Recommendations?

So recently I was talking to my uncle about a guy he knows that produces shaped plastics, and he told me that 3D printing is pretty much where that's all going at the moment.

So I looked into it and it looks amazing, I had an idea but I don't know the Right type of machine I should use. I was told of 2 types, one that runs a string of material or something into the 3D shape and another that was like a hard plastic that is heated in a vat and shaped by intersecting lasers and can produce fairly complex shapes.

I need something that can make solid and somewhat detailed 3D shapes from the size of a chess piece with moderate detail to the something the size of a desk model (30x30cm roughly) the idea is to print small designs of cars that my dad draws. because we have the art studio to paint them, i suspect his Hotrod club would pay well for models of their cars. and also parts for his sign writing business, pop out letters etc.

Any recommendations? all feed back would be appreciated.