This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

Author Topic: Miniatures and Paints!  (Read 2912 times)

dkabq

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 558
Re: Miniatures and Paints!
« Reply #30 on: August 13, 2022, 11:52:19 AM »
I'm looking to get back into painting minis after I found out about zenithal priming and contrast paints. Looks so dead simple with great results. Just need to pick up an airbrush now!

For minis, outside of official D&D material, what other sources are you all using for minis? I'm really looking the Song of Ice and Fire miniatures for all my human type needs. Conquest has some great looking Orc figures. The Hate boardgame has awesome looking models for like barbarian and savage type enemies. Only issue is that their bases aren't all 20mm like D&D miniatures. But I'm likely abandoning using one inch squares and just going to measure for movement so I don't think the mixed base scales will be that big of an issue.

Any other great sources for minis that may not be super obvious?

Reaper, Heresy, Effin Cool, Ral Partha, RAFM.

Kanyenya

  • Newbie
  • *
  • K
  • Posts: 34
Re: Miniatures and Paints!
« Reply #31 on: August 13, 2022, 08:10:02 PM »
I'm looking to get back into painting minis after I found out about zenithal priming and contrast paints. Looks so dead simple with great results. Just need to pick up an airbrush now!

For minis, outside of official D&D material, what other sources are you all using for minis? I'm really looking the Song of Ice and Fire miniatures for all my human type needs. Conquest has some great looking Orc figures. The Hate boardgame has awesome looking models for like barbarian and savage type enemies. Only issue is that their bases aren't all 20mm like D&D miniatures. But I'm likely abandoning using one inch squares and just going to measure for movement so I don't think the mixed base scales will be that big of an issue.

Any other great sources for minis that may not be super obvious?

Reaper, Heresy, Effin Cool, Ral Partha, RAFM.

I would add Darksword, Lead Adventures, Northstar, Otherworld.

Monero

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • M
  • Posts: 60
Re: Miniatures and Paints!
« Reply #32 on: August 17, 2022, 10:04:56 AM »
Does anyone here have experience with 3d printing models/terrain? Looking at sources like Dwarven Forge and Warlock for my tile needs and they get pricey very quickly. I feel like I'd have to drop $200-400 just to have a functioning set of tiles. So I'm wondering if maybe 3D printing is more efficient overall? From the printers I was looking at, the upfront cost would be similar for a printer, materials, etc, but on the long term there's potential to make tons of minis/terrain for pennies on the dollar. But that's my uneducated guess, as the cost for resins, files, plus needing materials to paint them may keep pace with just buying the models outright from places like DF.

Anyone have hands on experience with 3D printing that can give some real world cost/effort comparisons to just buying premade stuff?

Godsmonkey

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 222
Re: Miniatures and Paints!
« Reply #33 on: August 17, 2022, 10:40:36 AM »
I guess Im the outlier in that I dont use any of the miniature paint brands for anything except Vallejo primer.

I tend to do a zenithal primer, then use liquitex acrylics and mostly inks.


Kanyenya

  • Newbie
  • *
  • K
  • Posts: 34
Re: Miniatures and Paints!
« Reply #34 on: August 17, 2022, 11:19:57 AM »
Anyone have hands on experience with 3D printing that can give some real world cost/effort comparisons to just buying premade stuff?

If you're only going to print a few pieces here and there, 3D printing isn't worth it. But if you're really into terrain (as I am :) ), then long term it's definitely more cost effective to print your own stuff. I believe the estimate for a standard dungeon wall tile from Dragonlock (Fat Dragon Games) is about 40 cents. Plus, if you need a single piece you can easily print it as opposed to buying a set (if that's the only way to get it).

There is the upfront cost for the STLs, but again, cheaper than buying pre-made terrain. Kickstarters, Patreons, sales, etc. help bring those costs down as well. As for the printer cost, that varies quite a bit and depends on how much tinkering you want to do. My preferred printer company is Prusa (my current printer is a Prusa MK3), but they can be pricey (~$900-$1000 for a pre-built, though that includes shipping from the Czech Republic). The most popular filament printer right now is probably the Ender 3, which you can get from Amazon for like $200-$300. It's a good printer, though it requires more work/maintenance than Prusa, so I prefer the latter which is essentially "fire and forget". But again, whether Prusa or Ender, in the long run it's still cheaper if you use it a lot.

The big downside with printing your own terrain is you obviously need to paint it yourself. When I bought Dwarven Forge in the past I'd always go for the pre-painted versions since I found the additional cost (compared to unpainted) to be definitely worth it. Though painting terrain generally isn't nearly as involved as painting figs (and can usually be done with cheap craft paints and dollar store brushes).

Miniatures are a little different. Conventional wisdom is that you print terrain with filament since it's cheaper and you don't need as much fine detail. For miniatures, you want a resin printer, with at least 4K resolution. You can get decent results with some figs in filament, but the model really needs to be designed for filament printing, plus you really need your printer settings to be dialed in just right. Resin printing gives great results, but there a lot more caveats:
  • The toxicity of the liquid resin requires a lot more overhead in terms of PPE, venting fumes, etc.
  • Resin prints need additional curing after the printing is done; filament just pops off your build plate and is good to go (though it may need a little cleanup).
  • Resin is more expensive than filament.
  • Resin printers are more expensive than filament generally, and checking Amazon the prices not only have gone up a lot of the printers are out of stock.
The other thing to keep in mind that is that the cost of individual STLs for resin figures is often as high or higher than the cost of an individual figure from a company like Reaper. I would say the quality of most resin figures is probably on par with Reaper's Bones Black or maybe Bones USA lines. But the typically cost for one STL is about $5, which is actually about the same as Bones Black (Bones USA is a little higher). If you buy a Reaper fig in the store, other than maybe cleaning some flash lines, you're done. With a resin STL you have to go through the process of slicing, printing, washing, and curing before you can get it to the point where you can paint it. And that's assuming the supports worked properly :)

Not trying to discourage resin printing - I love my Sonic Mini 4K and the results you can get are incredible. There are STLs out there that you just can't find from the physical miniature brands, and we're spoiled for choice. It's just that resin printing has a lot more to be aware of than filament.

Well, that was a lot :) Hope that's helpful!

Godsmonkey

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 222
Re: Miniatures and Paints!
« Reply #35 on: August 17, 2022, 11:45:25 AM »
Does anyone here have experience with 3d printing models/terrain? Looking at sources like Dwarven Forge and Warlock for my tile needs and they get pricey very quickly. I feel like I'd have to drop $200-400 just to have a functioning set of tiles. So I'm wondering if maybe 3D printing is more efficient overall? From the printers I was looking at, the upfront cost would be similar for a printer, materials, etc, but on the long term there's potential to make tons of minis/terrain for pennies on the dollar. But that's my uneducated guess, as the cost for resins, files, plus needing materials to paint them may keep pace with just buying the models outright from places like DF.

Anyone have hands on experience with 3D printing that can give some real world cost/effort comparisons to just buying premade stuff?

I love 3d printing some basic 3D kit bashing skills, or buying a custom mini from heroforge allows for a greatly individualized mini of your character.

However if you are mostly TotM, impatient, lack funds or desire to deal with resin then it might not be for you.

If you decide to go the printing route, look into some of the patreon pages of content creators. They tend to offer themed monthly content that is far cheaper than buying individual files. Also thingiverse is free, and you can find a ton of content there.

Godsmonkey

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 222
Re: Miniatures and Paints!
« Reply #36 on: August 17, 2022, 11:49:41 AM »
Anyone have hands on experience with 3D printing that can give some real world cost/effort comparisons to just buying premade stuff?
Miniatures are a little different. Conventional wisdom is that you print terrain with filament since it's cheaper and you don't need as much fine detail. For miniatures, you want a resin printer, with at least 4K resolution. You can get decent results with some figs in filament, but the model really needs to be designed for filament printing, plus you really need your printer settings to be dialed in just right. Resin printing gives great results, but there a lot more

While a 4K resolution is better, at 28 or even 32 mm, once the primer is on, you are hard pressed to notice a significant difference. For table play IMO it's nil. Don't feel you HAVE to spend a ton on a high end printer. I've been using an Elegoo Mars for several years now, and the quality is fine for table play.

Kanyenya

  • Newbie
  • *
  • K
  • Posts: 34
Re: Miniatures and Paints!
« Reply #37 on: August 18, 2022, 01:52:09 AM »
Anyone have hands on experience with 3D printing that can give some real world cost/effort comparisons to just buying premade stuff?
Miniatures are a little different. Conventional wisdom is that you print terrain with filament since it's cheaper and you don't need as much fine detail. For miniatures, you want a resin printer, with at least 4K resolution. You can get decent results with some figs in filament, but the model really needs to be designed for filament printing, plus you really need your printer settings to be dialed in just right. Resin printing gives great results, but there a lot more

While a 4K resolution is better, at 28 or even 32 mm, once the primer is on, you are hard pressed to notice a significant difference. For table play IMO it's nil. Don't feel you HAVE to spend a ton on a high end printer. I've been using an Elegoo Mars for several years now, and the quality is fine for table play.

I said 4K since things are starting to move to 8K, so 4K printers are getting cheaper. And I can see a difference between 4K and older 2K prints when I look closely, though it's true that once they're on the table you're not going to be able to see a difference, so for the most part it's personal preference (I've seen people happy with figs they printed with filament even though the layering was horrible; to each their own).

Godsmonkey

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 222
Re: Miniatures and Paints!
« Reply #38 on: August 18, 2022, 07:46:42 AM »
Anyone have hands on experience with 3D printing that can give some real world cost/effort comparisons to just buying premade stuff?
Miniatures are a little different. Conventional wisdom is that you print terrain with filament since it's cheaper and you don't need as much fine detail. For miniatures, you want a resin printer, with at least 4K resolution. You can get decent results with some figs in filament, but the model really needs to be designed for filament printing, plus you really need your printer settings to be dialed in just right. Resin printing gives great results, but there a lot more

While a 4K resolution is better, at 28 or even 32 mm, once the primer is on, you are hard pressed to notice a significant difference. For table play IMO it's nil. Don't feel you HAVE to spend a ton on a high end printer. I've been using an Elegoo Mars for several years now, and the quality is fine for table play.

I said 4K since things are starting to move to 8K, so 4K printers are getting cheaper. And I can see a difference between 4K and older 2K prints when I look closely, though it's true that once they're on the table you're not going to be able to see a difference, so for the most part it's personal preference (I've seen people happy with figs they printed with filament even though the layering was horrible; to each their own).

I just don't want to dissuade someone who may be fine with a cheaper low end printer from getting into the hobby. However, as you said with 4K printers coming down in price, it's well worth the investment if you like minis on the table. The quality and price point are certainly there. and if you like assaulting your players with hordes of low HD critters, its super easy to take one STL of an orc, print up 20 for pennies each, do a basic speed paint, and have fun.

MadCarthos

  • Newbie
  • *
  • M
  • Posts: 36
Re: Miniatures and Paints!
« Reply #39 on: September 20, 2022, 03:43:55 PM »
Resurrection!

I was wondering if any one had any suggestions for a provider of Sword and Sorcery (maybe a combination of Bronze Age/Dark Age) miniatures?

Also, I am looking into armypainter speedpaints as I heard they are awesome.