2023-05-09

3d printed minis

A question for all of you - I've been ignoring the OSR and blogs (which I assume are dead at this point) and forums (also guessing, dead) and reddits and whatever else people use that I almost certainly don't know about for a decade now.

Here's my question:  so way back when, I say to myself "This module needs art!", I see some posts by Glad showing off his artwork on the forums, I email him, bam, I'm hiring out some artwork for ASE.  Easy peasy.

Now I'm wondering, in this world of 3d printers, are there people out there who make 3d sculpts of minis for hire?  Do any 3d printers even work well enough to print minis?  If so, do they work well enough to do 25mm minis, as all proper old school minis should be?

I think it would be fun to have minis of the ASE monsters.

4 comments:

  1. None of that is dead. I don't know individuals who sculpt for hire, but there are bunches of files (including free) that you can get.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know anyone who does commission 3D sculpts, but I'd guess there are definitely some out there. And you can find lots of people selling 3D printed 25mm to 35mm scaled minis on Etsy, Amazon, EBay, etc. So yes, you can also definitely get a 3D printer to make minis.

    There's also been a bit of a old school blog renaissance lately. Lots of people have gone back to their blogs since social media sucks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mr Wetmore!
    The OSR is alive and well, perhaps better than ever, in fact. Just as much is the love and play of your ASE series.
    You are considered well loved and well respected. We would be immensely honored to have the chance to purchase more books from you!
    (To answer your question, yes many 3d printers-for-hire exist on etsy et al, and I'd love to buy ASE minis!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Old post, I know, and you probably already have your answer, but yes, 3D printers are not only capable of printing 25mm miniatures (I've recently been printing 6mm scale miniatures on mine), but getting a printer capable of it is relatively inexpensive. There are plenty of sculptors out there sculpting for miniature printing, and I'm sure more than a few of them would be willing to take commissions if you asked. Check out cults3D and MyMiniFactory for a couple of fairly large online stores selling models for 3d printing to get some idea of whats out there already. That said, it might also be worth just browsing what is available, you might be able to find suitable miniatures without actually having to pay for a sculptor to create them for you.

    The real issue you're going to have is actually producing the prints themselves. Resin printing, which is what you're going to want to use, is not a clean process and the chemicals you use (liquid resin, cleaners) are mildly hazardous (liquid resin is an irritant and the fumes can be unpleasant). You really need a dedicated space for doing your printing. That said there are places online where you can order prints to be made for you.

    Depending on how much you care about print lines, you could get away with a really cheap 50 micron printer that would do everything you need it to. I would definitely watch some youtube videos about how to go about printing with resin though, it's a good source of information. There are a couple of printing subreddits that are pretty good too, r/printedminis is probably the best for general advice.

    Either way, good luck.

    ReplyDelete