Ten years ago, one enquiring soul asked the public at Quora "will 3D printing undermine Games Workshop's figurine business?" It's a question that people are still asking today, in game stores, social media posts, and as the rhetorical titles of YouTube videos. A hobbyist with a 3D printer and a bottle of resin can make any miniatures they like, for a fraction of the cost of an official kit - how could this tech not be a threat to the established businesses? But in the decade since that Quora post, Games Workshop has gone from strength to strength, and the miniature wargaming industry as a whole is larger than ever. Even so, 3D printing has been a powerful and disruptive force - just not in the ways that people think.
First, let's address why 3D printers still aren't the main way that people get their miniatures. When everything's working well, they really are magic, turning goo and electricity into highly detailed finished miniatures. But when they're not working well… well, I have a whole article about that.
You can 3D print at home - if you're reading this article, you're more likely than usual to be someone who does. But most people won't, just as most people didn't develop their own photographs at home in the era before digital cameras. 3D printing is the domain of dedicated hobbyists, print farms, and miniature manufacturers themselves, because it is still usually cheaper and easier to just buy miniatures from a retailer.
Even so, the continued rise of 3D printing has reshaped the miniature manufacturing industry, and will continue to do so. Here's how.
Digital sculpting
Digital sculpting has been revolutionary for miniature design, but without 3D printing it isn't a complete technology - 3D printers bridge the gap from virtual to real. In 2024 I visited Mantic Games and saw master mold maker Ricky Dove painstakingly preparing a 3D printed master model to create molds for cold pour resin casting.
Last year, Archon Studios' CEO Jarek Ewertowski gave me a video tour of his studio, showing off both the finished plastic models for the upcoming Starcraft miniature wargame, and 3D printed prototypes of as-yet unfinished models. The molds for poylsytrene models are created using CNC milling machines and don't require a physical master model - but the process is so hideously expensive that you would have to be very brave or very drunk to press the 'start' button without 3D printing a proof copy first.
Digital sculpting allows miniature manufacturers to make more miniatures more rapidly. There's no need to wait for putty to cure, no problem with it curing too fast, and no need to build up around an armature. Sizing is precise, while components and model poses can be saved and reused - perfect for building a consistent model line. Multiple artists can collaborate on a range or even on a single model. And best of all, there's an "undo" button.
Some people lampoon Games Workshop's promo photographs when there are 3D printing layer lines visible on the minis. But it's a sign of speed - those promo photos were taken before the molds were even cut.
Capital savings
Casting a model conventionally has a high up-front cost. For plastic models, we're talking tens of thousands of dollars to make a mold for a single sprue. Games Workshop's healthy profit margins come from the low price of polystyrene, but it invests literal millions of dollars making new molds every year.
Resin and metal molds are cheaper to make, but need to be replaced as they wear out, and the cost of materials is far higher. There's still a substantial upfront cost for every production run, and the profit margin is way lower.
Altogether this makes launching a conventionally sculpted wargame incredibly expensive - check out our interview with Daniel Block about the incredible cost of getting the plastic miniatures for his wargame Zeo Genesis ready for the mass market. It's a key barrier to new games and firms.
But if users can 3D print at home, or get a print farm to make their minis, sculptors and game designers can make and sell models without putting any capital investment at all. You only have to look at the proliferation of sculptors on MyMiniFactory to see how broad the gaming landscape has become.
Indie wargames like Full Spectrum Dominance, The Block War, Of Oil and Iron, The Promised Land, and of course One Page Rules don't have a presence on store shelves, but they have communities for their games.
The low low capital outlay of "nothing" also allows larger publishers to release niche products that wouldn't be profitable as retail releases. Modiphius sells STLs for some incredible Fallout terrain, from a Vault-Tec Vault to a functioning Vertibird, while both Mantic Games and Steamforged Games sell conversion parts for their main wargames - products catering to the most hardcore fans.
The digital stockroom and print on demand
Like all consumer goods and gamer products, new miniatures sell better than old miniatures. But unlike every other collectible game, miniature wargamers expect models to be supported by the rules, and on sale, for years, if not forever. It's understandable, given the amount of time and effort we put into building and painting our models, but it's a nightmare for businesses who must choose between deprecating models and pissing off their most dedicated fans, or keeping unprofitable models in stock and pissing off their warehousing team and retail stockists.
3D printing slices through this dilemma by making a company's backlist totally virtual. Steamforged Games is exploring this with its flagship game Warmachine, which it produces exclusively via 3D printed resin. It offers a core line of the most recent releases to retail stockists, but the entire back catalogue is available on a POD basis both to retailers and direct to customers.
New markets
A decade ago, only Games Workshop had a truly global reach. Now, an indie game can be developed anywhere with an internet connection, and played anywhere that has a 3D printer. Full Spectrum Dominance is made by just two people, but boasts communities in Europe, America, and even China.
There are benefits for larger businesses too. Steamforged Games can produce its miniatures wherever it can find a print partner that meets its quality standards - so far it's focused on centers in the USA and Europe. Not only does this cut down on travel time, shipping costs, and carbon emissions, it also gets around import tariffs in America.
A broader hobby with a lower barrier to entry
For a long time, the assumption has been that 3D printers lower the barrier to entry for new wargamers by making the hobby cheaper. I think printers have had far more impact lowering the barrier to entry for new businesses and solo game developers. Not every wargamer needs a 3D printer - but we all have access to a far more diverse range of miniatures and games because 3D printing has developed as far as it has.
If there's anything that I missed - any great 3D printed games I should know about, or fascinating examples of wargames companies using 3D printing in novel ways - let me know in the Wargamer Discord community. For a weekly roundup of Wargamer's best articles, make sure you sign up to our regular newsletter!