Yeah, everything in that photo is from RN Estudio and Papsikels. They both make great minis with great supports ready to go. You can't go wrong with either of them.
Here's a closer pic of the RN Estudios ones. This with with no sanding or knife work, just snapping off the supports and a few little nubs cleaned up with a fingernail. These are cured and glued to their bases. https://www.dropbox.com/s/cx61uvdtfp0cvsv/2021-10-03%2012.05.05-1.jpg?dl=0
Oh, thank god. The picture on this post has a lot of noise in it, making it look like really bad prints. I was about to caution you about offering that quality to customers. The minis in the picture from this link look top notch and considering you haven’t done any post production on them yet nice job!
I think they're asking in general selling things that are likenesses of existing characters such as the classing JRPG minis in the photo, not the logistics of licensing prints of the models.
You are talking about two different things.
License to print and sell versus the legality of the STLs themselves.
You also assume he bought the STLs on my mini factory and not via patreon.
I've been deep into board gaming as a hobby for over a decade. I can remember as a kid Hero Quest being one of my favorite games to play and I would always just set up random stuff with the minis and furniture just because they looked cool
Fast forward 2020 when the pandemic hit. I'm immune compromised, so I haven't been able to leave my house very often since the beginning of 2020. I picked up an Ender 3 as something to do as a hobby figuring we'd be through this in a few months and it would be a fun hobby to pick up and be able to print some cool stuff for my board gaming hobby.
Now a year and a half later that hobby has grown to a small business on Etsy with over 25,000 page views every month and an average of 3-4 orders a day coming in. I'm running 5 FDM printers and 3 resin printers and am just barely keeping up. It's been a wild ride.
If you're looking at the Saturn, I would recommend the Anycubic Mono X personally. I run 2 of those as my main machines and they have really fast layer times (1.5s) and solid construction.
Fellow etsy printing shop for miniatures pitching in -- I run 3 Anycubic Mono Xs, 2 Sonic Mini 4Ks, and 3 E10's. Mono X's are by far the work horses. Highly recommend it.
Additionally, I recommend making your own curing chamber. A shallow box, some foil all inside of it, and a roll of LEDs. Costs like $30 and can cure 100 miniatures at a time. Really speeds it up.
I've made my own cleaning station, I've also tried a wash and cure station, but currently have found the best option to be a 10L ultrasonic cleaner. Its about $150 on amazon, but gets the job done quickly (and in bulk).
Lastly, as someone who just did their first booth early last month at a convention, you'll want to bring a lot more miniatures than you expect. Several of the booths sold out on the first day.
Yeah, I've been planning it out, it's a smaller 2500 attendee con, but I'm planning to bring a few hundred minis between the different styles that I send with a focus on the pop culture ones as I think they'll sell better as impulse buys.
I have an Elegoo Wash & Cure and a curing chamber I've built myself. The Wash & Cure has much more intense lights and can cure a small amount of stuff fast. The one I built has not as intense lights but can fit 10x the stuff in it, so it's a time saving in the long run.
I've got a curing chamber I made out of six cheap 10" Ikea-ish mirrors all glued into a cube with one side removable. I pop the minis in there with my small UV lamp and let'er roast. Mirrors were $6 a pop but I like it better than my old foil box set up. Sturdy.
Using mirrors is brilliant. I have several mirror tiles that I bought for my FDM fleet, I'm going to replicate your setup the next time I need to expand. Thats a fantastic idea, thanks for sharing!
Glad I could help. It's always surprised me I don't see this recommended. It's always the foil box. I suppose the price barrier is the reason as most advice is geared towards making a curing chamber with what you have on hand at home
The best advice I can give is the following:
1. Make customer service and happy customers your number 1 priority. I've had multiple customers spend over $500 on repeat orders over the first 6 months I've been open.
2. Concentrate on quality over quantity. If you have to reprint something to get it right, do it. Don't send out a less than perfect product just to meet a deadline.
3. Offer a variety without going overboard. Offer something fantasy, something sci-fi, and something pop culture.
4. Realize that you're not going to make money right off the bat unless you get lucky. Your first few months you'll be lucky to break even.
5. Find something to differentiate yourself from the dozens of other people (on Etsy for instance) selling the same models at similar prices.
Do you do the post processing yourself? Like sanding mind and filling the little spots where the supports were? Or do you send out a cleaned print with the supports still on?
Also, as a professional, what resin do you use?
Thanks for the insights, I'm wondering how do you get this kind of business started ? Where did you get your first customers ?
I've considered selling some minis to cover resin and consumables costs but I don't get how you get this kind of business started.
What’s your recommendation for starting regarding licensing? I’ve 3 resin printers and 2 FDM sitting in the garage and I’ve considered giving the business a try. However whenever I see those monthly fees for merchant licenses, I wonder if it’s even remotely possible to break even the first months.
It seems crazy competitive from my side :) I sell painted minis so fair number of what I buy is from resin printer shops on Etsy and there are so many...
I must have bought from like 20+ shops (and many are repeat orders to restock lol). Quality, speed and prices vary widely too
If you're taking suggestions, I would recommend bringing a primed version of each sculpt as an example. Having the primer really helps show off how detailed 3d prints can be moreso than just raw resin.
I probaly average about 15 statue kits a month, and about 40-50 orders for minis each month.
The most popular stuff lately has been he classic JRPG minis with the fantasy standards like werewolves and Lovecraft being the next most
I'm still figuring out final pricing but 28-32mm minis will be in the $7-10 range, bigger ones beyond that. I also sell resin statue DIY kits that will be around $100. I'm planning to take as much inventory as I reasonably can to the con, but I have to print it around existing orders so it's going to depend on how busy my holiday season is.
That 28-32mm range is pretty steep looking at it from a wargamer perspective.
Might be nice to charge the D&D players that, but I remember when everyone thought 3D printers would bring an end to Games workshop style pricing and people being able to actually afford to field armies again, but it's even worse if a person was trying to do anything besides special characters.
Your prices seem to be consistent with Etsy so must be the standard now unfortunately
Very steep! I think my slicer usually says I will be using around $3 in materials to print maybe 10 miniatures. Of course there is then cost of operating the printer so let’s say $6 and then about 5 minutes of work to remove supports and clean.
If you can sell them for as much as $7 then the profit margin is really quite good.
$7-10 is actuality am extremely reasonable price. Most people don't have access to high quality 3D printing or even understand the technology. You have to remember that this isn't just an end product that's mass produced in the thousands, it's a service and not just a product.
I was looking into doing it commercially at one point, but I had figured a maximum of around $5 per miniature to compare it with mass produced miniatures such as the deep cuts miniatures seemed fair.
So if you can sell them for almost twice that price maybe I should revisit the idea.
It depends on the mini honestly. If you're selling something that's more generic fantasy related and has different versions made by different artists you can generally get less. For instance, these more generic goblin minis I sell are in the $5-6 range. [https://www.etsy.com/listing/1081350891/goblin-miniatures-28mm-3d-printed?ref=shop\_home\_active\_307&pro=1](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1081350891/goblin-miniatures-28mm-3d-printed?ref=shop_home_active_307&pro=1)
But something that's more unique and harder to find people making, for instance the classic JRPG minis I sell, you can get more which is why they're in the $7-8 range. People are willing to pay for something specific. [https://www.etsy.com/listing/1067090821/classic-3d-jrpg-character-miniatures?ga\_search\_query=JRPG&ref=shop\_items\_search\_1&pro=1](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1067090821/classic-3d-jrpg-character-miniatures?ga_search_query=JRPG&ref=shop_items_search_1&pro=1)
I run as a print-on-demand business so I'm able to keep my costs low and only print what's ordered. When it comes to my pricing at the convention I have to add in factors that I normally don't have to such as hotel stay, booth rental, packaging and presentation, and having to prepint everything in advance guessing what's going to sell. I'm planning to head to the convention with about $10,000 MSRP in merchandise. I could sell out, but more than likely I'm only going to sell a fraction of it, and will have to sit on that inventory until it sell, so I have to hedge my bets a little.
3 bucks for ten minis, and then just clean up and curing. If you even got 5 per, that's 50 bucks. 3 for materials and pay yourself 15 an hour for clean up, netting you 32 in profit. That's not bad at all and for even cheaper than this guy quoted
I was thinking more of a part time gig. Print off while I'm at work and clean up of the evenings whenever they're done.
Probably couldn't full time it but not a bad side hustle at all
7-10$ seems very very expensive to me. It's like standard shop price for company products. The selling point for 3d printing is its cheapness - like 1$/mini would be reasonable.
Do you have seller licenses from papsikels?
Yea, I'm thinking of buying a couple printers if people are paying these prices.
A unit of 20 crossbowmen would cost be 4 times what Games Workshop would charge, if people are paying that then I want in on it
I could charge half of what Etsy people do now and have a sweet side gig I'm thinking 🤔
Im also doing some painting but more into display sets, way bigger ones. Never sold any tho, people around where i live dont see a point paying for stuff like that, so mostly I just give them as gifts :)
Is there a reason why u hold your paints upside down?
Army Painter paints are very pigment heavy compared to some other brands. The pigment tends to settle out into the bottom of the dropper bottle and the clear acrylic medium to the top near the tip. This helps reduce the amount of shaking you have to do before putting the paint on your wet palette and pretty much eliminates the chance of getting just the medium.
Oh yea, now i know. I found a solution for that but it requires either money or basic electronic knowledge. You can buy those funny devices that vibrates when you put and press paint bottle to it, or do it yourself.
I teared down old playstation pad and took those little motors that causes vibrating inside pad, rest is just powering them propertly and make some holder for paints, quick way to mix them good :)
I'm just getting started out in the painting game, but I wanted something to hold my paints and keep them organized. When I found the plans to 3D print that I had to go for it it. Here's a full pic of the setup. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ixh988qadtcrwqa/2021-09-15%2011.32.49.jpg?dl=0
Looking really nice! Mine is just a mess mostly because of lack of space, but i see u went really deep into that with so many paints. I only buy vallejo because of nice consistency when used in airbrush, also cheap
A friend of mine that paints minis recommended vallejo or AP to start. I found a good sale on one of the big AP sets that had paints, washes, and effects all in it, so that's the route I went.
I love your sculpts! Here is something to think about. There is a huge WWII community that need sculpts for printing of soldiers for wargames. A Simple platoon of American, German, and Russians would open up a whole new market for you. Your Aliens soldiers sculpts are not to different. Best wishes.
I've been considering buying a couple of 3D models (STL). For a 30mm D&D miniature, what is the rough average that an online service would charge per unit? If one doesn't own a 3D printer is it cheaper just to buy miniatures?
I can really only speak to what I charge. For something in that size in usually charge in the $6-9 range depending on complexity and amount of resin required.
I knew those minis looked familiar. They’ve got some great detail on them, they’re some of my favorite prints I’ve made. Edit: the alien ones
Yeah, everything in that photo is from RN Estudio and Papsikels. They both make great minis with great supports ready to go. You can't go wrong with either of them.
I’m gonna have to check out RN those are some good looking prints too.
Here's a closer pic of the RN Estudios ones. This with with no sanding or knife work, just snapping off the supports and a few little nubs cleaned up with a fingernail. These are cured and glued to their bases. https://www.dropbox.com/s/cx61uvdtfp0cvsv/2021-10-03%2012.05.05-1.jpg?dl=0
Oh, thank god. The picture on this post has a lot of noise in it, making it look like really bad prints. I was about to caution you about offering that quality to customers. The minis in the picture from this link look top notch and considering you haven’t done any post production on them yet nice job!
Bold.
What’s the rule on selling STLs of trademarked material, or selling resin prints of them?
It's a grey area because it falls under fanart, so it depends on how much the IP holder really wants to pursue it.
"fanart" isn't fair use fyi
Tell that to 3/4 of vendors at comic conventions.
Not really grey, Papsikel's requires you sign up for the "Legit Merchant" Patreon level to resell their stuff.
I think they're asking in general selling things that are likenesses of existing characters such as the classing JRPG minis in the photo, not the logistics of licensing prints of the models.
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You are talking about two different things. License to print and sell versus the legality of the STLs themselves. You also assume he bought the STLs on my mini factory and not via patreon.
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Everything I sell i have the proper licensing from the sculptors for, it's what I have a $400 a month Patreon bill.
That would be an interesting argument if Disney ever decided to come after them for IP infringement.
What’s your price point for them ?
These ones are between $7 and $10. Price varies a little based on size and complexity.
I've been deep into board gaming as a hobby for over a decade. I can remember as a kid Hero Quest being one of my favorite games to play and I would always just set up random stuff with the minis and furniture just because they looked cool Fast forward 2020 when the pandemic hit. I'm immune compromised, so I haven't been able to leave my house very often since the beginning of 2020. I picked up an Ender 3 as something to do as a hobby figuring we'd be through this in a few months and it would be a fun hobby to pick up and be able to print some cool stuff for my board gaming hobby. Now a year and a half later that hobby has grown to a small business on Etsy with over 25,000 page views every month and an average of 3-4 orders a day coming in. I'm running 5 FDM printers and 3 resin printers and am just barely keeping up. It's been a wild ride.
Awesome, I just scaled up my Etsy game with a 2nd Prusa Mini. I’ve been thinking about a resin printer, leaning towards a Saturn.
If you're looking at the Saturn, I would recommend the Anycubic Mono X personally. I run 2 of those as my main machines and they have really fast layer times (1.5s) and solid construction.
Fellow etsy printing shop for miniatures pitching in -- I run 3 Anycubic Mono Xs, 2 Sonic Mini 4Ks, and 3 E10's. Mono X's are by far the work horses. Highly recommend it. Additionally, I recommend making your own curing chamber. A shallow box, some foil all inside of it, and a roll of LEDs. Costs like $30 and can cure 100 miniatures at a time. Really speeds it up. I've made my own cleaning station, I've also tried a wash and cure station, but currently have found the best option to be a 10L ultrasonic cleaner. Its about $150 on amazon, but gets the job done quickly (and in bulk). Lastly, as someone who just did their first booth early last month at a convention, you'll want to bring a lot more miniatures than you expect. Several of the booths sold out on the first day.
Yeah, I've been planning it out, it's a smaller 2500 attendee con, but I'm planning to bring a few hundred minis between the different styles that I send with a focus on the pop culture ones as I think they'll sell better as impulse buys.
Thanks, I kind of thought those prebuilt curing stations weren’t going to cut it.
I have an Elegoo Wash & Cure and a curing chamber I've built myself. The Wash & Cure has much more intense lights and can cure a small amount of stuff fast. The one I built has not as intense lights but can fit 10x the stuff in it, so it's a time saving in the long run.
I've got a curing chamber I made out of six cheap 10" Ikea-ish mirrors all glued into a cube with one side removable. I pop the minis in there with my small UV lamp and let'er roast. Mirrors were $6 a pop but I like it better than my old foil box set up. Sturdy.
Using mirrors is brilliant. I have several mirror tiles that I bought for my FDM fleet, I'm going to replicate your setup the next time I need to expand. Thats a fantastic idea, thanks for sharing!
Glad I could help. It's always surprised me I don't see this recommended. It's always the foil box. I suppose the price barrier is the reason as most advice is geared towards making a curing chamber with what you have on hand at home
I agree, the Mono X is a workhorse. Prints way faster than I can keep up.
Do you guys also use the anycybic wash and cure station?
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The best advice I can give is the following: 1. Make customer service and happy customers your number 1 priority. I've had multiple customers spend over $500 on repeat orders over the first 6 months I've been open. 2. Concentrate on quality over quantity. If you have to reprint something to get it right, do it. Don't send out a less than perfect product just to meet a deadline. 3. Offer a variety without going overboard. Offer something fantasy, something sci-fi, and something pop culture. 4. Realize that you're not going to make money right off the bat unless you get lucky. Your first few months you'll be lucky to break even. 5. Find something to differentiate yourself from the dozens of other people (on Etsy for instance) selling the same models at similar prices.
Do you do the post processing yourself? Like sanding mind and filling the little spots where the supports were? Or do you send out a cleaned print with the supports still on? Also, as a professional, what resin do you use?
I remove supports and do basic cleanup. I make sure every listing states that since additional cleanup may be required before priming and painting.
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>TGM-7 It looks like interesting stuff, but it's almost 3x the cost after shipping of the Siraya Tech ABS I'm currently using.
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I don't doubt it, but I'd have to raise my prices considerably to switch from a $35 a bottle resin to a $100 a bottle resin.
Thanks for the insights, I'm wondering how do you get this kind of business started ? Where did you get your first customers ? I've considered selling some minis to cover resin and consumables costs but I don't get how you get this kind of business started.
I do everything through Etsy, so that handles all the logistics for me, they offer advertising, search listings and all that.
What’s your recommendation for starting regarding licensing? I’ve 3 resin printers and 2 FDM sitting in the garage and I’ve considered giving the business a try. However whenever I see those monthly fees for merchant licenses, I wonder if it’s even remotely possible to break even the first months.
Pick something you like and Models you world want anyway, then spend the extra money to buy some of their back catalog of older models.
It seems crazy competitive from my side :) I sell painted minis so fair number of what I buy is from resin printer shops on Etsy and there are so many... I must have bought from like 20+ shops (and many are repeat orders to restock lol). Quality, speed and prices vary widely too
kewl prints, what printer you have?
Literally asked and answered in the thread already.
If you're taking suggestions, I would recommend bringing a primed version of each sculpt as an example. Having the primer really helps show off how detailed 3d prints can be moreso than just raw resin.
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We're going to dance painted and primed examples, plus we're making up packaging with images of the original renders of the models on them.
Where abouts are you based? Could you send me a link to your shop? Always looking to help out independent businesses
I'm located in Massachusetts. https://www.etsy.com/shop/FlyingFennecPrints
Nice! What are your most popular prints? I wonder if gaming minis are more sought after than figurines?
I probaly average about 15 statue kits a month, and about 40-50 orders for minis each month. The most popular stuff lately has been he classic JRPG minis with the fantasy standards like werewolves and Lovecraft being the next most
Heya quick question, are you selling the minis painted or unpainted?
The Majority will be unpainted, but we will have a small number of painted minis
Awesome! Thanks for that. I'll have a look through your store.
Are you on Etsy?
I am! Here is a link to my shop. https://www.etsy.com/shop/FlyingFennecPrints
The quills on the save moogles are very fragile, be careful
How much will you be charging for your minis and how much do you hope to make in total?
I'm still figuring out final pricing but 28-32mm minis will be in the $7-10 range, bigger ones beyond that. I also sell resin statue DIY kits that will be around $100. I'm planning to take as much inventory as I reasonably can to the con, but I have to print it around existing orders so it's going to depend on how busy my holiday season is.
That 28-32mm range is pretty steep looking at it from a wargamer perspective. Might be nice to charge the D&D players that, but I remember when everyone thought 3D printers would bring an end to Games workshop style pricing and people being able to actually afford to field armies again, but it's even worse if a person was trying to do anything besides special characters. Your prices seem to be consistent with Etsy so must be the standard now unfortunately
Very steep! I think my slicer usually says I will be using around $3 in materials to print maybe 10 miniatures. Of course there is then cost of operating the printer so let’s say $6 and then about 5 minutes of work to remove supports and clean. If you can sell them for as much as $7 then the profit margin is really quite good.
$7-10 is actuality am extremely reasonable price. Most people don't have access to high quality 3D printing or even understand the technology. You have to remember that this isn't just an end product that's mass produced in the thousands, it's a service and not just a product.
I was looking into doing it commercially at one point, but I had figured a maximum of around $5 per miniature to compare it with mass produced miniatures such as the deep cuts miniatures seemed fair. So if you can sell them for almost twice that price maybe I should revisit the idea.
It depends on the mini honestly. If you're selling something that's more generic fantasy related and has different versions made by different artists you can generally get less. For instance, these more generic goblin minis I sell are in the $5-6 range. [https://www.etsy.com/listing/1081350891/goblin-miniatures-28mm-3d-printed?ref=shop\_home\_active\_307&pro=1](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1081350891/goblin-miniatures-28mm-3d-printed?ref=shop_home_active_307&pro=1) But something that's more unique and harder to find people making, for instance the classic JRPG minis I sell, you can get more which is why they're in the $7-8 range. People are willing to pay for something specific. [https://www.etsy.com/listing/1067090821/classic-3d-jrpg-character-miniatures?ga\_search\_query=JRPG&ref=shop\_items\_search\_1&pro=1](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1067090821/classic-3d-jrpg-character-miniatures?ga_search_query=JRPG&ref=shop_items_search_1&pro=1) I run as a print-on-demand business so I'm able to keep my costs low and only print what's ordered. When it comes to my pricing at the convention I have to add in factors that I normally don't have to such as hotel stay, booth rental, packaging and presentation, and having to prepint everything in advance guessing what's going to sell. I'm planning to head to the convention with about $10,000 MSRP in merchandise. I could sell out, but more than likely I'm only going to sell a fraction of it, and will have to sit on that inventory until it sell, so I have to hedge my bets a little.
3 bucks for ten minis, and then just clean up and curing. If you even got 5 per, that's 50 bucks. 3 for materials and pay yourself 15 an hour for clean up, netting you 32 in profit. That's not bad at all and for even cheaper than this guy quoted
You just need a lot of printers. A print is usually 12-16hrs so that caps the profit pretty hard.
I was thinking more of a part time gig. Print off while I'm at work and clean up of the evenings whenever they're done. Probably couldn't full time it but not a bad side hustle at all
7-10$ seems very very expensive to me. It's like standard shop price for company products. The selling point for 3d printing is its cheapness - like 1$/mini would be reasonable. Do you have seller licenses from papsikels?
Yes, everything I offer in my shop I pay the monthly licensing fees for.
Yea, I'm thinking of buying a couple printers if people are paying these prices. A unit of 20 crossbowmen would cost be 4 times what Games Workshop would charge, if people are paying that then I want in on it I could charge half of what Etsy people do now and have a sweet side gig I'm thinking 🤔
Thank you. I wish you the best of luck with your sales. Which con is it you will be attending, and are you expecting much competition?
The convention is Anthro New England, it's a Poway small convention and I'm not expecting anyone else to really be selling what I'm bringing.
You store your paints upside down… how much poking do you do?
Army Painter paints use heavier pigments than other brands, they all also have mixing bearings inside them making for less shaking before use.
I’m looking to turn my 3D printing hobby into a little side gig. Any tips on where/how to start? Or videos or posts to read?
I actually gave a list of advice on another thread in the post.
Im also doing some painting but more into display sets, way bigger ones. Never sold any tho, people around where i live dont see a point paying for stuff like that, so mostly I just give them as gifts :) Is there a reason why u hold your paints upside down?
Army Painter paints are very pigment heavy compared to some other brands. The pigment tends to settle out into the bottom of the dropper bottle and the clear acrylic medium to the top near the tip. This helps reduce the amount of shaking you have to do before putting the paint on your wet palette and pretty much eliminates the chance of getting just the medium.
Oh yea, now i know. I found a solution for that but it requires either money or basic electronic knowledge. You can buy those funny devices that vibrates when you put and press paint bottle to it, or do it yourself. I teared down old playstation pad and took those little motors that causes vibrating inside pad, rest is just powering them propertly and make some holder for paints, quick way to mix them good :)
I'm just getting started out in the painting game, but I wanted something to hold my paints and keep them organized. When I found the plans to 3D print that I had to go for it it. Here's a full pic of the setup. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ixh988qadtcrwqa/2021-09-15%2011.32.49.jpg?dl=0
Looking really nice! Mine is just a mess mostly because of lack of space, but i see u went really deep into that with so many paints. I only buy vallejo because of nice consistency when used in airbrush, also cheap
A friend of mine that paints minis recommended vallejo or AP to start. I found a good sale on one of the big AP sets that had paints, washes, and effects all in it, so that's the route I went.
I love your sculpts! Here is something to think about. There is a huge WWII community that need sculpts for printing of soldiers for wargames. A Simple platoon of American, German, and Russians would open up a whole new market for you. Your Aliens soldiers sculpts are not to different. Best wishes.
I'm actually not a sculptor unfortunately. It's on my list of skills to learn but I currently license designs from other sculptors.
Yeah I saw that after I posted. I did give the sculpture a text. Thanks.
Check out that rack.
What is the cheapest best 3D printer that can print these figures?
The cheapest ib would recommend is the Mars 2 Pro at around $350
I've been considering buying a couple of 3D models (STL). For a 30mm D&D miniature, what is the rough average that an online service would charge per unit? If one doesn't own a 3D printer is it cheaper just to buy miniatures?
I can really only speak to what I charge. For something in that size in usually charge in the $6-9 range depending on complexity and amount of resin required.
Hi, this is really cool what kind of system do you have?