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3 contributions to Lion's Tower Miniature Academy
Multi Part Miniatures - My personal experience
When I first started my miniature range, I made a set of 4 multi part heroes - a wizard, barbarian, fighter and rogue. Each of them had 3 heads, 3 left arms and 3 right arms. When I came to get them produced, the manufacturing costs were prohibitive because it was based on individual components and mould cavities so I had to pare it back. I changed to making dynamic posed hero miniatures without the options, that were cast in resin. But these frequently required parts to be removed and keyed to facilitate the moulding process. When I later started selling the STL files, I sold the files cut up like I was using for my resin masters, 3D printing customers were baffled by this and couldn't get their heads around multi part models to the point where many didn't even know what glue to use to fix the bits together. So I went back to doing single piece miniatures and they went down quite well. Later on I found those 4 original minis and decided to release them. They instantly became best sellers and I never once got a complaint about them. So Multi Part models tend to go down better with customers if they have options. Now some time later I started releasing Level Up Heroes - one body for a Noob, another for a Veteran of the same class, and then finally the Epic version - see the pics for some examples). Each one had a ball socket for the head and at the wrists. I had a whole library of heads and weapon options that were all interchangeable. Each month, I made a male and female of each class along with a bunch of new accessories. These sold well, but were a drain on me trying to design this progressive upgrade and make them all cross compatible. So each month, my output was just these 6 bodies and the various new heads and weapons etc that I was making. (On a tangent, I will probably be returning to these soon to expand the range). In the same 1 month window, I also made the entire contents of the first image by making myself a modular collection of different leg poses, torso poses, heads, weapons etc, and essentially kitbashing the whole lot. I subsequently spent a few months expanding this group into a full army and released it all as a Kickstarter project that made me over £30k.
Multi Part Miniatures - My personal experience
2 likes • 7d
I absolutely love multi part miniatures especially where I write mini agnostic games. I have subbed to many patreons over the years, but the ones that always stuck were the ones that were doing modular minis every month like Anvil Industries or Vae Victis. Picking out the parts I like from each of their sets, assembling them how I like and having a character no one else in the world has is such a cool feeling and it brings me right back to 15 year old me in the late 90s, early 2000s assembling the old GW empire and orc boxed sets. Part of my draw to sculpting, and the reason I signed up for this course is so I can continue that journey. I've got characters in my library of minis that ALMOST match what I have in my head and in the stories I write, but without commissioning those specific parts I'm left waiting until a company puts out something I think matches perfectly, or I could use the opportunity to use the skills I learn to build them myself. I'm not sure if I am going to look at producing my own modular minis after your course, but I most certainly want to start building my own digital bits box so I can put together forces easier!
Miniature Scale - Size Doesn't Matter!
How often do you see companies offering the same miniature in 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 75mm and 150mm scales? Its become a lot more common since the advent of 3D printing, and in fact before consumer 3D printing this phenomenon was actually unheard of! The fact is that you cannot produce the same model in multiple scales by simply changing the size that it prints at, because scale is sculpted into the model. So what do I mean when I say "Scale"? With table top miniatures we're typically dealing in a set range of relative scales - this is not to be confused with modelling scales that are more precise and use a scale ratio such as 1:72 or 1:56. In wargaming miniatures, we typically deal in 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm, 28mm, Heroic 28mm, 32mm, 54mm and 75mm. This is measured with the model in a T pose from the bottom of the foot to the eyeline of a standard human character. That's not to say that you can't have characters smaller or larger than that, but the level of detail on them should be relative and look consistent across a range. The image below shows our Captain Zed's Mercenary Company set - the characters are all individualised and have their own personalities and a variety of different body types and height differences, yet the scale is clearly uniform and they obviously belong in the same set. 54mm scale and up tend to be reserved for display pieces, whilst historical gaming is usually between 15mm-28mm. Games-Workshop pioneered the Heroic 28mm scale with miniatures that were 28mm scale in size but have comic book style exaggerations in the limb, head, hand and head sizes - rescale a heroic 28mm scale miniature to actual human size and it looks insane, but it reads great on the table and paints well so it became popular. In recent years we've seen a bit of a popularity shift more towards 32mm scale as a gaming standard because you can still get good detail but without having to comically exaggerate the features of the model. They also provide a nicer painting experience whilst not looking entirely out of place with 28mm miniatures. Everything we produce is by default sculpted at 32mm scale, with just a few exceptions with some of our display pieces. We can rescale them to 28mm for you by request without any significant losses as its not a huge leap, but trying to reduce them far beyond that is a big ask.
Miniature Scale - Size Doesn't Matter!
1 like • 15d
Thanks for the write up Dan! Lots of great info in here
Starting from scratch! Come and introduce yourself
Hi, thanks for coming! I'm just starting up my Skool community so I'm going to be inviting people in and trying to build this community up. If you've arrive here and are wondering why there's not much going on, this is why. I'm working on my first proper zbrush sculpting course right now (check it out here https://dankelly1.gumroad.com/l/uxser) and it will launch on the 15th September 2025 and I'd love for this community to be a hub for like minded people who want to learn about the full ecosystem of miniatures. Whether you're doing this for relaxation and mindfulness or you want to turn miniature sculpting into a career and free yourself from the shackles of your 9-5 job, I'll be here to help you every step of the way! Please post an introduction and let us know who you are, what you do for a living, what level your miniature experience is at, and what skills you're looking to develop. Oh, and where you are in the world - it would be great to organise some in-person meetups if we start getting groups of people with common geography! Everyone is in the same boat so don't be shy! Oh, and if you had to pick one and banish one - Lord of the Rings or Starwars?! 😉
2 likes • Sep 1
@Dan Kelly thanks Dan! She is a pretty great mom! You can find my games at https://anthemsofwar.com and https://talesofthesolarwinds.com
2 likes • 29d
@Cez Rogers sentient.robot on Instagram, and sentient-canadian.bsky.social on bluesky! I'm on discord mostly, but I occasionally post when I'll be at local craft shows on my social media
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Ryan Dunfee
2
11points to level up
@ryan-dunfee-9112
Tabletop gamer and author of the fantasy tabletop game Anthems of War and upcoming sci-fi skirmish game Tales of the Solar Winds.

Active 3d ago
Joined Aug 26, 2025