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Hi.
I just found out about Hero Forge, a website where you can design your own miniatures with an incredible amount of choice.
https://www.heroforge.com/
Before actually buying a miniature, though, I'm quite curious if other people here have tried the various materials, and which ones are good and bad?
Thanks!

I knew a guy that got one. It was pretty nice looking. I don't remember the material, but it was so good that his dog ate the mini.

They sent me a code in May for $5, so I gave it a try. Went with the basic Plastic ($19.99 for an infantry figure. A mounted figure was $39.99, and too expensive for an initial trial.) The basic plastic is hard, not flexible and so can be painted without difficulty. The detail level is not bad, although I deliberately kept it simple. If I choose to use their service again, I now realize that the design viewer exaggerates facial expressions, and so one should allow for that. My Egyptian Necromancer (intended for a KoW Empire of Dust army) was given a contemptuous sneer. In the viewer, it looked too cartoonish, so I dialed it back. When the figure arrived, the sneer was barely visible, more like a downward twitch of the lip. So it seems one needs some exaggeration to allow for the size of the mini.

The advantage is you can customize your figure, so for an unique RPG or tabletop personality figure it is fine, but there are cheaper and more detailed commercial figures available on the market.

I will say I've enjoyed designing potential figures on their website, even if I'm not likely to purchase them.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
Hi.
I just found out about Hero Forge, a website where you can design your own miniatures with an incredible amount of choice.
https://www.heroforge.com/
Before actually buying a miniature, though, I'm quite curious if other people here have tried the various materials, and which ones are good and bad?
Thanks!

I've only seen a handful of pictures online of people with them produced, and they didn't wow me. Particularly not with the amazing amount of versatile plastic kits coming out. Didn't much see the point. Buy two or three boxes of Frostgrave minis and you can make almost anything fantasy related, etc.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
Hi.
I just found out about Hero Forge, a website where you can design your own miniatures with an incredible amount of choice.
https://www.heroforge.com/
Before actually buying a miniature, though, I'm quite curious if other people here have tried the various materials, and which ones are good and bad?
Thanks!

When I needed to particularly customize some minis, the ability to design them as I wanted and get them produced in good detail was great. If that's what you're looking to do, I'd highly recommend them.

I was wondering about how they plastic compare to their premium plastic.
Their premium plastic is more expensive and more fragile, but also with better details, wondering if it's worth it on a vanity model.

I painted a HF mini for a player in my D&D group a while back, it certainly exceeded my expectations but those were very low. The material is fairly hard and sturdy, and the details held up reasonably well (moreso on clothing/equipment than the faces), but on the whole it was nowhere near a decent plastic/metal/resin mini in quality (though much better than the likes of Reaper Bones or the WizKids D&D minis).

I'm not convinced they're worth the very high price/shipping if you can find a 'close enough' mini in a better material. but if it's something very specific you're after it will do the job.

Heroforge is having a Labor Day sale. From August 30th to September 2nd get $5.00 off a custom mini with the code: LABORDAY19

As I noted in my prior post, this will cover the cost of shipping within the US, making a figure in the cheapest plastic $19.99. Premium plastic is $29.99 for a 28mm infantry figure.

lol I finally ordered on the 28th of august!

Que sera, sera. (Whatever will be, will be.) Still someone may benefit.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
lol I finally ordered on the 28th of august!

A bit late, but I ended up ordering two models from them, as the likelihood of finding an existing model was unlikely. Attaching the unpainted version of one (a Kenku mage), and I’ll try to post the painted version tonight.

Fairly low quality for the price you pay overall. Lots of pieces arrive broken in the mail.

This is from 3 orders all with issues

Actually, i think they have improved significantly from a number of years back. i do not think they were in business long when a friend of my son ordered a D&D mini of his favorite character. He wanted me to paint it and I know it was nowhere near the top of their line, but it was frankly, horrid, and a miserable painting experience, since the surface had so many ripples and was very porous.

However, the pic above looks about like what you would get off of a fairly decent 3d printer nowadays, so if you can't find your character anywhere else, go for it!

You have a ton of options, but dont expect GW level of detail. This is a necronish type of model i created a few month ago with premium plastic.

Well, the figures are literally 3D printed, so if you have one of your own, you could get similar quality - heck, they have an option to buy the STLs to print the figure yourself.

HeroForge is best for uncommon characters (like my son’s Kenku) and if you don’t have 3D printer of your own (I don’t). I do like it for the customizable options to get the exact figure you want, and playing around with the maker is fun in of itself - I think my son has about twenty NPCs he’s done up in the maker, just to sur his imagination.

Ordered an STL from them for a character I needed four of. Turned out fairly nicely, although support cleanup is always annoying. Detail's a bit light and proportions are heavily towards the heroic side of things.

My order is supposed to ship on the 20th, I'll post picture here when it arrives!

Okay, we want to know what you think of the quality.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
My order is supposed to ship on the 20th, I'll post picture here when it arrives!

Still marked as “In production”, estimated ship date is still September 20, 2019.

I've painted a couple for my friends, and I'll call them okay. It's a great concept and I like the idea of it a lot. The minis themselves though...I'd give them a C+ grade. Some of the options don't mesh well with each other (long hair and backpacks are especially bad), and detail tends to be very shallow. You can paint them easily, but they tend to come out a bit flat and bland unless you spend a lot of time creating your own highlights.

Ok, I finally got my models!
So:
a) Good customer service, they did answer me when I contacted them about the extra delay, told me when it would be sent and gave me a 10$ free code! That was nice.
b) I think the premium plastic option is really worth it if you have big plane area where the build line would show otherwise. On my Priest of Calistria for Pathfinder, which only wears panties, you can see the build lines on his skin because it's a large flat surface, in way that you cannot tell on other parts of the mini that have more details. I think I should have switched which mini was plastic and which was premium plastic.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
It looks worse on the pictures than it does IRL. I'll post more as I paint the models!

Anyone tried the STL download? It seems if you have a printer you could design and roll out a customized army (of limited poses).



Like say, Arbites with their shotguns at guard.

Those pictures look mostly terrible - I'd have to see them painted. I've been continually disappointed with heroforge and I wouldnt order again. However the model creator is wonderful

 Stevefamine wrote:
I'd have to see them painted.

Ongoing process .

Please be indulgent with my painting .
Is he sexy? He is supposed to be!