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Well, the obvious one for 40K is The Makers Cult:-

https://www.patreon.com/themakerscult

They've done so much stuff for so many factions, it's unreal. The next one I subscribe to is TheEvilOne:-

https://www.patreon.com/ThatEvilOne/

The last obvious one would be Anvil's Digital Forge:-

https://www.patreon.com/anvildigitalforge

Digital Forge is much less bang for my buck compared to the first two I feel, but there still might be something of interest to people.

I just found another one of 40K utility, namely 'Cyber-Forge' by Titanforge.

https://www.patreon.com/cyberforgeminis

I found a few more. First up is Ghamak. Look at that Tech Priest and Eldar Ranger!:-

https://www.patreon.com/ghamak



Second is Art of Mike. Does some stuff that would fit well in Necromunda, and possibly Kill Team (some not-Catachans for example):-

https://www.patreon.com/art_of_mike

I found one here almost specifically designed to cater to 40K terrain and scenic bases.

https://www.patreon.com/sacrusmundus

Another terrain one is Txarli Factory, as seen below. Frankly though, they only give you two filesets per month, which isn't great value for money compared to competition. There's a huge amount of free terrain files on Thingiverse, much of it for the same basic stuff (Tyranid spores, Necron Crystals, generic ruins, etc). I'd file them next to Anvil as 'Decent stuff if you've loadsa cash or something specific you're after, but otherwise not worth the time'.

https://www.patreon.com/TxarliFactory

I won't lie, that Lost Kingdom Patreon is a real beaut. I'm left wondering now if my budget can squeeze to match another patreon, even if I don't play Fantasy....

Another good fantasy one I just found is Highlands Miniatures

https://www.patreon.com/highlands_miniatures






For the Orks, there's Gearguts' Mekshop. It's not the best stuff, but showing steady improvement:-

https://www.patreon.com/Geargutz

 lord_blackfang wrote:

 Malika2 wrote:
Need tanks?

https://www.patreon.com/aphyrion

Strong first month. I hope they can keep this pace.

This. Especially given that they want a higher price per month than virtually 90% of the competition. I'd expect at least three vehicle kits a month at that value, or I'd feel cheated.


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https://www.patreon.com/davalegames

Davale has just started a Patreon for their 'counts as' Lord of the Rings.

There's a company called Reptilian Overlords that does a subscription package I've found. They did have a Patreon until recently, but they decided to ditch it because it didn't offer them the options they wanted. So they relocated it to their own site here:- https://www.reptilian-overlords.com/subscribe/

$10 a month grabs you three credits which can be used on any existing items. Looking through their catalogue, the trend tends to be that single characters and component sets are one credit, a handful of smaller squads/units are two credits, and full ten man squads/vehicles are three.

It seems like an okay deal, but their release rate is so slow that I'm unconvinced. Over the last three months, they've only released two squads and three special characters. That's literally barely enough to spend what you're earning in credits. You can always raid the back catalogue for stuff you want on a slow month (or when you don't want the latest release), but at some point, you're going to run out of those, not want the latest IG squad or whatever, and then you'll be permanently left with excess credits.

That's not to say they don't have some nice stuff though.

I just spotted this one, "Thunder Chrome":- https://www.patreon.com/thunderchrome

Decent stuff for Fallout or Gaslands, and a few pieces would work for 40K.

Space Legats are known for doing Primarch models that aren't the right scale for actual 30K.
https://spacelegats.com/
I just discovered however that they do a Patreon with the STL files.
https://www.patreon.com/spacelegats
Which naturally means that you can just go into Chitubox and resize them until they're of an appropriate size. Here's an example one subscriber has done for the Khan:-



They also said on their Patreon that they might make the stl's for their leman russ tank models available sometime next year.


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Found another good one; One Page Rules
https://www.patreon.com/onepagerules

Another two 40K related ones. First up is Crucible of Games who focus on 'Grimdark style' miniatures.

https://www.patreon.com/CrucibleOfGames






Second up is some Genestealer goodness with Imperitum Art:-

https://www.patreon.com/ImperitumArt

Here's a surprisingly undersubscribed one, the Dork Factory:- https://www.patreon.com/dorkfactory






Papsikels doesn't have the biggest sci-fi pack in the world, but at only £4.50 plus VAT, he's really quite competitively priced in a world afloat with ten pound subscriptions. On top of the miniature sbelow, he sometimes gives away some bases or terrain on top. Very good value for money. He does a fantasy version as well if that's your cup of tea.
https://www.patreon.com/papsikels

I've just scoured Patreon pretty exhaustively to try and find any remaining 40K/Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk artists not yet. mentioned. Here's what I came up with:-

Tabletop Terrain specialises in doing Sci-Fi vehicles. Small and undersubscribed, but cheap and useful.
https://www.patreon.com/tabletop_terrain


Worlds Overrun has interesting terrain pieces that would be of use in the 40K/Necromunda department.
https://www.patreon.com/worldsoverrun



Pipermakes is a brand new Patreon specialising right now in Tau battlesuit modifications.
https://www.patreon.com/pipermakes


Vidovic Arts is having a very happy Orktober with a new Wartrak and generally specialises in 40K bits and bobs.
https://www.patreon.com/VidovicArts


3DHexes does some really nifty scenery that doesn't look like much at first sight, but is much bigger and more detailed than you expect when you look at the better shots. Useful for all sorts.
https://www.patreon.com/3dhexes



AlbinoRaven has some great sci-fi stuff in the welcome pack but be warned:- most of their monthly stuff is more modern military themed.
https://www.patreon.com/AlbinoRavenMini



VoidRealm Minis has some...frankly disturbing daemonic sculpts in there. Very useful if you're a daemon player or want to make a daemon world of some sort.
https://www.patreon.com/voidrealmminis



Terrain4Print does a variety of terrain, ranging from D&D style to Sci-Fi Urban/industrial. Of special note is that a one month subscription gets you absolutely everything he's ever done.
https://www.patreon.com/terrain4print


Bestiarum Miniatures is more of a fantasy themed one, so I'd normally pass it over. But certainly for this month at least, there's some really nice Slaanesh themed daemons up for grabs.
https://www.patreon.com/BestiarumMiniatures


Ending on a strong note, UNIT9 is a dedicated Cyberpunk patreon, with a full pack of such each month.
https://www.patreon.com/unit9

Speaking as someone with over £100 pcm right now in patreon .stl subscriptions (I know, shut up), I cast an eye over your page and dismissed it pretty quickly. Not one other subscriber (making it high risk), no early bird tier, a sporadic release track record, and a 'meh' return for my investment both in terms of quality and quantity.

That all having been said, I think that there is a place for a bases patreon, and I think it could be successful. But trying to piecemeal it out as something you do on the side is actually going to hurt you more right now than treating it like a proper business venture. The fact you've been dipping in and out of it and had so little success is proof of that.


There's a commercial way of doing this. The first thing you do is close up shop on Patreon for now. Trying to spit out the odd product with as low a bar for theme as 'rocks' might be a good way of developing your sculpting skills, but it sucks as marketing. You want more interesting themes and more of them. Look at Dragonforge for good ideas.

Take your time and build up a reserve of stuff whilst honing your skills. It'll mean that you're not running from month to month desperately trying to keep up; because you've got stuff lined up already. Ideally, assuming that a 'theme' is the average base set (10x25mm, 10x 32mm, 5x 40mm, 2x 60mm, 5x 70x25mm (bike size), and 1x120mm (with flight stand option) - you want to have a saucy intro pack of two or three really interesting sets, and then two themes released a month. So you'll want fifteen sets total in the bank, in reserve, and ready to be put out before you open shop.

Then you launch. Spend a little money on facebook advertising, perhaps try and do a free theme that you can offer to another big patreon for free in exchange for a link (Makers Cult or the like would be obvious here - I know they do that stuff), and so on. Basically get some buzz going for the first month or two - you want a strong launch. Try and offer a cheap early bird to suck in that first fifty subscribers, then one or two loyalty/promotion rewards to help keep traction. Get the word spreading and get yourself a sold foundation of patreon subscribers so that you can quit your day job and focus on it properly. And then take it from there.

You do all that, and I reckon you'll be successful. I'd certainly sign up. More importantly, I'd probably stay past the welcome pack too (something a lot of patreons struggle with). But it does require a fair bit of hard work to prep for, and it won't be an overnight thing. It really comes down to treating it like a commercial venture, preparing the product in advance, and launching properly. Otherwise, you'll be probably just skate around with relatively little success until you give up.

Michael_the_Nerd wrote:
Fantastic feedback Ketara, much appreciated!

A lot of stuff to think about.
It looks like I need to make more with cheaper tiers in order to compete.
Maybe Patreon is not the optimal place, unless I do as you suggest and make stuff to have in reserve. Hmmm

It's as much for your mental health as anything, for the reason in my third response below

Another question I have about Patreon is: How much of it is considered buying an actual product and how much is considered "donation" (like you would do with livestreamers fx)?
I view it as a product I make, but Patreon has lots of other stuff like Podcasts, blogs etc. so I'm not really sure.

For me, as someone who wants 40K usable stuff and generic sci-fi/cyberpunk, there's about £180 a month worth of solid Patreon subscriptions available to choose from (if I wanted everything). Most people simply don't have that kind of money, and that means that they're shopping for product. There are a few Patreons which people sponsor for more charitable reasons because they want the content and patreon to do well (look at Davale Games for an example), but if you're pumping out a generic product (terrain, bases, dudes with laser guns), there's no reason for anyone to sponsor out of sentimental reasons. Which reduces it to a business transaction, or 'What do I get for my buck?' Especially when there's twenty odd other companies competing for that same budget of however much a month I can afford.

You think 2 themes a month with how my tiers are set up now would be good?
Or should I have less tiers/cheaper/less bases etc.

I think that if you're going to compete with the other twenty companies clamouring for my quids, you need to offer me an attractive product consistently and affordably. Not too cheaply I hasten to add, you need to be able to pay your bills. The £8 plus VAT mark is standard for Patreon (as it works out to about £10/$12). Doing fifty subscriptions at £5/$7 and than another tier at the higher price should be cheap enough. If I got two themes a month for that, I'd consider it a fair price. And if the product is good, I'll stick around for it.

Something to consider in trying to pump out two themes a month however, is your work capacity. If you've nothing in reserve and you get ill, what then? What if you want a holiday? The more sets you have stored in your metaphorical bank, the more wiggle room you have, and the less mental stress you've got. When you're working on your own for yourself, you can't take the risk of playing your cards that loosely. And you simply won't have the time to make a living another way if you're to pump out two cool themes reliably every month minimum. You want to be financially secure, not flailing because you're two months in, out of premade stuff, your wife just got ill, and now all your new patrons are jumping ship.

Having the breathing room also gives you time to play with new ideas (maybe terrain), working on advertising, and generally improving the business model beyond just frantically sculpting all day every day.

Michael_the_Nerd wrote:
You have some very good points Ketara.

Do you think it would make more sense for me to move to MyMiniFactory as Boss Salvage suggested?
Then I don't have to compete with the 20 companies as you said, and I'm less vulnerable to set backs as you describe.

That's a different business model altogether, although not completely incompatible with the first.

From what I've seen, a goodly number of the .stl businesses work with Patreon as the first line of income. It covers their production and day to to day living costs/expenses. If you can hit two hundred subscribers paying you $10 each, minus the 5% from patreon and whatever your local taxes are (say, 15% as an example), you've got a reliable income of around $1700 a month. That's respectable enough as a starting point for something where you're your own boss.

Then what you do is you shuffle your back catalogue of whatever you've developed each month into one or more of three channels:-

(a) Producing them in resin or printing them and selling them yourself through your own webstore.
(b) Subcontracting the above out to somebody else.
(c) Listing the stl's on CG Trader, MMF, or another place for sale.

The product cycle then becomes as follows:-

1. Develop product based on feedback and add to bank.
2. Release product to Patreon for a month and then remove it.
3. Re-release product through other channel(s) at a higher price (usually double minimum) to make additional revenue.

As time goes on, your back catalogue will contribute a greater amount to your income. I spent fifty quid the other week at the Makers Cult CGTrader store for stuff that they made and released on Patreon before I joined in. That's in addition to my monthly subscription. So they've had sixty out of me this month. The larger your back catalogue, the more cash you can derive from it, it's an appreciating asset.

Additionally, most people bump up the prices when selling post-Patreon, and that's one of the main lures of getting people to subscribe. When I look at the aforementioned Makers cult, I might be paying ten quid, but I'm getting what will be sixty or seventy quid's worth of files post-Patreon. That's a real incentive to get me to stay on, as it means that I only need one or two good files every other month to justify the cost. And that reliability of income works well for the company when it comes to making their own budgets. They know that as long as they can offer me even one thing every other month worth my interest, they'll keep my subscription.

When it comes to bases, let's say that you're charging $10 on Patreon for two themes with the composition I mentioned above (10x25mm, 10x 32mm, 5x 40mm, 2x 60mm, 5x 70x25mm (bike size), and 1x120mm (with flight stand option)) per month. At the end of the month, you remove it from Patreon, and split it into two themes for $20 each on another site. Then you order in a pile of them in resin from a third party manufacturer so you can sell physical packs (say, ten 25mm or ten 30mm, or 5 40mm, etc for £6 a pack or whatever - depends on costs).

You've suddenly got three income streams. The Patreon remains the initial engine, it's the running mechanism that pays developmental costs and living expenses. But the two other revenues can be diverted towards expanding your offering, branching into other areas, subsidising a Kickstarter project, or just beefing up your daily income (if you don't want any additional complication).

From my observations, that's how the majority of these companies have started and developed over the last two years. It's a very young market, so it's interesting to see how it'll develop. But with the new 3d printers just hitting, 3d printing is finally (I would say) just about cost affordable for the average punter. And whilst plenty of people chuck in the odd base set to their Patreons, there's no dedicated Patreon or 3d company out there right now (unlike in resin where there's a dozen). So the niche is certainly there for an early mover.

Heck, I'd think about it myself if I didn't have so much else on.

Michael_the_Nerd wrote:
You can't.

Which is a big hindrance for the industry.

Once that problem gets solved, I think the miniature hobbies will take a big leap forward

Good luck with that. The music, game, and film industry never figured it out.

The usual step is to make it juuuust difficult enough and the prices low enough that people can't be arsed to try and get round them. You're always going to have people doing the equivalent of burning a mate's CD, watching a film at their auntie's house, or borrowing a game cartridge from another kid at school. When dealing in anything that can be put in digital format, those things are inevitable without DRM so invasive that it's far more harmful than what it's trying to prevent. And frankly, I personally think that those sorts of cases aren't really an issue, morally or otherwise. IP laws in their strictest sense are daft (technically most libraries are infringing just by existing).

When it becomes a problem is when anyone can go to google, hammer in your product name, and get a free download next to your shop as a search result. That's when it's an issue, that's when it impacts on sales substantially, and that's when nobody buys your product. So you want to drive it just far underground enough to make it fecking awkward and non-obvious for 95% of the public, and leave the bit torrenters/dark web/sharepoint lot to sort themselves out. And by keeping prices reasonable, you disincentivise the public from looking beyond the licensed sources.

That's a reason things like Spotify and Netflix took off whilst piracy has gone through the floor respectively.

I just found a fab new 40K specific one to subscribe to whilst sieving Patreon for other sci-fi stuff. This month, they've done a ridiculously modular (male and female!) dinosaur rough rider kit and some tank pieces, future months are apparently going to consist of Soviet themed Guard releases (including tanks and artillery). They're called 'II Gargoyles Studio'. Very new and very cool! They're swapping to a monthly release format next month, but as of right now, if you subscribe? You get everything they've done for the last three months!

https://www.patreon.com/2gargoyles/posts








Last month they did alternate Chimera tracks and a Sentinel Powerloader kit!

There's another new 40K one on the block, a collaborative of three modellers (basically a Makers Cult style approach). They're called Dark Foundry Miniatures:-

https://www.patreon.com/DarkFoundryMiniatures

Their opening schtick is a nautical themed Chaos Space Marine kit and some Necrons. I can't help but feel that they're a bit pricey at eleven quid though. I'd have been happy to pay the eight fifty, with VAT, it works out to about a tenner. At eleven quid, the VAT plus takes it up to almost fifteen and...well, put it this way. Aphyrion are the only ones charging in that price range right now in my Patreon list, and they're giving me something like five tank kits this month. So it feels a tad overpriced.

Here's a few 'not-on-Patreon' people I've spotted on CGTrader:-

Redninja
https://www.cgtrader.com/redninja




Redmakers
https://www.cgtrader.com/redmakers




Imperial Prapor
https://www.cgtrader.com/imperial-prapor




Brexitt
https://www.cgtrader.com/brexitt



leesedrenfort
https://www.cgtrader.com/leesedrenfort




hereticsparadise
https://www.cgtrader.com/hereticsparadise




All ones to keep an eye on!

https://www.patreon.com/DarkFoundryMiniatures/posts

Dark Foundry has a line called 'Teknops'.

In other news, there's a wonderful new Dark Eldar patreon, Edge Miniatures:- https://www.patreon.com/EdgeMiniatures/posts
On top of the wracks for this month, there's a Raider variant coming out later this month. Cheap too at £4.50 for unsupported files!