After having printed a quite impressive pile of shame, I decided it is about time to showcase some of the excellent 3D-printing miniatures manufacturers I like and to briefly review them for you.
Avatars of War
Alternative miniatures for Warhammer Fantasy, Kings of War, The 9th Age and One Page Rules Age of Fantasy.
Avatars of War miniatures are extremely well designed. They remind me a lot of Warhammer Fantasy miniatures range after the year 2000. They have plenty of spikes, protruding elements and extremely dynamic poses. And theses guys are huge!
The pre-supports are very well placed. I haven’t had a problem so far of parts of the models not printing correctly. The models often come as multi part files making posing and printing very efficient. Larger models come in several parts as well and somehow always fit on the standard size print bed of my Anycubic Photon Mono. Pieces are easily assembled due to well placed pegs and slots. Due to to lots of thin parts, I recommend using a more flexible resin. I mixed some Siraya Tech Tenacious (10%) in my standard resins, which already helps making the resins less brittle. Also don’t over cure your models and prime them immediately to avoid unwanted further curing over time. After hearing some positive reviews of SUNLU ABS-Like 3D Printer Resin, I’ll give it a try in the near future.
https://avatars-of-war.com/sh/en/
Brite Minis
Old School support-less Fantasy miniatures.
They can be printed on a Resin printer or filament printer and come directly attached to their bases, making them pretty much “plug and play”. They look a bit quirky, but are full of character in my opinion. I mainly use them as bestiary miniatures for games of Frostgrave and the like.
These miniatures are posed in a way they don’t need supports, meaning there aren’t any overhangs / islands in your slicing process. That make them look a bit bulky and rigid, but that adds to the Old School look and feel. Once printed, they are quite durable making them ideal for rough uses (children and conventions f. ex.). The printing succeeds each time if your bottom layer settings are dialed in correctly. They are placed directly with their base on the print bed. Plug & Play!
Monstrous Encounters
Old School Heroquest-Warhammer-like alternative miniatures.
I printed a whole 20 pieces multipart orc unit for Kings of War unit and I really dig the Oldhammer vibe. They sell all of the (alternative) Heroquest miniatures, including Fimirs! Additionally they do have some Science-Fiction stuff and Dungeon terrain as well. If you’re looking for Bretonia or Landsknecht style models, they’ve got you covered. I also like their Chaos range. Since I own a Chaos warrior army, I couldn’t pass on their excellent “Slaminator” model. You know that iconic Chaos warrior miniature. Just make sure to print it at 115% scale at least. The nice thing about their “unit” products, is that they come as multi-part STL kits. Last, but not least, the quality of the sculpts as well as the supports are great.
https://www.myminifactory.com/users/Monstrous%20Encounters
Crippled God Foundry
Great miniatures for Role-playing games such as D&D or wargames like Frostgrave.
I first got to know Crippled God Foundry bought a 6 legged gorilla (yes 6) and some textured bases. At that time, I still used my first Resin 3D printer an Anycubic Photon Zero. I had a lot of failures with that printer: more than 60% of the time. In retrospect, I think my LCD screen is a little off level. I might fix this in the future, but then again, I’m more than happy with my Anycubic Photon Mono (2K). Anyway, Crippled God Foundry’s miniatures come pre-supported and these worked perfectly on my “broken” 3D Printer. These supports seem to be really fool proof. A part from this, the models are full of character and have really nice natural poses.
Later, I bought their Laughing Ghoul, which is basically a Pennywise model from the movie remake of IT. I was looking everywhere for this clown and I could only find it at Crippled God Foundry’s MyMiniFactory page. Hence I printed that one with my new printer and it worked like a charm. I can recommend Crippled God Foundry if you look for realistically proportioned and posed fantasy miniatures for your tabletop RPG games or games like Frostgrave and any other fantasy games. They also sell loads of beautifully modeled bases and terrain pieces.
https://www.crippledgodfoundry.com/
Daybreak Miniatures
Massive, bulky but finely sculpted fantasy miniatures reminiscent of World of Warcraft.
I stumbled upon Daybreak Miniatures whilst searching for suitable additions for my Chaos army. That’s when I found their Chaos Barbarian range. They look similar to the classic sculpts by Games Workshop, but not identical. These miniatures are more beefy looking both in height and in pose. I printed one to use as a general for my Chaos warriors. The detail on these miniatures is outstanding. Make sure you use a flexible enough resin, since the finely sculpted pieces can easily break if your (cured) resin is too brittle.
Painting these miniatures is an immense pleasure. I’m using the aforementioned model to practice some Non metallic metal techniques. That’s the reason why that miniature is still not done yet. It already has a prominent spot in my miniature cabinet though. But that’s one reason why I like 3D-printing miniatures. You can use them practice new painting techniques and develop your skill set.
https://www.myminifactory.com/users/DaybreakMiniatures
I hope this review helped you in finding the 3D-printing miniatures manufacturers that suit your style. I’ll probably continue the series further down the line.
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