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So looking at my 3rd edition epic, or some of my warmaster, they had a lot of variety of sculpts. Ok warmaster cheated as you could alter the front rank and it looked like a different unit. The Epic models were glorious though. Take the Leman Russ. 5 or 6 side pieces, 4-5 different hulls, 5 different turrets, 3 different dozer blades and 3 (4?) different hatches.

One thing that has surprised me with the 3D sculpts is they all tend to be identical. My mates new 'Russ company is lovely, but has none of the stowage and variety of mine.

Now individuals working on their own armies have done some surp[rising things. One chap on his own design time made an Epic marine army where every infantryman is in a different pose (and printed it using laser sintering at work but that is a different story).

As things bed down will we start to see mix and match models or variety, or is the monopose effort here to stay?

Part of the problem with 3D prints is speed. Many are tied into the Patreon system and customers want high variety high volume every single month.


So instead of spending a week or two on just the leman russ and designing several different variations and optional parts and the like; it has to be pushed out fast along with everything else in that month and then next month they want all new models etc....


It is one of the downsides of the sale model in that it pushes for volume, speed and low prices.

Of course small scale games are a niche so there's more room to fit things in and get some more variety. Also if enough customers ask/demand/request it then that might also help things out.

But then, if there is enough demand for stowage it can be created, whether thats generic stowage/attachments or very specific stowage for popular tank types or aesthetics. Its currently really easy to combine existing bits in 3D Builder (for example).

For infantry, I notice that the "hero builder" type platforms already permit changing the pose of the models as they all have some kind of skeleton. I assume that it will be this kind of dynamic model that will be supplied in the future from more vendors, and easy to use software like 3D Builder will support it.

So I think it might just be a transition period in 3D printing where monopose/monobuild is the rule due to limitations in software.

Nothing a bit of kitbashing can’t fix, be it adding those details in the 3d software or physically adding them to the printed models…

Yep, and there's a ton of stowage STLs out there for a variety of different (mostly Imperial) factions out there.

The_Real_Chris wrote:
So looking at my 3rd edition epic, or some of my warmaster, they had a lot of variety of sculpts. Ok warmaster cheated as you could alter the front rank and it looked like a different unit. The Epic models were glorious though. Take the Leman Russ. 5 or 6 side pieces, 4-5 different hulls, 5 different turrets, 3 different dozer blades and 3 (4?) different hatches.

One thing that has surprised me with the 3D sculpts is they all tend to be identical. My mates new 'Russ company is lovely, but has none of the stowage and variety of mine.

Now individuals working on their own armies have done some surp[rising things. One chap on his own design time made an Epic marine army where every infantryman is in a different pose (and printed it using laser sintering at work but that is a different story).

As things bed down will we start to see mix and match models or variety, or is the monopose effort here to stay?

Pro tip there is lots of good stowage content from the WW2 modeling community. You could probably make use of that for IG stuff!