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I do think that 3D printing is far more likely to hurt smaller companies than GW. Without sounding too snobby, people who're into non-GW games are typically more 'in the know' on developments within wargaming - as opposed to people exclusively within the GW sphere - which is why you're far more likely to have somebody paint their non-GW stuff with non-Citadel products for example.

To that end, the exposure 3D printing will get among non-GW hobbyists is naturally far greater, coupled with a willingness to buy from companies who are not The Big One. There's no Official Battlefront Stores or Official Para Bellum Stores in which you can't use proxies, prints etc, and any requirements to use their models and theirs alone is going to be a PR hit that they can't afford since people are far, far more likely to go elsewhere compared to GW fans who will almost entirely bite the pillow as they always do.

As said above, GW has the money to dodge bullets. Other companies can't. Those companies won't do well if a good chunk of their customer base get good-enough STLs to use print, coupled with the accessibility/quality of printers on the rise. GW both have their base to bite it - they can just hike prices by 10% or something - and enough people who want the official Warhammer(tm) logo coupled with the convenience. How many people don't pickup an airbrush and continue to buy Chaos Black and Leadbelcher Citadel(tm) sprays for example? Sure there's a genuine minority who lack the space/ventilation accessibility to do so, but most do and choose not to.

I could see a few of the more savvy companies prepping to offer official STLs, probably with a healthy dosage of campaign books - the latter being how a lot of historical wargame companies do things when WW2 miniatures have so many options. GW will probably just keep chugging along like a dinosaur as it always does. If anything, 3D printing might be a strong net positive for them just because if/when those competitors go under, it will make people even more wary of playing anything but GW games for fear they'll go under.

 Arbitrator wrote:
I do think that 3D printing is far more likely to hurt smaller companies than GW. Without sounding too snobby, people who're into non-GW games are typically more 'in the know' on developments within wargaming - as opposed to people exclusively within the GW sphere - which is why you're far more likely to have somebody paint their non-GW stuff with non-Citadel products for example.

To that end, the exposure 3D printing will get among non-GW hobbyists is naturally far greater, coupled with a willingness to buy from companies who are not The Big One. There's no Official Battlefront Stores or Official Para Bellum Stores in which you can't use proxies, prints etc, and any requirements to use their models and theirs alone is going to be a PR hit that they can't afford since people are far, far more likely to go elsewhere compared to GW fans who will almost entirely bite the pillow as they always do.

As said above, GW has the money to dodge bullets. Other companies can't. Those companies won't do well if a good chunk of their customer base get good-enough STLs. GW both have their base to bite it - they can just hike prices by 10% or something - and enough people who want the official Warhammer(tm) logo.

Moreover and I think people forget this - GW designs and kits generally look good it's not like the printed versions blow them out the water, but the printed versions are compared favourably by virtue of being cheaper and not needing to go to a shop/wait for postage (which a lot of people go to the shops for the games still I'd wager).

Cronch wrote:
As soon as printers aren't their own hobby. Which they still very much are, you need to be into adjusting your own plates and whatnot, and willing to give up room space for the thing.

This. I (well, mostly my brother, his wife and our father) spent days setting up and calibrating our printer, getting it to print consistently. One nudge later, and it doesn’t print anything right anymore. And I haven’t used it in at least a year because I just can’t go through (or ask my family to go through) that calibration process again yet.

Oh yes If I could I would attend more events and try to support companies buying on their stores. Even if more expensive. Theres the experience that no virtual can replace.

Its early days for 3d printing at home and yet we are seeing the huge influx of those projects on market, if competitors go under thats not good for anyone believe me, not even for 3d exclusive projects that will multiply like rabbits and will end up eating each other carrots.

GW is trying to find ways to police infractions but that may prove to be almost of an impossible task if the wave is big enough.

I would compare 3D in our industry like 3D VS traditional SFX or 3D VS traditional animations... One almost rendered the other non existent.

On a side note since wargames like 40k are mentioned, what will happen to the games if a company stops producing the game tokens (minis)?

 NAVARRO wrote:

On a side note since wargames like 40k are mentioned, what will happen to the games if a company stops producing the game tokens (minis)?

nothing, as the company making the rules/games being the company that also makes the models is not the common thing for wargames

it is more like unique to GW's business model that everything comes from one company

 kodos wrote:

 NAVARRO wrote:

On a side note since wargames like 40k are mentioned, what will happen to the games if a company stops producing the game tokens (minis)?

nothing, as the company making the rules/games being the company that also makes the models is not the common thing for wargames

it is more like unique to GW's business model that everything comes from one company

I will rephrase then.

What would happen to 40k game if GW stop producing the miniatures for it?

What im trying to get at is that theres more to 3D files mass distribution affecting only the miniatures production...IMO it cascades down to the other products from that company. For one if a company only produces games then they will be solely judged by the quality of the games they sell too.

Would 40k do good or even exist?

 kodos wrote:

 NAVARRO wrote:

On a side note since wargames like 40k are mentioned, what will happen to the games if a company stops producing the game tokens (minis)?

nothing, as the company making the rules/games being the company that also makes the models is not the common thing for wargames

it is more like unique to GW's business model that everything comes from one company

It would require uptick in 3d printers to facilitate game pieces, or simply use acceptable proxies. But unsupported rules are a real turn off for a lot of people, as are a lack of baikity to walk out and buy supported products. So for a diehard few it might live on but it'll slowly drop off an stagnate without the parent company imo.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 NAVARRO wrote:

 kodos wrote:

 NAVARRO wrote:

On a side note since wargames like 40k are mentioned, what will happen to the games if a company stops producing the game tokens (minis)?

nothing, as the company making the rules/games being the company that also makes the models is not the common thing for wargames

it is more like unique to GW's business model that everything comes from one company

I will rephrase then.

What would happen to 40k game if GW stop producing the miniatures for it?

What im trying to get at is that theres more to 3D files mass distribution affecting only the miniatures production...IMO it cascades down to the other products from that company. For one if a company only produces games then they will be solely judged by the quality of the games they sell too.

Would 40k do good or even exist?

This ^^^^^ GW miniatures and setting are what draws people in, the rules aren't exactly the best out there.

unsupported rules are those that get no updates on the rules for years

unsupported games are not those that get no models from the same company, or regular model updates or regular changes to the rules for the sake of change

if this would be the case I don't know how Frostgrave or SAGA every made it to become popular games
and those are not supported by the 3D printing crowed at all so really need the Community around them getting the things together


and 40k is a different story as this game alone lives from GWs marketing
if GW ever stops pushing it, it people will revert to other Editions of the rules or other games
It is just not good enough to make it as a stand alone game without the constant hype GW creates
and with it, the 3D printing support will vanish, as it is only profitable as long as GW pushes the game forward


so there are those used to the GW type of game which might have trouble with so called "unsupported" games outside the GW bubble

for the wargaming community and industry, this is not a problem at all


so if we are talking about 3D printing and its impact on the wargaming community
we need to be clear if we talk about the GW bubble or the rest is those are very different things



Automatically Appended Next Post:

Dudeface wrote:
This ^^^^^ GW miniatures and setting are what draws people in, the rules aren't exactly the best out there.

if it would the about the models, the market for alternatives would not be that big

 NAVARRO wrote:

 kodos wrote:

 NAVARRO wrote:

On a side note since wargames like 40k are mentioned, what will happen to the games if a company stops producing the game tokens (minis)?

nothing, as the company making the rules/games being the company that also makes the models is not the common thing for wargames

it is more like unique to GW's business model that everything comes from one company

I will rephrase then.

What would happen to 40k game if GW stop producing the miniatures for it?

I guess you could check Mordheim, Necromunda, Epic or Blood Bowl

3D printing doesn't hurt GW but I really wish it did.

 kodos wrote:

Dudeface wrote:
This ^^^^^ GW miniatures and setting are what draws people in, the rules aren't exactly the best out there.

if it would the about the models, the market for alternatives would not be that big

It isn't? There's a large volume of 3rd party support for bits or customising components, there isn't a large range of "not 40k" minis/armies outside of 3d print sculptors.

 Wha-Mu-077 wrote:
3D printing doesn't hurt GW but I really wish it did.

Well, it might hurt them if they decide to reboot BFG with modern GW pricing. 3D printing has made that game much more accessible, and is so common and accepted that GW would never be able to shut it down in favor of $30 cruisers and $50 battleships. So, if you consider GW “hurt” when it can no longer dictate bananas pricing, it would be hurt.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Dudeface wrote:

 kodos wrote:

Dudeface wrote:
This ^^^^^ GW miniatures and setting are what draws people in, the rules aren't exactly the best out there.

if it would the about the models, the market for alternatives would not be that big

It isn't? There's a large volume of 3rd party support for bits or customising components, there isn't a large range of "not 40k" minis/armies outside of 3d print sculptors.

Huh? There are tons of not-40k minis in resin and plastic. Too many companies to name. You’ve got all kinds of resin orks, resin and plastic IG, sexy resin Necrons, resin space marine heroes/specialists, plastic and resin SOB, plastic Scions and soon Space Marines, resin mechanicus look-alikes, sexy resin Tau, plastic squats from at least 2 companies, and even resin Custodes, Primarchs and Emperor look-alikes. The only factions that haven’t yet been well copied are the Tyranids and the Eldar.

Eldar haven't been copied but seen a better than the original re-work

only Tyranids are not touched after Chapterhouse did them although there are some Space Insects or Spiders out there

You can be almost all factions without ever touching a single GW model

 kodos wrote:
Eldar haven't been copied but seen a better than the original re-work

only Tyranids are not touched after Chapterhouse did them although there are some Space Insects or Spiders out there

You can be almost all factions without ever touching a single GW model

But... People don't. Often you get the odd model or unit subbed, it's rare to see a full 3rd party 40k army in my experience.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

Spoiler:

 Wha-Mu-077 wrote:
3D printing doesn't hurt GW but I really wish it did.

Well, it might hurt them if they decide to reboot BFG with modern GW pricing. 3D printing has made that game much more accessible, and is so common and accepted that GW would never be able to shut it down in favor of $30 cruisers and $50 battleships. So, if you consider GW “hurt” when it can no longer dictate bananas pricing, it would be hurt.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Dudeface wrote:

 kodos wrote:

Dudeface wrote:
This ^^^^^ GW miniatures and setting are what draws people in, the rules aren't exactly the best out there.

if it would the about the models, the market for alternatives would not be that big

It isn't? There's a large volume of 3rd party support for bits or customising components, there isn't a large range of "not 40k" minis/armies outside of 3d print sculptors.

Huh? There are tons of not-40k minis in resin and plastic. Too many companies to name. You’ve got all kinds of resin orks, resin and plastic IG, sexy resin Necrons, resin space marine heroes/specialists, plastic and resin SOB, plastic Scions and soon Space Marines, resin mechanicus look-alikes, sexy resin Tau, plastic squats from at least 2 companies, and even resin Custodes, Primarchs and Emperor look-alikes. The only factions that haven’t yet been well copied are the Tyranids and the Eldar.

But again a lot of these are hqs or a couple of units, there's few wholesale 3rd party armies you can buy off a shelf and fewer still that cover a full 40k range

 kodos wrote:
Eldar haven't been copied but seen a better than the original re-work

only Tyranids are not touched after Chapterhouse did them although there are some Space Insects or Spiders out there

You can be almost all factions without ever touching a single GW model

What is this Eldar rework you mention?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Dudeface wrote:

 kodos wrote:
Eldar haven't been copied but seen a better than the original re-work

only Tyranids are not touched after Chapterhouse did them although there are some Space Insects or Spiders out there

You can be almost all factions without ever touching a single GW model

But... People don't. Often you get the odd model or unit subbed, it's rare to see a full 3rd party 40k army in my experience.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

Spoiler:

 Wha-Mu-077 wrote:
3D printing doesn't hurt GW but I really wish it did.

Well, it might hurt them if they decide to reboot BFG with modern GW pricing. 3D printing has made that game much more accessible, and is so common and accepted that GW would never be able to shut it down in favor of $30 cruisers and $50 battleships. So, if you consider GW “hurt” when it can no longer dictate bananas pricing, it would be hurt.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Dudeface wrote:

 kodos wrote:

Dudeface wrote:
This ^^^^^ GW miniatures and setting are what draws people in, the rules aren't exactly the best out there.

if it would the about the models, the market for alternatives would not be that big

It isn't? There's a large volume of 3rd party support for bits or customising components, there isn't a large range of "not 40k" minis/armies outside of 3d print sculptors.

Huh? There are tons of not-40k minis in resin and plastic. Too many companies to name. You’ve got all kinds of resin orks, resin and plastic IG, sexy resin Necrons, resin space marine heroes/specialists, plastic and resin SOB, plastic Scions and soon Space Marines, resin mechanicus look-alikes, sexy resin Tau, plastic squats from at least 2 companies, and even resin Custodes, Primarchs and Emperor look-alikes. The only factions that haven’t yet been well copied are the Tyranids and the Eldar.

But again a lot of these are hqs or a couple of units, there's few wholesale 3rd party armies you can buy off a shelf and fewer still that cover a full 40k range

You haven’t seen them? Where have you been looking?

People absolutely buy these proxy miniatures. WGA ran out of stock for their Grognards because so many people bought whole armies. When they release plastic Valkir, I’d be surprised if they didn’t sell in huge quantities.

I have seen more full 3rd Party Imperial Guard armies than I have seen original ones

I fact I haven't seen a full GW Guard army in the last 10 years

and yes you can buy those of the shelf, Guard, Marines, SoB, Chaos, Custodes is not a problem to get the full set you need

not talking about 1:1 copies from Russia or China, have seen those as well, but full 3rd party "count as" models in plastic (Resin or HIPS)
in some places you see more of those than original ones, and hardly 1 army that is build with mostly GW models

for the gaming part of the community, the GW models are hardly a driving point
for the modeling/painting/collecting part of the community it is different
but there were "wargaming" is the main part of the hobby, GW models are not important

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

You haven’t seen them? Where have you been looking?

People absolutely buy these proxy miniatures. WGA ran out of stock for their Grognards because so many people bought whole armies. When they release plastic Valkir, I’d be surprised if they didn’t sell in huge quantities.

In the flesh, in 40k subreddits, on this site. There are few to none full 3rd party 40k armies. You're right that the wga infantry is cheaper and a reasonable proxy. But it's just infantry, that isn't an army. People will still need to go elsewhere for proxy tanks or fall back onto 40k vehicles.

Not saying there aren't options out there, just that unlike 3d printing, I can't buy a cohesive army from a 3rd party at the moment and as such they seem to pretty rare beyond splash in parts/models.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 kodos wrote:
I have seen more full 3rd Party Imperial Guard armies than I have seen original ones

I fact I haven't seen a full GW Guard army in the last 10 years

and yes you can buy those of the shelf, Guard, Marines, SoB, Chaos, Custodes is not a problem to get the full set you need

not talking about 1:1 copies from Russia or China, have seen those as well, but full 3rd party "count as" models in plastic (Resin or HIPS)
in some places you see more of those than original ones, and hardly 1 army that is build with mostly GW models

for the gaming part of the community, the GW models are hardly a driving point
for the modeling/painting/collecting part of the community it is different
but there were "wargaming" is the main part of the hobby, GW models are not important

Can you link me to the off the shelf custodes, sisters and chaos please?

I mean, you can always get cheap proxy tanks, too. Back in the day, one would buy DUST vehicles to go with their Eisenkern or whatever. Now the Meng Toon Tanks and Robogear flyers are the go-to proxies for 40k vehicles. Granted, these are mostly for imperial guard.

 Gregor Samsa wrote:
Games Workshop wants out of the tabletop wargaming business. That much is clear.

When it comes to the physical product they manufacture, what they want is to sell expensive premium models for gamers to adorn their PC gaming rigs with.

Right now they are casting around for which form of product their IP can be most effectively monetized in as they move into the next phase of their business.

They don't want to be a "wargames company". They want to sell models. They are actively rewriting all of their rules in order to better facilitate the purchase of large and expensive "centrepiece" models (hence the 'hero hammer' shift in game design). Likely that is also in part because current 3d printers cannot compete with them at that level, yet.

GW was always about big centerpieces, certainly compared to other games. They always wanted to make big, shiny, fantasy monsters and their art was full of them, it was just technical limitations limiting them to tiny metal intestine-serpent dragons and GI Joe-sized "giants". It's not a new shift.

For off the shelf examples, the War Store sold me Scibor’s custodes back when the War Store existed.

For Sisters, I’m a fan of Shieldwolf’s designs, which are available from many FLGSes and from Amazon sometimes. I’ve seen Dreamforge’s Panzerjagers converted into Sisters with basic helmet and gun swaps, still an economical option. There’s a resin army from Mad Robot or Anvil that you can usually order from an FLGS, so not quite off the shelf, but adjacent to it in the age of o line purchasing.

Chaos is usually represented by taking IG proxies and swapping helmets or adding Barbarian bits. If you mean chaos marines, those exist in resin and should be pretty easy to convert in plastic once the Valkir drop. (Or use can use Mantic Enforcer Peacekeepers with Mantic Plague bits or the usual resin upgrade bits. I’ve seen those a few times, although I don’t find them very 40k.) It might even be cheaper than GW per mini to buy Reaper Bones anti-paladins or barrow knights or whatever the not-chaos warriors are called and replace their shield arms with bolter arms. There are lots of resin helmets and shoulder pads for converting miniatures to chaos.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
For off the shelf examples, the War Store sold me Scibor’s custodes back when the War Store existed.

For Sisters, I’m a fan of Shieldwolf’s designs, which are available from many FLGSes and from Amazon sometimes. I’ve seen Dreamforge’s Panzerjagers converted into Sisters with basic helmet and gun swaps, still an economical option. There’s a resin army from Mad Robot or Anvil that you can usually order from an FLGS, so not quite off the shelf, but adjacent to it in the age of o line purchasing.

Chaos is usually represented by taking IG proxies and swapping helmets or adding Barbarian bits. If you mean chaos marines, those exist in resin and should be pretty easy to convert in plastic once the Valkir drop. (Or use can use Mantic Enforcer Peacekeepers with Mantic Plague bits or the usual resin upgrade bits. I’ve seen those a few times, although I don’t find them very 40k.) It might even be cheaper than GW per mini to buy Reaper Bones anti-paladins or barrow knights or whatever the not-chaos warriors are called and replace their shield arms with bolter arms. There are lots of resin helmets and shoulder pads for converting miniatures to chaos.

I had to Google the shield wolf ladies and while they have their merits none of them are actively cheaper for me to buy. So they are valid alternatives but the conversation sort of spun from "people buying cheaper alternatives", none of those really quite fit the bill beyond maybe the enforcers, but I agree that aesthetically it's not there for me but that's subjective. Dreamforge again isn't doing for me aesthetically but I hadn't considered them outside of IG if I'm honest.

I'm aware of anvil, mantic, dreamforge, creature caster etc. But by and large it'd cost me more to buy an army of them (although GW keeps narrowing the gap).

Edit: rereading the last page I think the discussion has split and gone crossways, sorry if I misinterpreted any of it. There are definitely alternatives out there for most stuff (albeit not from 1 manufacturer usually), but the best pieces are one off models/units, bits or not as high a quality.

I understand some people don't like the GW models and aesthetic so the alternatives are important but from my experiences few people dislike them enough to go hunting a 3rd party army that costs as much/more.

The Shieldwolf sisters cost me $35 for 20. How much are they overcharging you for them in order to match GW pricing??

Mantic typically costs $1-$2 per mini if you buy them in bulk armies or during a sale/Kickstarter. Sounds like you are getting absolutely hosed.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
The Shieldwolf sisters cost me $35 for 20. How much are they overcharging you for them in order to match GW pricing??

Mantic typically costs $1-$2 per mini if you buy them in bulk armies or during a sale/Kickstarter. Sounds like you are getting absolutely hosed.

Ahhh didn't see they were 20 to a box, thought they were 10. I can't seem to find them outside of ebay or the Shieldwolf’s site, but they're £29 more or less, which is slightly more than a box of sisters from a UK retailer.

Those tanks though ain't cheap, €58 is a lot.

Still cheaper than the original SoB tank which is 65€
the SoB Box is 45€ for 10 models

Those vehicles made a lot more sense before GW released the new Sisters of Battle range. I doubt they sell many of them these days.

I’d probably buy a cheapo 1/48 or 1/35 kit or a Bronekorpus and then slap a tacky amount of Renedra mausoleum or Pegasus church bits all over it. And, of course, Ravenwing Accessory Sprue.

The one product GW still makes that’s worth its price, sing it all together now: Ravenwing Accessory Spruuuuuuuue!

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

Cronch wrote:
As soon as printers aren't their own hobby. Which they still very much are, you need to be into adjusting your own plates and whatnot, and willing to give up room space for the thing.

This. I (well, mostly my brother, his wife and our father) spent days setting up and calibrating our printer, getting it to print consistently. One nudge later, and it doesn’t print anything right anymore. And I haven’t used it in at least a year because I just can’t go through (or ask my family to go through) that calibration process again yet.

I live in a smallish town, but there's multiple 3D printing services running out of places that make signs and prints, peoples homes for a charge and even a few game stores in the neighbouring cities. All you need to provide are the STLs and enough of a payment to cover the resin/service charge. I could see a lot of that popping up as the devices get cheaper.

That still means paying for the files, the printing, and potentially shipping. And hoping the place prints the files correctly. Basically at that point, what's the convenience of it vs buying a kit?

Depending on the nature of the supports, cleanup for a 3D print can be more difficult than for a regular cast model. Because with a cast model the clean up is all on the mould line - even the gates are typically along that same line around each part. Therefore you can logically work your way around each bit pretty easily.

With 3D printing you don't get that, instead you get little sticks and pock marks all over the place - almost at random. This can make it more challenging and if its a generally supported model it might have a LOT of marks. Meanwhile you can spend time supporting the model yourself with a well tuned printer and settings and get a lot of them reduced, but its a different set of skills and interaction and still takes a long while.


Another aspect is painting practicality. A lot of 3D print designers come from a video game or similar media background, not a model background. And because of how 3D printing works you don't have to part every model, in far by and large many models are not parted. This means everything is 1 part.

That can mean a LOT of very hard to impossible to reach areas on the model when it comes to painting. Even if the model looks super fantastic it can be a very big challenge to paint.

It can also mean models designed without printing in mind. This can mean having really difficult fine (eg spikes or teeth) structures that are all over the place and on a model with zero or limited parting. Suddenly it becomes a very big challenge to actually support the model because you're supporting a lot of very fine detail islands which all then have to link up and also then come off the supports. Sometimes even if it prints fine you can lose really tiny details (eg teeth) because getting them off supports is tricky when the support is as thick as the tooth.

Also, interestingly, there's a LOT of mono-pose. Despite it being something people rage at GW about, 3D printing is broadly the same. Yes sometimes you can mirror a model to get extra poses, but in general there's far more monopose than multipose parted models around.


Granted some of those things can change in time. In theory designers will improve and learn and those that don't will steadily get overtaken by those who do.

 Overread wrote:
Depending on the nature of the supports, cleanup for a 3D print can be more difficult than for a regular cast model. Because with a cast model the clean up is all on the mould line - even the gates are typically along that same line around each part. Therefore you can logically work your way around each bit pretty easily.

With 3D printing you don't get that, instead you get little sticks and pock marks all over the place - almost at random. This can make it more challenging and if its a generally supported model it might have a LOT of marks. Meanwhile you can spend time supporting the model yourself with a well tuned printer and settings and get a lot of them reduced, but its a different set of skills and interaction and still takes a long while.


Another aspect is painting practicality. A lot of 3D print designers come from a video game or similar media background, not a model background. And because of how 3D printing works you don't have to part every model, in far by and large many models are not parted. This means everything is 1 part.

That can mean a LOT of very hard to impossible to reach areas on the model when it comes to painting. Even if the model looks super fantastic it can be a very big challenge to paint.

It can also mean models designed without printing in mind. This can mean having really difficult fine (eg spikes or teeth) structures that are all over the place and on a model with zero or limited parting. Suddenly it becomes a very big challenge to actually support the model because you're supporting a lot of very fine detail islands which all then have to link up and also then come off the supports. Sometimes even if it prints fine you can lose really tiny details (eg teeth) because getting them off supports is tricky when the support is as thick as the tooth.

Also, interestingly, there's a LOT of mono-pose. Despite it being something people rage at GW about, 3D printing is broadly the same. Yes sometimes you can mirror a model to get extra poses, but in general there's far more monopose than multipose parted models around.


Granted some of those things can change in time. In theory designers will improve and learn and those that don't will steadily get overtaken by those who do.

It depends on the sculpts. Some are multi part kits that blow GW ones away and most of them come pre-supported. It's literally plug-and-print at this point.
Example:

And if you don't like that, you can always assemble the parts digitally (Autodesk Meshmixer is free an incredibly easy to use) and print the whole thing together.

I have to say tank makers do seem to be better at parting than infantry

Granted I think tanks and mechs are also a LOT easier to part because the connection points are often more easily hidden as part of the model.

Same reason tyranids are easier to do multi part for because they've got those big ball and socket joints.



edit - also Pipermakes is really really good at those mechs. I thought some of the early designs were a touch too close to GW styles, but they've really started branching out more with their own ideas.
Also just saw that at least one mech (and likely more) now has some visual thruster parts being made and sold by Deadly Print studios for them!