Resources : 3D Printing terrain, miniatures and more for gaming
There have been a number of 3D printing terrain articles written over the years on this website. This is a good place to act as a catch all for those articles. This also is a place to link the Community Resources menu at the top of the page. There are resources on this site and off of it in there. You can find out more about them in this section.
Community Resources:
Kickstarters – I keep a list of the current month’s Kickstarters on this page. I update it as I find new Kickstarters that fit the gaming theme. I look for Kickstarters for terrain, miniatures, board game parts, painting, Terrain Building and other things that I think are gaming related. (Dice towers and Dice boxes also fit in here).
The Directory – This is a massive directory that I put all the modelers I have come across into. It has over 200 modelers listed, currently. If you are looking for someone, they are probably going to be in there. I also have my curated Thingiverse Categories listed in there. From there, you can find links to other resources like Applications to use (slicers, Digital Asset Management, modeling software, and more), Applications used to build custom miniatures (like heroforge, anvl, and more), plus tutorials for painting, 3d modeling, physical terrain and video channels to follow. Oh, I also have a list of different discussion boards to check out that feature 3D printing for gaming. (Mostly reddit and FB groups).
The Patreon Index – To say our community features a ton of Patreons, would be an understatement. Currently, there are well over 75 Patreons for 3D Printing gaming. Some, are to allow commercial printing, but most are for brand new STL files each month. I add new ones as people tell me about them. I also try to look for dead ones a few times a month.
The Mini Index – This is an EXTERNAL site. It’s pretty cool. It features an index of different kinds of miniatures and where to find them. You put in the name you want to filter for and then you can try to find that kind of miniature. You can also search by genre and use. This is all crowd sourced, so it is only as good as the people that add to it, make it. You can find out more about it here or join its subreddit here.
D&D/Pathfinder Resource Sheet for Finding STL Files – This is a simple EXTERNAL spreadsheet. Creatures are listed on the left (Column A), and then there are links to the models in the other columns. They are also color coded whether the miniatures are paid or free. This is another one that is crowd sourced, and gets better as more people add to it. You can find out more about it here.
3D Printing Gaming Terrain and Miniatures Resources:
I’ve written a few Terrain Guides over the years. These feature Terrain, miniatures, and even hobby guides for different games. The current games I have written guides for are Star Wars Legion, Necromunda (some is good for Kill Team), and Gaslands.
If you want a hodgepodge of Terrain information (and I also include miniatures in that), check out my Terrain Category. It features interviews, one off articles like my articles on the disruption on 3D Printing on the miniatures market (Article 1, Article 2), information on cool printable games, like World War Tesla, and much more. Like I said, hodgepodge of information.
I’ve done a number of 3D Printing informational guides. Some, are good for new users, like types of 3D Printing, or the quick guide to the best 3D Printer. There are also the toolboxes that cover nice to have tools for 3D Printing. You don’t have to start out with them all bout they are nice to gather over time. I have an FDM version and a Resin Printer version. Others, are more advanced. They feature information on multifilament upgrades, running your 3D Printing remotely, and STL viewers/Digital Asset Management.
Finally, there are reviews and previews/livebuilds. I tend to have a few printers I am working on reviewing. I try to do the unboxing the day I recieve the printer, or the next day at the latest. It’s a video showing me pulling it out of the box, and getting it ready for printing, or even starting the first print. I then do a quick preview write-up about the printer and embed the video in it. As I review the printer, I will add observations and pictures to the article. So you can see my experience on the printer before I get the actual formal review done.