cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/142613
Looking to fill in some armies not well covered by some of the larger brands.
Would welcome any thoughts.
I hated metal minis.
Granted my painting has had two phases, when I was a teen and played Warhammer and metal minis were the bane of my existence (falling over, and difficult to paint). Now that I’m older and all the minis I have are from reaper Kickstarters I can’t see willingly going back to metal.
Is there any reason you want to stick with metal minis? To my eye plastic and resin minis look nicer and feel more dynamic. I ask because I’m genuinely curious.
Not at committed to metal at all actually, other than I have stashed figs to paint and base.
I‘ve always been almost exclusively into historicals, and the question has really been the quality of the scupts. Now the plastic ones are much better, and they’re not awash in flash, so it’s more interesting.
What are your thoughts on 3D-printed models for your armies?
I haven’t tried it. I’ve still actually got a lot of old metal ones for my Western European medievals. Getting armies painted seems enough of a challenge.
For Slavic feudal armies, there really haven’t been many decent options with good sculpts. There were some small metal manufacturers very authentic armies but I don’t know any that have been producing in the past 5 years.
These Gripping Beast and some Deus Valt ones from Fireforge seem to be the only ones still in production.
Fair, there does seem to be an unusual lean in 3D printing toward architecture of that period rather than units, but what about this link? This was only a quick glance, and nothing in-depth, but maybe this is a decent start?
Interesting but 1:72 , equivalent to 20 mm.
Most historical miniature rule sets are for 28 mm or 15 mm armies.
That’s one great thing about 3D printing: scaling is largely not an issue. With some exceptions for ultra-detail, I’ve found a lot of success in downscaling 200mm+ wide figurines to tabletop wargaming sizes, and even upscaling more than a few to the opposite. 🤩🤘🏼🪄✨
Really appreciate your engaging here.
I know that there are a lot wargamers who put a lot of effort into painting less than excellent figures because that’s all that’s on offer. If things can move forward to where the sculptures can generally be pulled into printing models and then rendered by the hobbyists in whatever size they want, we’d see a lot more variety in figures and armies.
Not sure if we’re ready to take on a 3D printer but it’s a thought.
Not a worry at all, my pleasure. What is it that you mean by “if”? The 3D printing hobby is already well past that, and has been for years now. Hell, without the tech, One Page Rules would never have been able to carve out a sizeable chunk of Games Workshop’s long-exploited fanbase in simply offering better and more varied models. Furthermore, entire subgroups cropped up for all sorts of tabletop games with long-time and brand-new fans alike easily modifying preexistent figures to downscale and proxy for fun alt-sculpts. (Marvel, Star Wars, LotR, etc)
Lastly, “take on” how? To be clear, I’m offering to facilitate the printing of said models you’re interested in. 🥳
