Hero Forge Tease New Full-Colour Custom Miniature Printing!
January 9, 2020 by brennon
Hero Forge has been teasing a new endeavour which is coming to Kickstarter soon, Hero Forge 2.0. Beyond the 2.0 the really fascinating bit is that they are saying they are going to be able to print full-colour custom miniatures for you!
As with anything which uses new technology, this news should be taken with a pinch of salt and much "the proof is in the pudding" talk. But, Hero Forge have been doing some absolutely sterling work with not only their creator but also the final product they offer to those who end up buying miniatures from them.
I've tinkered around with their designer/creator a few times and it is very robust and offers up a lot of different options plus those who have shown off the final product do end up (on the whole) being very pleased with what they get delivered to them.
So, with the system behind their belt and the basics of 3D printing ironed out, this next leap is going to be very interesting indeed. As you'll probably know, we've been talking about 3D printing a lot and are fascinated to see how they are going to be able to deliver on this claim.
What do you think?
"...we've been talking about 3D printing a lot and are fascinated to see how they are going to be able to deliver on this claim"
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This will be interesting but I can’t see it being cheap.
Very true. I suppose if you’re going to be doing this for your favourite RPG character and that’s it though, it might be worth the cost.
Agree totally and at this stage this is probably going to be their initial market. Do you know if the mini they show is an actual mini (as opposed to a coloured render) as if it is they are doing phenomenal work with shade and mixing colour.
Not sure – I would assume it is a render but I’m happy to be proved wrong haha.
That’s pretty much it. A dedicated RPG’er will only have one or a handful of characters, so a few miniatures will be all he needs for years of gaming. While there are tons of generic fantasy miniatures, they will never, or, at most rarely, match the race, half-race, clothing, armor, weapons, hairstyle, etc. of the player’s character. On top of this, video gamers already know that, for years, we’ve had computer character design customization that can do far more than miniature companies can offer with miniatures. I guess my question is how much RPG’ers are willing to pay for custom… Read more »
The colored sculpts do look good, but they’re a little too soft and glossy for my liking. I’d rather stick with one of their grey-plastic minis and paint it myself. Though if these are intended for the RPGer market, I think that making pre-colored minis like this is a good idea as it allows the players to get right into the game without having to spend additional time painting up their character minis.
This is the type of printer that will probably be used
https://www.stratasys.com/3d-printers/j750-digital-anatomy
More info
https://www.3dnatives.com/en/stratasys-digital-anatomy-3d-printer-081020195/
HP has a similar machine
https://www8.hp.com/us/en/printers/3d-printers/products/multi-jet-fusion-500-300.html
No idea on cost or what they will be using but I suspect the technology will be polyjet. I do not know of another technology in 3D printing that can produce color.
They could also be using something like the Mimaki 3DUJ-553. It’ll be interesting to see the results, though I’d be surprised if they’re going to look as good as the render implies if these are around 28mm.
Ooh will be great if they do this.
I doubt the actual results will be as impressive as that, but it’s still interesting option, and nice to see the technology being pushed in 3d printing.
This is a closed kickstarter that was making 3d printed full color human anatomy models using the Mimaki full color 3d printer.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mixed-dimensions/anatomically-correct-human-models-3d-printed-in-full-color
This is a segment Adam Savage did on them.
https://youtu.be/117TSpgk_v0
Just seen the ks page… it’s very expensive… $39 for one mini.