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Lion's Tower Miniature Academy

52 members β€’ Free

2 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 Β£30k.
Multi Part Miniatures - My personal experience
1 like β€’ Oct 3
I've previously played around with various iterations of multipart minis. Multi-part works so well for traditional mins, because all the small pieces are attached to a single sprue right up until you clip them off and glue them together. But the issue is, with 3D printing, all those small parts are usually on individual supports, and there are various stages where they can get lost - during the print, during washing, during drying, during curing etc. Additionally, rather than the instant and almost magical satisfaction of just pulling a mono-posed miniature off the supports, you have to pull a dozen pieces off, which then have to be assembled, so it's a time and frustration thing. Personally, the balance I like for multi-part 3D miniatures is modular heads with a ball and socket joint, so you can customise the visual look and personality of each miniature - a different head, or even just having a head look the other way can tell a completely different story to the miniature. I also usually separate shields if the character has one, again for easy personalisation, and so both supports and a paintbrush can get to the areas that would be obstructed by a shield. Sometimes, you might want a weapon swap - but something with the arm or at least the hand included is best, and sometimes it might just be a practical reason - have the forearm with the spear as a separate part for ease of packing and shipping, or so prints don't take as long. There's by no means a hard and fast rule though - there's definitely different balances to be had. Different situations will call for different approaches, and there's a balance between restricting your sculpt, and restricting the customisation and conversion potential of a miniature.
Come and introduce yourself
Hi, thanks for coming! I just started up this Skool community in September 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's almost complete as of the end of October. 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?! πŸ˜‰
2 likes β€’ Sep 8
Hello! I'm Sam, the pandemic pretty much clsoed down my old business, but it did also turn my 3d printing hobby into a full time job! I started of sculpting bits for conversions - shields, weapons, etc, and in the past year have started diving as much as I can back into the creative side of sculpting, especially with the background knowledge now of what pritns well and what doens't. I'd have to choose LotR too- it's the godfather of modern fantasy. Perhaps controversial, but I do think the Original SW Trilogy is a little overrated, but the prequels are underrated.
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Sam Palmer
1
2points to level up
@sam-palmer-9368
hi

Active 80d ago
Joined Aug 28, 2025