I'm asking about Selective Laser Sintering. The thing where they make stuff by fusing powdered plastic with a laser.
The equipment to do it is definitely expensive (apparently the cost for a printer has recently come down to the bargain-basement of $20,000 or so) but it's not insanely expensive to get it done as a service.
I had CraftCloud3D do a quote for a set of parts, and it was about $37 in PLA, and $46 in SLS Nylon. So totally doable if it's a good design choice.
Someone I work with showed me a sample part made by SLS a few days ago, and it got me thinking that direction. Advantages seem to include:
Nylon is stronger, handles high temperatures better, etc than PLA or ABS
Finer detail is possible than typical with FDM.
The surface roughness is grainy, rather than stripy, with the layers not showing much. Probably easier to clean it up for a nice finish.
And one cool special feature, you can print a thin (~ 0.3mm) sheet parallel to the layer orientation and end up with a strong but flexible piece. I'm hoping that's a good starting point for making scale wraps for intertank stringers.
So it all seems like it's worth a try, but I'm probably missing some downsides.