I've also been thinking about such things for game pieces for a long time now, and was excited when I ran across shapeways maybe a month or so ago. My father works at a company that makes one brand of 3D printers, but at least his company's printer is too expensive to be feasible for me to invest for myself. Services that have the hardware however, sound very cool.

If you end up trying it out, please let me know how it goes, and I'd even love to come see the results of the process to see what the resolution/quality is. (The resolution of these printers is one of the major two differences between brands according to my father the last time I asked)