I'm thinking about getting a 3D printer instead of buying miniatures. At what price point do the prints become of acceptable quality? Think something like reaper cheapest plastic figures.
Back when I had access to a 3D printer, I printed off a set of alignment dice. Very useful if you want to make a purely random character, or if you're the DM.
There are people in the 3D printing community who have designs and whatnot. Like here on Tinkercad there's a wizard figurine someone made. If you look for long enough you'll find what you're looking for.
I created Automagic Tiles and used million dollar laser cutters to custom cut acrylic tiles for D&D! I don't make them anymore but I still own the copyright and have all the source files, I've been playing with the idea of buying a new laser to start making more OR to get a 3d printer and start printing mini's but now I'm very interested in what you're doing with 3d printed tiles. Let's talk man!
Here's a link to my tiles on Kickstarter if you want to check them out :)
Is it easier to print miniatures or buy them? Also is there some online resorces for the 3d models?
Miguel Zavala released more than 300 schematics for 3D printing D&D miniatures. You can find them all right here.
Good idea. I've found Arian Croft on Thingiverse with almost 700 designs. http://www.thingiverse.com/dutchmogul/about Just a personal preference but I like Thingiverse better.
I have had some experience with 3-D printed miniatures directly and indirectly:
Doing it yourself: my cousin bought a mid-grade 3-D printer specifically for generating D&D miniatures. The outputs are mediocre at best. His minis look like the old Grenadier miniatures of the late '70's; you can tell what the mini represents but it's crude. He painted one up and that helped somewhat but still very "meh", especially considering the cost of the printer ($500+) and materials. Conclusion: Reaper Bones is cheaper and much better representation of form.
HeroForge.com: you get exactly what you want but at a cost. The resulting miniature is decent in the higher grade plastic form, better than Reaper's Bones line. This is a tiefling a buddy had made that he asked me to paint.
Reaper's Bones: Personally, I am not a big fan of them because I buy my miniatures for painting first, use second. There's not enough detail with the Bones, particularly with the transition zones from one part of a figure to another. But the price point on them cannot be ignored! It's 1987 miniature pricing, but it's white plastic, not 100% lead. The "hellknight" on the left is Bones, the devil on the right is from Grenadier circa 1983.
Bottom Line: If you want something that vaguely looks like a goblin, 3-D Printing is fine. Or just use some d6's and make the Theatre-of-the-Mind work. If you want the best "bang for your buck", go with Reaper's Bones. Or better yet, find your local hobby shop that sells the pre-painted miniatures individually and pick and choose what you want if you don't like the randomizing of the boxed pre-painted minis. If you are a painter, you should already know the metal miniature is going to give you the best results.
Since nobody has answered your questions and this is something I researched recently and a few years ago it's now a good time to get into printing your own stuff if you need certain things. When it comes to quality you're going to benefit from doing research on what kind of printer to use (Extrusion melts plastic and piles it up giving worse quality but cheaper cost, Stereolithography is more expensive but has tighter models). You can't really compare reaper mini's which are molded to any 3d printed product, it's gonna have a different mushed edges quality compared to the "pixilated" look of extruded or 3d printed stuff.
If you plan on spending $400+ on miniatures, invest in the printer and make your own for 1/5 the cost sounds like a good idea but you have to think of two things that go hand in hand with that.
1. Are you a graphic designer that can 3d DESIGN your mini's so you can print them? If not then you have to rely on others and most people charge money for their designs.
2. Do you already own certain things and just want to print copies to avoid spending tons of money on building an army? If that's the case you can buy a nice little 3d scanner and then scan then in and print them directly, although they'll be single color if you're buying a cheap printer.
I don't suggest just buying a 3d printer and trying it out unless you have the kind of disposable income, from what I'm finding if you can't design your own stuff or scan copies to make for your own use (I would NOT suggest scanning copies for selling obviously, only for your own personal games because I have no idea what the legal ramifications are on that) then you're way better off buying $1000 worth of mini's than $1000 worth of mostly useless trinkets.
EDIT: REXX had an excellent reply above this post :)
Concept of 3D printing sounds really interesting after seeing some of the models, I think it could be really cool to try it but I am not too sure about making gaming tiles but I think it should be possible
I would have to say that 3D printing set pieces tend to come out much better than 3D printing miniatures. Without knowing how the 3D printer you are using handles different types of printing (i.e. bridging or small points) it might be more beneficial to purchase your minis. At first the cost of a 3D printer is quite a lot, but, if you use it often, you will see a large return on investment.
When getting in to the 3D printing world it is also good to think about what kind of filament you want to use. Between PLA and ABS, I found that PLA is better for printing minis and ABS is better for set pieces. The sturdiness of the ABS plastic makes it a better choice for larger pieces.
If anyone would like, I could post some images of some of the set pieces that I have been able to print. If given time, I will post some of the tips and tricks for assembly and painting that I have come across.
Not sure if we can post it here but there is a guy who made a model for everything in the monster manual and gives it out for free. It should be easy enough to find through your friendly neighborhood search engine.
I've been using come 3D prints for miniatures, I haven't started printing dice yet, but someone in my group created some files for each character race in our current campaign it is a body for them with holes in various spots. Each of us has since created and printed armor and weapons with pegs that fit into the holes mentioned above. It is very convenient and fast because our DM has a 3D printer. Then you just paint on the details and use some Krylon "Fusion for Plastic", and viola it is done. I would highly recommend this because of the endless customization options.
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Do not expect people to be smart, but do not allow them to be stupid. If there is one thing I have learned it is this.
Reaper is relatively cheap, monetarily. But not so much in terms of time spent. If you have time, go for it. It is very relaxing. But most people have a premium on time.
... I wish I had been painting minis as a kid when I was perpetually "bored".
This is a topic I've recently become fairly obsessed with, so I feel like I have a little bit to add to the discussion
What is the price point? : Currently I am using an MP Select Mini to 3D print. It's about 200 USD give or take, and is in my limited experience with 3D printing, is a pretty decent printer. For printing figures, it's been just alright. The resolution requirements to print detailed minis are pretty high, especially if you want to be able to pull off any more advanced painting techniques or print some of the more complicated monster files available out there. Here is a rat I was able to get a decent print of. Mini printing has been a little messy, but if you're not picky, perfectly acceptable. I actually really enjoy painting minis, so I still prefer to use production miniatures, but what the printer does do fantastically is print gaming tiles.
Is it easier to 3D print miniatures than buy them? : In my opinion, not really. Every print file has it's own set of difficulties. Each 3D printer has it's own preference and settings that work best, so it can be a bit of a headache to dial everything in. As a weekend hobbyist and fairly technologically inept person, it's been the better part of 3 months tweaking and dialing to get it to where I'm comfortable with the quality of prints. Again, just my experience with my particular machine. Also unless you're going to print in high volume, I don't think it's really cheaper.
To reiterate Velloska's point, 3D Printing has been really great for producing scenery and tiles, so that's what I've been concentrating on. Here are a couple photos of some sets I pulled off of the Thingiverse website and printed while I was dialing in settings and learning how my machine works.
To take it a step further, 3D printing coupled with silicon molding has allowed me a great deal of freedom with 3D scenery. I should mention that printing one of those tiles takes my printer around 2 hours. However, once I have it's printed and molded, I can do a batch cast using either resin or plaster and knock out an entire dungeon floor plan in the better half of a day. Here's a shot of one of the molds I've been using for a door / floor combo tile.
In short, 3D printing has been both time consuming, and really rewarding. Much like painting miniatures, printing is a hobby all on it's own. If you're looking to quickly flip minis, I can't recommend it. If you're a hobbyist that wants another tool in their workshop for enhancing their gaming experience, I would absolutely recommend it.
Here are the sources and tile sets if you're interested in learning more.
I bought a Prusa i3 kit to do just that, print my own tiles and scenery. Right now I have a $300 paperweight since I can't quite get it to work properly. I'm pretty tech savvy, but this is a whole other level of engineering know-how that is taking me months to work the bugs out. Someday, I'll get it all sorted, but for now it's mostly just frustrating. If you can get it to work like some of the other folks in this thread, good on you, but my only point here is as a warning that sometimes despite best intentions, it can be monumentally hard to get a good product in a timely fashion.
I bought a Prusa i3 kit to do just that, print my own tiles and scenery. Right now I have a $300 paperweight since I can't quite get it to work properly. I'm pretty tech savvy, but this is a whole other level of engineering know-how that is taking me months to work the bugs out. Someday, I'll get it all sorted, but for now it's mostly just frustrating. If you can get it to work like some of the other folks in this thread, good on you, but my only point here is as a warning that sometimes despite best intentions, it can be monumentally hard to get a good product in a timely fashion.
The struggle is real! Don't give up brother! The first week with my machine it felt like something out of "Quest for Fire". The most helpful thing for myself was the sub-reddit for my particular machine, and incremental print and fails. Change one setting at a time and reprint reprint reprint until it looks better in either direction. Blessings of Leira upon you.
That's awesome, Robococoa! When you print tiles, do you do any of the ones from the big companies, like Dragonlock from Fat Dragon? I wonder if those are any easier to handle.
It's assuring to hear that the printing process is a hobby in and of itself. I'm a little excited to give it a shot some time in the near future. That printer you mentioned seems super affordable.
I have had some experience with 3-D printed miniatures directly and indirectly:
Doing it yourself: my cousin bought a mid-grade 3-D printer specifically for generating D&D miniatures. The outputs are mediocre at best. His minis look like the old Grenadier miniatures of the late '70's; you can tell what the mini represents but it's crude. He painted one up and that helped somewhat but still very "meh", especially considering the cost of the printer ($500+) and materials. Conclusion: Reaper Bones is cheaper and much better representation of form.
HeroForge.com: you get exactly what you want but at a cost. The resulting miniature is decent in the higher grade plastic form, better than Reaper's Bones line. This is a tiefling a buddy had made that he asked me to paint.
Reaper's Bones: Personally, I am not a big fan of them because I buy my miniatures for painting first, use second. There's not enough detail with the Bones, particularly with the transition zones from one part of a figure to another. But the price point on them cannot be ignored! It's 1987 miniature pricing, but it's white plastic, not 100% lead. The "hellknight" on the left is Bones, the devil on the right is from Grenadier circa 1983.
Bottom Line: If you want something that vaguely looks like a goblin, 3-D Printing is fine. Or just use some d6's and make the Theatre-of-the-Mind work. If you want the best "bang for your buck", go with Reaper's Bones. Or better yet, find your local hobby shop that sells the pre-painted miniatures individually and pick and choose what you want if you don't like the randomizing of the boxed pre-painted minis. If you are a painter, you should already know the metal miniature is going to give you the best results.
Thx for the clarification, @Rexx. That was very elightening, especially about the Reaper's Bones and HeroForge miniatures .
I would have to say that 3D printing set pieces tend to come out much better than 3D printing miniatures. Without knowing how the 3D printer you are using handles different types of printing (i.e. bridging or small points) it might be more beneficial to purchase your minis. At first the cost of a 3D printer is quite a lot, but, if you use it often, you will see a large return on investment.
When getting in to the 3D printing world it is also good to think about what kind of filament you want to use. Between PLA and ABS, I found that PLA is better for printing minis and ABS is better for set pieces. The sturdiness of the ABS plastic makes it a better choice for larger pieces.
If anyone would like, I could post some images of some of the set pieces that I have been able to print. If given time, I will post some of the types and tricks for assembly and painting that I have come across.
I've been using come 3D prints for miniatures, I haven't started printing dice yet, but someone in my group created some files for each character race in our current campaign it is a body for them with holes in various spots. Each of us has since created and printed armor and weapons with pegs that fit into the holes mentioned above. It is very convenient and fast because our DM has a 3D printer. Then you just paint on the details and use some Krylon "Fusion for Plastic", and viola it is done. I would highly recommend this because of the endless customization options.
Thata is really interesting! Can you share some pictures showing these armors and weapons and how they work with your printed characters?
This is a topic I've recently become fairly obsessed with, so I feel like I have a little bit to add to the discussion
What is the price point? : Currently I am using an MP Select Mini to 3D print. It's about 200 USD give or take, and is in my limited experience with 3D printing, is a pretty decent printer. For printing figures, it's been just alright. The resolution requirements to print detailed minis are pretty high, especially if you want to be able to pull off any more advanced painting techniques or print some of the more complicated monster files available out there. Here is a rat I was able to get a decent print of. Mini printing has been a little messy, but if you're not picky, perfectly acceptable. I actually really enjoy painting minis, so I still prefer to use production miniatures, but what the printer does do fantastically is print gaming tiles.
Is it easier to 3D print miniatures than buy them? : In my opinion, not really. Every print file has it's own set of difficulties. Each 3D printer has it's own preference and settings that work best, so it can be a bit of a headache to dial everything in. As a weekend hobbyist and fairly technologically inept person, it's been the better part of 3 months tweaking and dialing to get it to where I'm comfortable with the quality of prints. Again, just my experience with my particular machine. Also unless you're going to print in high volume, I don't think it's really cheaper.
To reiterate Velloska's point, 3D Printing has been really great for producing scenery and tiles, so that's what I've been concentrating on. Here are a couple photos of some sets I pulled off of the Thingiverse website and printed while I was dialing in settings and learning how my machine works.
To take it a step further, 3D printing coupled with silicon molding has allowed me a great deal of freedom with 3D scenery. I should mention that printing one of those tiles takes my printer around 2 hours. However, once I have it's printed and molded, I can do a batch cast using either resin or plaster and knock out an entire dungeon floor plan in the better half of a day. Here's a shot of one of the molds I've been using for a door / floor combo tile.
In short, 3D printing has been both time consuming, and really rewarding. Much like painting miniatures, printing is a hobby all on it's own. If you're looking to quickly flip minis, I can't recommend it. If you're a hobbyist that wants another tool in their workshop for enhancing their gaming experience, I would absolutely recommend it.
Here are the sources and tile sets if you're interested in learning more.
Wow! Thx @Robococoa! This was very instructive and enlightening! I'm considering in entering this whole new world of 3D printers and your links will help me a lot!
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So, one of the things I've been playing with recently is using my 3d printer to make some gaming tiles.
Anyone else playing in this area of D&D crafts?
Matt
www.matthasawebsite.com
I'm thinking about getting a 3D printer instead of buying miniatures. At what price point do the prints become of acceptable quality? Think something like reaper cheapest plastic figures.
Back when I had access to a 3D printer, I printed off a set of alignment dice. Very useful if you want to make a purely random character, or if you're the DM.
Is it easier to print miniatures or buy them? Also is there some online resorces for the 3d models?
There are people in the 3D printing community who have designs and whatnot. Like here on Tinkercad there's a wizard figurine someone made. If you look for long enough you'll find what you're looking for.
I created Automagic Tiles and used million dollar laser cutters to custom cut acrylic tiles for D&D! I don't make them anymore but I still own the copyright and have all the source files, I've been playing with the idea of buying a new laser to start making more OR to get a 3d printer and start printing mini's but now I'm very interested in what you're doing with 3d printed tiles. Let's talk man!
Here's a link to my tiles on Kickstarter if you want to check them out :)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sessionzero/automagic-tiles
Isn't the pile of corpses enough of a signature? I think they get the point.
Good idea. I've found Arian Croft on Thingiverse with almost 700 designs. http://www.thingiverse.com/dutchmogul/about Just a personal preference but I like Thingiverse better.
3D printing for D&D characters sounds like a neat concept but it would probably take a lot of time.
"My D&D character is going to be snorting lines of cocaihahahahaha" - UncleTio
I have had some experience with 3-D printed miniatures directly and indirectly:
Doing it yourself: my cousin bought a mid-grade 3-D printer specifically for generating D&D miniatures. The outputs are mediocre at best. His minis look like the old Grenadier miniatures of the late '70's; you can tell what the mini represents but it's crude. He painted one up and that helped somewhat but still very "meh", especially considering the cost of the printer ($500+) and materials. Conclusion: Reaper Bones is cheaper and much better representation of form.
HeroForge.com: you get exactly what you want but at a cost. The resulting miniature is decent in the higher grade plastic form, better than Reaper's Bones line. This is a tiefling a buddy had made that he asked me to paint.
Reaper's Bones: Personally, I am not a big fan of them because I buy my miniatures for painting first, use second. There's not enough detail with the Bones, particularly with the transition zones from one part of a figure to another. But the price point on them cannot be ignored! It's 1987 miniature pricing, but it's white plastic, not 100% lead. The "hellknight" on the left is Bones, the devil on the right is from Grenadier circa 1983.
Bottom Line: If you want something that vaguely looks like a goblin, 3-D Printing is fine. Or just use some d6's and make the Theatre-of-the-Mind work. If you want the best "bang for your buck", go with Reaper's Bones. Or better yet, find your local hobby shop that sells the pre-painted miniatures individually and pick and choose what you want if you don't like the randomizing of the boxed pre-painted minis. If you are a painter, you should already know the metal miniature is going to give you the best results.
We all leave footprints in the sands of time.
Since nobody has answered your questions and this is something I researched recently and a few years ago it's now a good time to get into printing your own stuff if you need certain things. When it comes to quality you're going to benefit from doing research on what kind of printer to use (Extrusion melts plastic and piles it up giving worse quality but cheaper cost, Stereolithography is more expensive but has tighter models). You can't really compare reaper mini's which are molded to any 3d printed product, it's gonna have a different mushed edges quality compared to the "pixilated" look of extruded or 3d printed stuff.
If you plan on spending $400+ on miniatures, invest in the printer and make your own for 1/5 the cost sounds like a good idea but you have to think of two things that go hand in hand with that.
1. Are you a graphic designer that can 3d DESIGN your mini's so you can print them? If not then you have to rely on others and most people charge money for their designs.
2. Do you already own certain things and just want to print copies to avoid spending tons of money on building an army? If that's the case you can buy a nice little 3d scanner and then scan then in and print them directly, although they'll be single color if you're buying a cheap printer.
I don't suggest just buying a 3d printer and trying it out unless you have the kind of disposable income, from what I'm finding if you can't design your own stuff or scan copies to make for your own use (I would NOT suggest scanning copies for selling obviously, only for your own personal games because I have no idea what the legal ramifications are on that) then you're way better off buying $1000 worth of mini's than $1000 worth of mostly useless trinkets.
EDIT: REXX had an excellent reply above this post :)
Isn't the pile of corpses enough of a signature? I think they get the point.
Concept of 3D printing sounds really interesting after seeing some of the models, I think it could be really cool to try it but I am not too sure about making gaming tiles but I think it should be possible
I would have to say that 3D printing set pieces tend to come out much better than 3D printing miniatures. Without knowing how the 3D printer you are using handles different types of printing (i.e. bridging or small points) it might be more beneficial to purchase your minis. At first the cost of a 3D printer is quite a lot, but, if you use it often, you will see a large return on investment.
When getting in to the 3D printing world it is also good to think about what kind of filament you want to use. Between PLA and ABS, I found that PLA is better for printing minis and ABS is better for set pieces. The sturdiness of the ABS plastic makes it a better choice for larger pieces.
If anyone would like, I could post some images of some of the set pieces that I have been able to print. If given time, I will post some of the tips and tricks for assembly and painting that I have come across.
My logic is SOUND!
Not sure if we can post it here but there is a guy who made a model for everything in the monster manual and gives it out for free. It should be easy enough to find through your friendly neighborhood search engine.
I've been using come 3D prints for miniatures, I haven't started printing dice yet, but someone in my group created some files for each character race in our current campaign it is a body for them with holes in various spots. Each of us has since created and printed armor and weapons with pegs that fit into the holes mentioned above. It is very convenient and fast because our DM has a 3D printer. Then you just paint on the details and use some Krylon "Fusion for Plastic", and viola it is done. I would highly recommend this because of the endless customization options.
Do not expect people to be smart, but do not allow them to be stupid. If there is one thing I have learned it is this.
Reaper is relatively cheap, monetarily. But not so much in terms of time spent. If you have time, go for it. It is very relaxing. But most people have a premium on time.
... I wish I had been painting minis as a kid when I was perpetually "bored".
Greetings Adventurers.....
This is a topic I've recently become fairly obsessed with, so I feel like I have a little bit to add to the discussion
What is the price point? : Currently I am using an MP Select Mini to 3D print. It's about 200 USD give or take, and is in my limited experience with 3D printing, is a pretty decent printer. For printing figures, it's been just alright. The resolution requirements to print detailed minis are pretty high, especially if you want to be able to pull off any more advanced painting techniques or print some of the more complicated monster files available out there. Here is a rat I was able to get a decent print of. Mini printing has been a little messy, but if you're not picky, perfectly acceptable. I actually really enjoy painting minis, so I still prefer to use production miniatures, but what the printer does do fantastically is print gaming tiles.
Is it easier to 3D print miniatures than buy them? : In my opinion, not really. Every print file has it's own set of difficulties. Each 3D printer has it's own preference and settings that work best, so it can be a bit of a headache to dial everything in. As a weekend hobbyist and fairly technologically inept person, it's been the better part of 3 months tweaking and dialing to get it to where I'm comfortable with the quality of prints. Again, just my experience with my particular machine. Also unless you're going to print in high volume, I don't think it's really cheaper.
To reiterate Velloska's point, 3D Printing has been really great for producing scenery and tiles, so that's what I've been concentrating on. Here are a couple photos of some sets I pulled off of the Thingiverse website and printed while I was dialing in settings and learning how my machine works.
To take it a step further, 3D printing coupled with silicon molding has allowed me a great deal of freedom with 3D scenery. I should mention that printing one of those tiles takes my printer around 2 hours. However, once I have it's printed and molded, I can do a batch cast using either resin or plaster and knock out an entire dungeon floor plan in the better half of a day. Here's a shot of one of the molds I've been using for a door / floor combo tile.
In short, 3D printing has been both time consuming, and really rewarding. Much like painting miniatures, printing is a hobby all on it's own. If you're looking to quickly flip minis, I can't recommend it. If you're a hobbyist that wants another tool in their workshop for enhancing their gaming experience, I would absolutely recommend it.
Here are the sources and tile sets if you're interested in learning more.
Cut Stone Tile Set : http://masterwork-tools.com/openforge/
Dire Rat Model : http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:40466
Cavern Tile Set : http://www.thingiverse.com/Lifeburn/collections/cavern-tiles
Dwarven Loot Markers : http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2015343
ThreeDnD Wood Crates :http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1959787
Happy Printing!
-Robococoa
I bought a Prusa i3 kit to do just that, print my own tiles and scenery. Right now I have a $300 paperweight since I can't quite get it to work properly. I'm pretty tech savvy, but this is a whole other level of engineering know-how that is taking me months to work the bugs out. Someday, I'll get it all sorted, but for now it's mostly just frustrating. If you can get it to work like some of the other folks in this thread, good on you, but my only point here is as a warning that sometimes despite best intentions, it can be monumentally hard to get a good product in a timely fashion.
That's awesome, Robococoa! When you print tiles, do you do any of the ones from the big companies, like Dragonlock from Fat Dragon? I wonder if those are any easier to handle.
It's assuring to hear that the printing process is a hobby in and of itself. I'm a little excited to give it a shot some time in the near future. That printer you mentioned seems super affordable.
This was very instructive and enlightening!
I'm considering in entering this whole new world of 3D printers and your links will help me a lot!