3D print a living human cornea with 90% viability, UltiMaker targets defense with the Factor 4 Plus, and French company Lynxter unveils FDA-compliant food-safe silicone 3D printing. Let's go. 🔥
🔥 Featured
💻 Bambu Lab vs OrcaSlicer: Fabbaloo's uncomfortable thesis
The saga we opened in Weekly #008 with the cease-and-desist against Paweł Jarczak and continued in #009 with the global boycott from Geerling, Gamers Nexus, and Rossmann enters a new phase this week. No lawsuit has been filed — Bambu Lab still hasn't taken it to court — but there is a hard-hitting editorial analysis from Fabbaloo, published May 18, that's taking the conversation to a whole new level.
Kerry Stevenson (Fabbaloo) puts forward a thesis that's making the open source community uncomfortable: in the long run, Bambu Lab wins. Not because they're legally in the right or the most community-friendly brand, but because the market math is on their side. New 3D printer buyers are increasingly non-technical, casual users who want their machine to work like an HP inkjet: plug in, print, no need to know what Klipper is. Stevenson draws a direct comparison to 2D printers: "Does anyone see paper printers built for open source tweaking today? No. They're tools you buy and use. The need for open source capability in that category expired long ago."
The argument stings because it has a point. The technical maker — the one who wants to mod firmware, run Klipper, switch slicers without asking permission — is an increasingly small minority of total buyers. Bambu Lab is playing a decade-long game, not trying to win this week's Twitter fight. If casual hobbyists outnumber technical users 10 to 1 by 2030, the open source lobby loses even if it has the moral high ground.
For makers, the practical question is straightforward: when buying a printer today, do you prioritize out-of-the-box reliability or the ability to modify it down the road? Both are valid choices, but they're no longer the same decision. Anyone who wants guaranteed firmware control, Klipper support, a free slicer, and no cloud dependency should be looking at Prusa, Snapmaker, or Peopoly. Anyone who wants plug-and-play without the headaches will be well served by Bambu Lab or the mid-range lineups from Anycubic and Elegoo. What's disappearing is the middle ground: the "I'll buy Bambu and open it up later" approach no longer works the way it used to.
The saga will continue. But this week the debate has shifted from legal to commercial — and that changes everything. Read the full Fabbaloo analysis →
🎲 Miniatures
🎲 Warhammer 40K 11th Edition: Armageddon Box June 20, $299 USD
What we covered in Weekly #002 as an AdeptiCon announcement now has a nearly confirmed timeline. Spikey Bits has connected the dots, and everything points to Games Workshop opening pre-orders on June 6 and shipping the Armageddon Launch Box on June 20, 2026. Warhammer World has that exact week blocked for events — historically a clear signal that a major launch is incoming. The rumored price of $299 USD fits the usual pattern (Saturnine was $299, Leviathan was $250).
The full box contents were revealed on May 15: 23 push-fit Space Marines + 38 push-fit Orks across 12 new kits, including the new Big Mek Dakkarig (an Ork mech with a cannon), a Captain with Relic Shield, a Bigboss, a Bannernob, and an Eradicator squad with heavy bolters. Also included is the Dominatus deck for running weekend campaigns. The narrative centers on Armageddon as a classic warzone, with the Astra Militarum holding the line until the Blood Angels arrive.
For miniature painters, this is the hobby event of the year. New editions drive a surge in demand for paint, brushes, and premium resin over the following six months — especially among hobbyists picking up the game for the first time with the launch box. If you're printing resin proxies or terrain to go alongside your Space Marines, now is the time to stock up. We're putting together a dedicated catalog of High Definition resins for fine detail work, Vallejo Game Color paints, and Artis Opus brushes.
Worth noting: Games Workshop has not officially confirmed June 20 — but the combination of a blocked Warhammer World schedule, the historical release pattern (10th edition in June 2023, 9th in June 2020, 8th in June 2017), and Spikey Bits' findings make it as close to a sure thing as it gets. Read the Spikey Bits breakdown →
🤖 Ciencia WTF
🤖 Korean scientists 3D print a living human cornea with 90% cell viability
A team from Pohang University of Science and Technology and Kyungpook National University published a bioprinting milestone in the peer-reviewed journal Biofabrication: a living human cornea fabricated using 3D printing — transparent, flexible, and with nearly 90% cell viability. They used a bioink made from decellularized corneal stroma (donor cornea tissue with the cells removed) combined with stem cells capable of differentiating into the required cell types.
The most technically fascinating part: they used shear forces during extrusion to align collagen fibers the same way they're arranged in a natural cornea. That alignment is what allows light to pass through clearly — and it's exactly why historically artificial corneas have always fallen short. In animal trials, the printed cornea remained transparent, integrated with surrounding tissue within one month, and even showed early signs of nerve regeneration.
The potential impact is enormous: corneal blindness affects around 12 million people worldwide, and many have no access to transplants due to donor shortages. If this scales, eye banks will no longer be the bottleneck. This is still research — not a commercial product — but the results open the door to on-demand printing of transplant-ready tissue. It's the same advanced bioprinting thread we covered in Weekly #003 with the Leiden micro-robots, but this time with functional human tissue. Read the full coverage on Fabbaloo →
🔧 Hardware
🔧 UltiMaker Factor 4 Plus: Professional Industrial Printer with a Defense Focus
On May 21st, UltiMaker unveiled the Factor 4 Plus — an evolution of the Factor 4 launched in 2024. The promise: twice the speed without compromising industrial-grade quality, thanks to a reinforced gantry system designed to absorb vibrations at high speeds and a new motion planner called Cheetah that eliminates sudden acceleration changes. Materials are geared toward continuous production: PPS-CF (a high-temperature, chemical-resistant composite), jigs, fixtures, and spare parts.
The strategically interesting detail: UltiMaker expects its defense division to account for 30% of revenue by the end of 2026. Last year they already launched the S6 Secure and S8 Secure — air-gapped (no internet connection), USB-only, with tamper-resistant firmware and sealed hardware designed for mobile military units and forward operating bases. In other words, while Bambu Lab battles for cloud-connected dominance in the consumer market, UltiMaker is positioning itself at the opposite end: professional, NATO-aligned, and entirely offline.
For the average workshop, this isn't a direct purchase — it's firmly in the professional segment — but it is a telling market signal: verticalization by use case is accelerating. Closed cloud-connected on one end (Bambu, Anycubic), open air-gapped industrial on the other (UltiMaker, Prusa, Peopoly — covered in #009 with the Giga 800). The era of "one printer for everything" is fading fast. Read on 3D Printing Industry →
🧪 Materials
🧪 Lynxter SIL-004: FDA Food-Safe Silicone, Directly 3D Printed
French elastomer specialist Lynxter has launched the SIL-004: a liquid silicone formulated for direct 3D printing that meets the FDA CFR 21 177-2600 standard — the regulation governing rubber articles intended for repeated contact with food. In plain terms: for the first time, you can 3D print a silicone part and drop it straight into a packaging line, food processing equipment, or industrial kitchen tooling without wrestling with certification.
The technical interest extends well beyond the food industry. Until now, any project requiring silicone—custom gaskets, medical prototypes, flexible molds—meant going through injection molding with long lead times and high costs. Direct 3D printing of silicone eliminates that bottleneck. Lynxter isn't new to this space: they've been working with elastomers for years, but FDA certification for a direct 3D-printed silicone is what opens real commercial doors.
This is another European story, consistent with the consolidation we covered in #009 with Sculpteo + 3D Prod: Europe is building strength in materials and professional services, while Asia dominates consumer hardware. For makers, SIL-004 isn't a direct-to-consumer product (Lynxter is B2B), but the trend matters: more and more certified materials are becoming available for 3D printing. More on Lynxter at VoxelMatters →
💬 Our take of the week
If two weeks ago the conversation was "Bambu Lab yes or no," this week the industry is answering in several different ways. On one hand, Fabbaloo is putting forward an uncomfortable thesis: in the long run, closed ecosystems win because most new users don't want to tinker with anything. On the other hand, Warhammer 11th Edition is about to send thousands of hobbyists painting and printing minis for months. And meanwhile, science keeps advancing—printing living corneas—while UltiMaker and Lynxter carve up the professional segment, no cloud required.
The industry is splitting into three speeds: closed cloud consumer (Bambu, parts of Anycubic), open prosumer (Prusa, Snapmaker, Klipper), and vertical professional (UltiMaker, Lynxter, Peopoly). Makers are caught in the middle, and it's worth keeping an eye on all three. On our end, we stay in the trenches: resin, free tools, and this newsletter every Monday so you don't have to read eight different blogs. 💪
❓ FAQ of the week
Is Bambu Lab going to sue the OrcaSlicer developer?
As of now, Bambu Lab has not filed any lawsuit. The situation remains at the cease-and-desist and public statements stage. Fabbaloo's May 18 analysis suggests the battle is shifting from the legal arena to the commercial one: Bambu Lab is betting that casual users—a growing majority—are worth more to them than open-source goodwill.
When exactly does Warhammer 40K 11th Edition release?
Games Workshop hasn't confirmed an official date, but all signs point to Saturday, June 20, 2026, with pre-orders opening June 6. The strongest signal: Warhammer World has the June 20–21 weekend blocked for events, which historically lines up with major launches. 10th, 9th, and 8th Edition all dropped in June (2023, 2020, and 2017 respectively).
When will 3D-printed corneas be available for transplant?
The Korean research published in Biofabrication demonstrates 90% technical viability in animal trials, but there is no commercial product yet. Human clinical trials will need to come first before this reaches hospitals, a process that typically takes 5–10 years. Companies like Precise Bio already have Phase 1 trials underway in Israel with similar corneas.