I have hundreds of minis I've gotten over the years.  Mostly the plastic stuff from when D&D started the minis game in 3.5 edition and from that line of random minis in boxes moving forward.  Also some new pewter.  And, a few dozen actual lead figures from the 1970s.  Mostly just boxes and boxes and BOXES of the plastic ones from wizards of the coast.

I've never paid money for heroforge.  I've never had a mini sent to me.  I very much have all the minis I need.

Basically, as soon as the pandemic began I was looking for way to have digital versions of characters because all of the games were virtual.  Heroforge is OUTSTANDING for this.  And, over the years they've done a fantastic job of improving.

The amount of detail you can get with the 3D models is INCREDIBLE!

I've build close to 150.  Every few months I'll spend a couple days and build a few ideas out.  I don't know of ANY free tools that are as good at building a 3D model for you to get a 2D image from.

There are ways to go incredibly overboard with it.  Putting two minis on the same stand doing the same pose so ALMOST nothing is visible of the first.  There are ways to use extra arms to hold things in place to position gear in places the software won't let you (leave the arm inside the body so you can only see the item floating as if attached to the chest or back ... for example).  I'm definitely not at this level.  

Once you get to the point where you're making custom faces with the sliders (specific adjustments for chin, cheeks, nose, lips, brow ....), and working on each of the three color layers for each component of each color you're working with while making adjustments to roughness, and fuzz, and opacity, and metallic to really fine tune stuff .... it dramatically changes things.  Don't forget how much you can get out of decals! Decals on the face for shading.  Decals on the arms for scars.  Decals on the clothing to add more complex designs to the more simplistic clothing items.

I'm still learning new tricks after YEARS of messing around with it for a day or two every few months ... for YEARS.

If you haven't spent much time with it as a 3D model creator ... give it a shot!

Here's a little thing I threw together as an example for this.
I saw a few decals that CLEARLY look like they're designed for a clown.  I've never made a clown before ... so here goes:
https://www.heroforge.com/load_config=52537249/

• The face itself has custom dimensions to shrink the nose height while increasing the length, enlarge and widen the eyes, increase the cheekbones, widen that chin, and increase the brow.  Some of these things can look unsettling.  I wanted to take advantage of these things.
• The flesh tone is barely custom.  A second modified darker tone for the tops of the ears.  A third modified lighter tone for the palms.  And, another yellow/green for the extra pointy finger nails.
• There are about 6 decals on the face.
  • the white around the outside is custom with green lows to look like in creases of the face there's no paint left (like with the joker).  shine was brought down so it doesn't look like wet paint. It's supposed to look like old, faded dried powder.
  • a decal around the eyes makes them a bit darker.  it's a modified white to add shading.  the reds here override this mostly.  but it's a good habit to be in for pretty much every model you make.  It adds a lot of depth and helps with more realistic shading.
  • there's a red decal from the eyes that goes up and down with a dot on the cheeks.  this was made to look like a faded old paint with no shine.
  • there's another red decal from the eyes that looks like running make up.  This helps it look messy and old.
  • there's another red decal on the nose.  gotta have the nose!
  • there's also a decal that added color to the lips.  this is the only paint on the face that is glossy.  this is supposed to look like fresh blood, rather than just face powder.  it's a fairly  subtle difference.
• The whites for the clothing were altered to reduce the gloss, decrease the fuzz, and dramatically darken the lows so in the creases of the outfit it looks more black/grey.  Trying to make this look dingy.
• The red cloth highlights got a similar treatment to make them look a little weathered.  The yellow and orange on the top and boots got the same treatments.  Same thing for the piece of rope being used like a belt.  I wanted it to look like an old rough piece of rope tied off across the waist. 
• The metal for the bells was adjusted.  I removed shine from the top and low levels (kept some shine on the mid which shows through).  I made the low level of color darker and redder to look like old rust.  the mid and high levels of color were adjusted slightly.
• The pupils were enlarged slightly to make them a little more childlike.  The proportions of the larger and wider eyes strengthen this feeling.
• The model had maximum slouch to give it that nerd neck with the curved back.
• The pose itself is SUPER lazy.
  • I pulled the clavicles back to bring back both of the shoulder blades and open up the chest area a bit.  That left arm is supposed to look like it's waving.  The angle in the wrist is supposed to look like movement.  And, if you pull the camera up high to look where the pupils are looking (as if the character is looking at someone specifically) the palm is pretty openly visible.
  • the left arm was brought back with the alternate hand and reverse grip to conceal a blade behind is back
  • the head was moved with all 3 points of articulation to lower it and tilt it to the side a bit. Never leave the head looking straight ahead.  Never leave the eyes looking exactly where the head is looking.  In this case the eyes are looking VERY far upwards and a bit to the side.  It's a small goblin looking up at a much larger person.
  • the face was posed slightly to part the lips and give a large (bloody) grin.
    
    

This is WAY more fun (to me) than using AI to create a 2D character image.  And, MOST of what you find online with art resources like deviantart is AI made at this point.

I think heroforge is an outstanding tool.

Quote from Drycon62 >>

And thats if they can get you it. Im not going to recieve mine until a year after our canpaign will be over at this point. Over a month with no movement on my order. When i asked them they basically tell you to pound sand its more than a day past your order and refund period. Dont risk using these asshats.

 Okay, this is an old post, but I'd just like to point out to everyone reading that if an online company does this to you, you still have the option of contacting Paypal, your credit card company, or whomever you used to pay for the order with.  Tell them that you have not received your order or been given a reasonable estimate of when you actually will receive your order.  Very often they can get you a refund/reverse the charge.