TJM

I completely understand! What you can do is to try it out on heroforge.com and if you make something you like, you can purchase that stl file and have a local 3D printing service print it dor you. As long as you own the file, you can have others do the printing for you.

I use QCAD, it is very cheap for a lifetime license, I find it very easy and intuitive to use with no prior CAD experience and there is a free trial you can just download to evaluate if this is for you. The downside is that it is strictly 2D, so all the spacial considerations will have to happen in your head! It's like doing it on paper, but with digital precision and layers. It is very easy to import an image, scale it, and then start to draw your design on top of that reference. I have designed several PoB hulls from original construction drawings like this over past year. Have a look here: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37190-historical-plans-via-cad-to-laser-cut-parts-practicum/ You can also use Onshape, which is online and completely free AND full 3D. But the learning curve is steeper and I have not progressed very far on mine yet!

Hi Manning, It is not permitted to re-sell files or figures made from files obtained through Heroforge. This thread is to showcase the viability of making your own figures with Heroforge (which is very easy through their user interface, it runs in the browser). You are all welcome to post your tests from Heroforge in this thread - playing with the app is completely free, so you can just give it a go 🙂. BR TJM

Thanks, @Thukydides! I totally agree, I need a little more, especially on the reds. I will try it out 😃

I have tried again with my new brushes and a few new paints and a wet pallette to keep the paints thin and flowing. These are the steps I took: 1. Base coat yellow areas with a light brown: 2. main colour layer with yellow ochre. 3. Bace colour on the red areas: 4: wash all areas with brown wash. 5: go over with main yellow colour again. 6. Dark red wash on red areas 7. Highlights with a yellow/beige mix and a light red 8. final highlights with beige: I am ok with this result and from normal viewing distance it looks totally fine. A little unhappy about the monogram details though. I am considering re-printing this but with the z-axis scaled to 150% or so. It should make it much easier to paint when the relief is not as shallow and it may still be ok in terms of overall thickness. It is very thin as it is. But I would probably be ok with this one if it is the best I can get 🙂. BR TJM

I have printed some of the figures in twice the size, that is 1:32. They hold up quite well, even at this scale! Here you see the whole crew along with a 24 pdr cannon: A few close-ups: While the 1:64 are tiny, these in 1:32 are really huge! Twice the linear size, 8 time the volume. The math is clear, but the reality when comparing one to the other is still striking. Here they are with their 1:64 counterparts: BR TJM

These are amazing! Absolutely fantastic design.

I am doing it myself! It's just that I am not allowed to sell the figures made from Heroforge files that I have bought to anyone else, according to their terms. But there are many people who offer 3D printing services, so it may be viable to create your own Heroforge files and have them printed by someone. I am sorry, I don't know any US sellers of scale figures - I only know that Vanguard Models in the UK sells very nice resin figures.

Thank you @manning16, @capnharv2, @CDR_Ret and @Chuck for your comments and to all of you for the likes. Much appreciated! @manning16, apart from unfortunately not having the time for such a venture, selling Heroforge prints are forbidden in their terms - it would undermine their business, I guess. You can print the minis for others, but they need to own the stl from Heroforge - that also means that you can use print services to have your own Heroforge files printed, but you have to ensure that they don't get sold to anyone else. But if you have access to a resin 3D printer, a one year subscription for Heroforge costs 168$. That sounds steep, but with 60 credits for stl downloads included, it is a, to me at least, very reasonable 2.80$ per model - and you can of course print as many of them as you could wish for. I think that is good value!

Alright, that went much better than I had hoped! Except for two figures with insufficient supports in one spot, they all printed perfectly! Even with all the ridiculously thin elements like the saber hand guards etc. This technology is some real Sci-Fi. Remember, these are at 1:64 scale, so around 26 mm for man-height. Here's a bunch of pictures: And then I made a copy paste error in the slicer and got two figures in the same spot.. 🤣 But I am very happy with these results. With a few tweeks of the few misprints, they should all be good to go. BR TJM

Really great explanation and it looks very good. I love your choice of blue colour!

Hi All, I have splunged on a one year Heroforge membership which, apart from their full customization functionality ('kitbashing'), comes with 60 credits for STL downloads. I have plans to use it for designing parts of ship ornaments like figureheads (see my Christiania build), but also for crew figures. With the full customization options unlocked, it is possible to control hand and feet size (along with all other body proportions) - I mention this as I have seen several comments on the cartoonish looks of Heroforge minis. This is definately true for the stardard proportions, but it is possible to get quite nice proportions with a bit of tweaking. Another note - it is difficult to get anything close to historically accurate in terms of clothing (except for very simple clothes). The site is meant for creating Fantasy and Sci-Fi miniatures for tabletop games like D&D. So the designs will not hold up to historical scrutiny or large scale models. But for my use, which is scale figures at 1:64, very little detail will be actually visible when printed, despite the very high resolution of modern resin 3D printers. And my paint job is likely to cover anything that is left to be scrutinized anyways... But this should enable me to create more crew figures for ships at a reasonably low cost. Here are a few images from the slicing software: I have prepared a supported set and filled my little build plate: Now I have to try to print them, hopefully I will get a chance to try tomorrow. They are only about 26 mm tall (plus/minus, depending on hats and posture) and I have no idea if I have supported them sufficiently. Lets see how it goes! BR TJM

Thank you! I remember all of these techniques when you mention them, but I am so rusty! So thanks for the great description here. I am at least encouraged to try again and really try my best, keeping these points in mind - I think the postman has delivered my new brushes today, so....

Thanks Ronald 🙂

Thank you for that, I really appreciate it. And yes I know we are all our own worst critics, but I just know I could do better once 😄.