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So its been a while since I did one of these so lets have a wild go at what's out there and around in the world of STLs in November!!
One thing to note is that STLs might go the way of the dodo one day semi-soon. Lychee and many other 3D software packages are starting to support 3mf file formats, a format that offers benefits over stl (STL is super old as format). 3MF are able to have much smaller file sizes than stl; whilst also being able to store a lot of meta data including multiple files within the same file. In short its a superior format. Far as I can tell the only thing really holding it back is that Chitu only supports it in their pro-version slicer whilst their free doesn't support it. Sadly they have somewhat of a current stranglehold on the market so for the time being 3mf isn't here, but one day - one day!!
Note some of the images are big - I've stuck them in spoilers for that.
Please do feel free to show what you've printed this month, what you've bought and found, what interests you and all! This is a thread for everyone to share what we've found and like. Heck most of what I'm after these days is fantasy and I know there are some really great sci-fi patreons out there too!
One of my favourite designers is having a great month! Demonic creatures influenced by Doom (and other demonic settings). There's some big things in this month, including a huge opening hellgate, and a "balrog" that I think is one of the best types of two legged demonic creatures that I've seen in a long while. IT even has wings or no wings variations and he's said in private that he'd also like to give it some weapons like a whip and axe - though those would be things far off in the future if they ever come.
LotP are doing something different this month, swapping dragons for armies and their first one is really really good. Insect riding warriors with a strong fantasy lean. These are really really awesome models and big too (40mm stls by default, but can, of course, be resized). High detail and really well parted for smaller printers too.
One of their staff is starting to do some basic rules for putting an army game together with some lore over in their discord channel. I'm hoping that this becomes something they look into more and develop both in terms of increasing the variety within this current force and also adding others. Especially as its a series of designs that are professional, high quality and not copy-catting Games Workshop concepts.
DTL recently started adding quite a few more models to their release rate and it really seems to be doing well! Lots of new sculpts and yet still keeping up to their great quality. The dragon this month is really impressive in detail with the wood effect. Lots of bark patterns, tree rings and spines! There's a whole lot of dryads and nymphs and other woodland characters whilst the trees come both as bare trees and with ent-like faces on them.
Like LotP there's a slightly more military lean this month with a larger force of models than the often more standard DTL magical creatures and a few characters. That said theres enough charm to the designs that these would perfectly fit in DnD or a wargame or just look awesome on the shelf.
Elves, Vampires and Lizards! LSM release several different factions a month worth of models and I've been supporting them for a time just for the lizards (their pledges let you pick one or all three) and they are some great charming models.
So this month is some temple guard with a turtle influence to the design!
Their release is still coming (normally drops around mid-month) so I've not seen them just yet in the stls. I'm also really hoping that a model they released last January gets released to their store (its awaiting their person getting supports attached, though right now its a bit slow as they just finished a kickstarter for a wood-elf army). Talking to the guy in charge this model apparently wasn't as popular when it was released, which I'm guessing is because its a touch more AoS inspired than Old World (which is predominantly what they've got). Personally I think its one of the best models they've designed and seriously knocks socks off even the GW model that it takes inspiration from.
Other images including alternate base
Spoiler:
November Release
Spoiler:
And now we get to other cool things I've spotted this month and not backed/bought
These guys do some really unique dark/twisted style sculpting. I've heard some liken to "darksouls in stl". I backed them for the first time last month and the models really do stand up well to the renders! This month they've got some really cool insects, some airship crew and a big airship with a huge "bug" creature for the lift.
Airship is very much on the big side, though quite a few KS have done hteir own airships over the months - Skies of Sidorne (who have their own patreon running now as well) have done some really great airships and two kickstarters built around superbig airship models; so there's certainly something you can build toward airship wise in the market.
These guys do some really nice models and I've had them on my watch list for a while. they've started doing some promotional work through their website (details in their patreon page) and this month there's a free purple worm (which is awesome!). More than worth sacrificing an email for some reminder messages about their patreon (two a month - really not that invasive).
I've not backed this patreon before, but they've really caught my eye this month with their preview renders of what's coming. Their November release isn't yet live, but so far they've shown off some concept art for a boar, a render of a phonenix (which would also make a super cool eagle model too) and a render of both a unicorn and a dark unicorn.
This has to be mentioned as its such an oddball out of left field reference, but Warploque went and made a tribute to The Greatest Song in the World... tribute.
Spoiler:
I'm not too excited about halflings, but Jaques Noir and his buddy Kager are absolutely must prints for me having been a fan for years.
Poorly lit photos of my ever- growing collection of completely unrelated models!
Just going to list the ones I'm subbed to this month, there's a lot of good stuff around at the moment.
Titan-Forge are doing Death Knights/Chaos-esque stuff this ,month. Big armoured dude on and off a zombie dragon, with modular Definitely Not Chaos Warriors and riders, a two-headed giant and some undead in various races that you don't normally see (half-orc, dwarf). As usual, the set also includes their last 3 rounds of RPG player character types in the Titans of Adventure series, and in the post linked there's a free STL (the undead Dwarf)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/open-post-death-58194395
Spoiler:
Tytan Troll Miniatures continues to put out excellent characterful mob enemies to fill out your RPG encounters or skirmish gangs with, this time it's more bandits with a few designed based on characters from Gangs of New York. Also a throwback set to some previous bandit releases, and some very cool Mind Flayers because why not?
https://www.patreon.com/TytanTroll_Miniatures/posts
Spoiler:
Broken Anvil aren't usually my cup of tea, as they tend to do more anthropomorphic stuff rather than traditional fantasy, but they got me this month with a massive set of really useful stuff for any kind of subterranean/underdark campaign. You've got some great Dark Elves, some very characterful Deep Gnomes, some Troglodytes that would also make excellent Lizardmen or Kobolds. Alongside that, there's some admittedly quite original mole-men and a set of Warforged/automatons that cover most of the classic PC archetypes.
https://www.patreon.com/brokenanvil/posts
Spoiler:
The Printing Goes Ever On are getting into the latter half of The Two Towers with their ongoing journey through Definitely Not Middle Earth. Rohan and Isengard have wrapped up, including a full customiser for each faction and plenty of hero minis, and now they're going onto the Rangers and a winged steed for the Wraiths. Most of the release is comnig next week, but there's a few previews up
https://www.patreon.com/ThePrintingGoesEverOn/posts
Avatars of War has already been mentioned, though it's worth noting that the undead Beastmen and the mounted Orc are actually the tail end of October's release as they got a bit behind. The November release proper is going to be Barbarian heroes, but that's not been shown beyond some concept art yet.
There's also a Black Friday sale coming up on MMF in the next week or so, loads of stuff is apparently going to be up to 50% off, so unless you need something urgently it might be worth waiting for that if you're planning any purchases there.
On that note, has anyone switched any of their Patreon subs over to MMF Tribes yet? I'm happy enough sticking with Patreon, especially for the couple of Early Bird tiers I'm sitting on, but I'd be interested to know if anyone has made the switch and found it any better? I know MMF takes a slightly smaller cut than Patreon, but past that I don't know how much of a difference it makes.
First up it has a very mobile phone type interface; huge amounts of the screen are dead space when viewing a tribe and for some totally odd reason its all made as if its designed to be viewed on a mobile phone. Which means article writing space is small.
Images also don't enlarge so you're stuck with tiny images of things - again as if it was all made for a mobile phone.
Messaging for updates on tribes is also a pain because it goes through MMF's messaging system rather than its own feed. So you get a message in your inbox which you have to open and then open the link inside that to view the update message. This is a bit of a chore and made worse by MMF having a LOT of ads that pop up as you go through the process (unless you pay for MMF+).
What really annoys me though is that I can't "watch" mutliple tribes and get an info feed. On Patreon I can watch 30-40-50 however many patreons I want and I get a single news feed from all of them showing me their public posts. It means I can be aware of a lot of what is being released each month really quickly. I can drop in and out of Patreons easily from that.
MMF doesn't give me that, I have to monitor each tribe on its own and that is honestly more work on my part and super easy to just overlook or not do.
Releases are about the only bonus because you get them on MMF right there and then and without sometimes hitting the "download limit" for some of the other download services. However most patreons now redeem at the end of the month (and some during) on MMF anyway and any using a tribe will be doing that from their patreon. So in a sense right now I don't feel like Tribes gives me anything better than what Patreon offers and it doesn't give me the same quality and level of service/features.
Thus far the only one I back on Tribes is Lair because they don't release on Patreon at all (they started only recently so they've just gone all in on Tribes). I was ready to make the switch to Tribes, but right now I've just no reason too
Yeah, that was pretty much what I suspected, but thanks for the info. I did think their interface was very clunky compared to Patreon, especially the images being so small and not enlarging. If I'm buying something, I like to see high-res renders first, preferably from multiple angles to really get a sense of the sculpt. I guess Tribes is still technically in beta, so maybe they'll fix this going forard, but looking at the numbers I don't think it's caused the massive exodus from Patreon that some of the early announcements said it might (aside from those like Lion Tower who basically shut down their Patreon to do Tribes if I remember right)
Oh, one other thing I forgot, Archvillain Games have a massive 70% off their MMF store until tomorrow night, with the code "AVGYEAR2" (this was in a public Patreon post, so I should be fine sharing it here). Big fan of their stuff, and I'm very tempted to grab a whole bunch of their Giants on this sale as I've just started a new DnD campaign that's going to need a whole bunch of them at some point down the line, might as well get them at $3 a pop rather than $10!
I can't even find a tab that would tell me which Tribes I'm subscribed to. It's not even visible in the list of all Tribes, they all have a "Join" button. Only once I click through to a specific Tribe do I see that I already have a pledge there.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2021/11/14 16:26:00
The old meta is dead and the new meta struggles to be born. Now is the time of munchkins.
Oh yes I picked up AVG's huge Sky Kraken and the Scarlet Queen dragon off AVG with that discount! It's very much public on their Patreon in celebration of 2 years being around.
Oh this is perfect. I got my 3D printer this weekend and I dont know a way to search for cool stl patrons. The titanforge above is rxactly my cup of tea. I already painted my stormcast in a death knight theme, and I dig these models.
So, new to patron as well, I can back them for a tenner and download all the files and thats it?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/11/14 20:17:02
Yes, you pay when you join, and then on the first of each month after that, and generally that gets you all the files released that month (ie. those pictured in the group renders, in Titanforge's case). Most Patreons will show off next month's release towards the end of the current month, so you have time to decide if you want to stay subscribed or not. Many of them sell previous releases via My Mini Factory, but usually for much, much more than you'd pay on Patreon for the month. For instance, most Titan Forge monthly bundles sell for $60-70, versus the $10 for a Patreon subscription.
After the month is over, they generally send you a link to redeem the files on My Mini Factory as well, so they're tied to your account and so you don't need to keep them downladed or stored anywhere if you're short on space.
As for searching for files in general, you'll find plenty of free stuff on Thingiverse, but for high-quality files you're most likely going to be getting them via Patreon or My Mini Factory. A good way to get a sense of what is out there is to browse the MMF catalogue by popularity, that brings some of the best designers to the top and a lot of them have the odd freebie sample mini on there to get a feel for their quality and style. If you want some quick recommendations though, my favourites for fantasy stuff are:
Titan Forge (excellent supports, good scale, very varied designs) Artisan Guild (nice Heroic Scale minis great for painting, lots of modularity, great hero sculpts that make excellent centrepieces) Archvillain Games (huge bundles per release, amazing level of detail and a really nice consistent aesthetic) Epic Miniatures (massive releases every month with usually two themed sets and a bonus 'throwback' set from a previous release, their bundles can easily be 200 minis a month!) Rocket Pig Games (a huge range, often heavily discounted on MMF, pretty much all support-free and print really easily)
Hope that helps.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/11/14 20:32:55
Very helpful indeed! I know about thingiverse and cults3d already for (mostly) free files. I checked the manufacturers you linked, there is some nice stuff. I think for now I will grab the death knight stuff from titanforge.
I find MMF to be a very irritating website, I must say.
Just a note - Rocket Pig were support free for FDM, but not always for SLA ( liquid resin printers). Furthermore some of their cuts are - honestly horrific on some bigger models. Instead of cutting along joins or seams they basically just cut the model into random chunks.
I think they are slowly changing too as they get more sla style models which might well mean they are leaving the "support free" world behind.
There's a set at the top for the whole Indian theme or you can scroll down to find more. They might not be Mon-Apoc scaled, but if you measure some of those models and then use measuring tools in slicing software you can get a rough idea how big things are when printed and then you can adjust scale if need be.
Note if you change the scale you will need to adjust supports. You've got about 10% up or down in scale where presupports should be fine; any more outside of that and you'll need to adjust the tips and supports.
Note that if you use a lys or chitu project support file the supports are separate and you can resize and then edit the tips directly; if its a presupported stl, where supports and model are all one entity, then you will have to get the unsupported stl and support it manually.
Clay Cyanide are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head, they're a bit pricey though and their supports are... variable, in my experience so you might need to do them manually instead. The designs are also a little over the top, half their stuff is more diorama than miniature. But here you go anyway!
Wiz Warrior wrote: maybe this is a horrible place to ask, and if so please forgive.
Regarding this, is there a thread on dakkadakka regarding these kind of things? Where one maybe could ask stuff like this or "does anyone has any nice stl files for medival style houses" for example? Just a general 3D print hive mind?
Wiz Warrior wrote: maybe this is a horrible place to ask, and if so please forgive.
Regarding this, is there a thread on dakkadakka regarding these kind of things? Where one maybe could ask stuff like this or "does anyone has any nice stl files for medival style houses" for example? Just a general 3D print hive mind?
There isn't, but asking in threads like this is great as whilst its themed around this month, sharing of fancy stls we find and seeing what's out there is all part of the same content. Or start a thread of your own asking in the 3D print section .
Whoah! I wasnt even expecting they even existed, let alone two on point suggestions in a row, in a matter of moments.
Yes, 3d print vets are definitely a good resource.
Thanks guys. You have just contributed to rescuing mankind and planet earth from the clutches of interstellar destruction by introducing these Devas to resist them.
There isn't, but asking in threads like this is great as whilst its themed around this month, sharing of fancy stls we find and seeing what's out there is all part of the same content. Or start a thread of your own asking in the 3D print section .
Indeed. The longer you're into 3d printing, the more you realise that maybe 30% of your time is spent prepping, printing and post-processing your minis, and the remaining 70% is scouring the internet for Cool Stuff To Print (which in turn, you'll download all of and print maybe 1 in 10? At least digital Piles of Shame take up far less space than physical ones... )
Though a general 'find the file' thread over in the 3d Printing subforum is definitely not a bad idea, I'd certainly keep an eye on that and chip in where I can.
There isn't, but asking in threads like this is great as whilst its themed around this month, sharing of fancy stls we find and seeing what's out there is all part of the same content. Or start a thread of your own asking in the 3D print section .
Indeed. The longer you're into 3d printing, the more you realise that maybe 30% of your time is spent prepping, printing and post-processing your minis, and the remaining 70% is scouring the internet for Cool Stuff To Print (which in turn, you'll download all of and print maybe 1 in 10? At least digital Piles of Shame take up far less space than physical ones... )
Though a general 'find the file' thread over in the 3d Printing subforum is definitely not a bad idea, I'd certainly keep an eye on that and chip in where I can.
Agreed - heck I had to invest in a 4TB HDD this year to just dump my stls on. Even with backups being standard it just helps to have it all locally downloaded too. I'm not half full yet but its filling up pretty fast.
MMF's Black Friday sale is now live, featuring up to 50% off... well, pretty much everyone's stuff. Even spotted a couple that don't normally go discounted in there, like HeresyLab's fantasy and sci-fi stuff.
)
