> Firstly I would say that 100% of historical gaming is figure agnostic. It can’t be anything else really.

Agreed. Same with generic fantasy and Cthulhu, although, of course, derivative works can be IP’ed (eg. D&D and Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu).

>  As for 3D printers unless there comes a time where I can get a design , choose the scale  I want , key in the number of them I want without having to add supports myself and having to mess about with printer settings and the printer can run without any real interference from the user then I’m not really interested

A lecturer on technology said technology has three phases, though obviously can be in more than one.

* Enthusiast : Enthusiasts are willing to put up with the jiggery-pokery and expense of the technology. Often, interest is in the technology itself, as much as the end product.

* Business : Companies seeking a competitive edge bring in money to the technology. Businesses are interested in the competitive advantage, not the technology itself, typically resulting in ease of use. Technology is still expensive, cost effective only for businesses.

* Consumer : Consumers are also only interested in the convenience of the technology, and are not willing to pay high costs or a high learning curve for it. This phase is often confused with the Enthusiast phase, because, in both, the end users are individual people.

3D printers are in the Enthusiast and Business phases. Enthusiasts are willing to adjust this, wait for that, assemble the unit themselves, put up with the fumes, that sort of thing. You may find a 3D printer in your dentist’s office, and even your car or appliance shop. (3D printing technology is already making contributions in medical use.) But it’s still going to be awhile before you can plug in a USB cable, get past installation, and pretty much only need to replace the cartridges.

Right now, 3d printer is already promising with RPG miniatures that they can create custom miniatures that are not cost-effective for mass-production. While wargames, by their very nature, often have multiple similar units (after all, that’s where the word uniform comes from), roleplayers thrive on the individuality of “their character”. HeroForge’s KS raised something like $40 per miniature for such custom miniatures. So companies, like GW, which tell you what miniatures to use, and tell you that you need a lot of them for your army, are better positioned against 3D printing, than, say, a generic RPG miniature company. (I’d add that, as shipping costs, VAT, sales taxes, customs fees, etc. increasing, that would put further incentive for printing-at-home.)

OTOH, There may be limits to what products we’ll see at the Consumer level, much like how we don’t have inkjet printers that make hardback books. We’ll certainly have them make anything you can make in plastic, but 3D printers using metal might be too expensive for their utility for personal use, and 3D printers for food (eg. edible decor) might be too specialized to be beyond business use.

3d printers in medicine : https://formlabs.com/blog/3d-printing-in-medicine-healthcare/