Least represented 3D printing subjects?

[Evil Eye]

As I've mentioned a thousand times before I intend to get myself a 3D printer (assuming I can ever scrounge the money together!) with the intention of not only supplementing my own collection with other people's amazing work, but also developing my own minis to share with everyone. Now, I still haven't got that printer, but the plan hasn't changed.

However, I've been having thoughts. I want to start out doing a single "range" of models, focusing on one faction and sticking with it until I exhaust its potential, before moving onto the next "range". Originally this would have been some totally-not-Tyranids, but I'm having second thoughts about that. I love Tyranids but they are already quite well served for prints.

As such, I'm thinking of what faction would be best to tackle? Bearing in mind my aim is to create options and alternative takes and NOT direct clones of existing minis, so even if someone could make an entire army from my prints, it would look substantially different to a stock army.

Anyway this is what I'm thinking on each race.

Space Marines: Already incredibly well served both from GW and 3D printing, not sure there's much point?

Imperial Guard: A bit of a tough one as whilst there's endless scope for options, finding a niche is tricky not already taken by other printmakers, GW themselves or 3Ps like Victoria Minis (who makes some of the best Guard on the market IMO). Still a possibility, however.

Sisters of Battle: The Sororitas kits are already pretty cool, and their aesthetic very defined. Whole models would be tricky outside of some outliers like Repentia. However, add-on bitz would be a good market to exploit maybe?

Custodes/Sisters of Silence: My lack of enthusiasm for them and the fact their models are already pretty great as is means I don't think they'd be a great option.

Adeptus Mechanicus: Lots of potential, I am tempted to leave them until my skills are substantially improved due to their aesthetic revolving around precise mechanical details.

Inquisition/General Imperium: Definitely a potential, as it's a very open subject.

Knights: Lots of people already do alternate parts for Knights so I'm not sure if I could realistically bring much to the table.

Chaos Space Marines: Whilst there are a lot of printable Chaos parts (and any Space Marine part can be Chaos'd up!) the sheer level of options as far as Chaos Space Marine "looks" go is good and if I could find a niche that hasn't been filled, there's a huge amount of potential.

Chaos Daemons: See above. Whilst there are a lot of alt Daemons on the market, they are explicitly described as taking infinite forms, so again, if I can find an aesthetic not already covered there's limitless potential.

Lost and the Damned: Whilst more limiting than Daemons, still possibly a very open subject. Also AFAIK not massively served.

Death Guard/Thousand Sons: Lumping them together as they both have a similar problem; a fairly comprehensive range and strong aesthetic, and I'm not sure how much I can add to it. Worth thinking about though.

World Eaters: Waiting to see new Codex/army.

Emperor's Children: Kinda comes under Chaos Space Marines as, well, that's how you run them. But lots of potential for certain.

Assorted Chaos: LOTS of potential, almost too much!

Eldar: Quite a lot of people doing them but mostly just "clones" of existing models, and I feel like there is room to carve out a niche. Also as mentioned in the thread on Eldar design variants, there's some unexplored potential there. This also applies to Harlequins and Exodites.

Dark Eldar: See above but even moreso as the Dark Eldar are far more individualistic than their straight-laced brethren.

Orks: Whilst Orks are a race that don't necessarily rely too much on 3D printing due to the fact it is super easy to make good looking Orky stuff from random crap in your bitz box, I think there's room for a more unique approach- specifically, printable weapons, engines, icons and other assorted gubbinz for konvertin', rather than complete models. Also characters and actual greenskins rather than their war machines.

Tau: There are almost zero Tau prints available I've seen, and I feel there's room for more. Definitely a consideration, along with their auxiliary races.

Tyranids: As mentioned there are a LOT of Tyranid prints on the market, which puts me off a little. I have lots of ideas for doing them mind you, and I love me some Tyranids.

Genestealer Cults: As a cult could arise on any kind of Imperial planet, this is actually a very open subject, as the admittedly awesome GSC range is mostly based on mining and the like.

Necrons: A tough one as Necrons have a very defined look, a (mostly) fantastic range and very little in the way of room for divergence. Individual characters could be fun though and terrain is an option?

Votann: Haven't been around very long, hard to judge.

Assorted Xenos/other concepts: Hrud are something I've wondered about, as they are totally model-bereft in spite of their presence in the fluff for decades. Also some kind of "Space Skaven" because whilst they AFAIK don't exist in 40K (the closest being the Hrud circa Rogue Trader before they settled on the "entropic spine-limbed hooded things" schtick) Skaven are cool, people have been doing 40K Skaven for years and there's probably a way of headcanoning them (Chaos-afflicted abhumans, a beastman strain, weird xenos, literal WHFB/AOS Skaven who ended up in 40K by accident etc).

 

Any thoughts/advice?

[Bung]

To be honest you find alot of alternative Models for any faction even super Heavies and Titans.

The question is, can you do a unique look that makes people want to use your Models.

I would suggest to do some drafts for the army that interests you the most and get some Feedback on discord Servers with alot of people using such prints.

Codewalrus Heresy Discord could give you some Feedback for example.

 

[sitnam]

I think Tau auxiliaries could be a fun niche to fit into. Things like Nicassar, Tarrellians, Gue’Vesa parts, etc

[Slave to Darkness]

Careful what you do design though. Dont want GW throwing their toys out of the pram again.

[Evil Eye]

4 hours ago, Slave to Darkness said:

Careful what you do design though. Dont want GW throwing their toys out of the pram again.

Absolutely- my aim is to provide models and parts that supplement existing collections and hopefully don't stick out too much, but are still unique enough to avoid GW having a hissyfit. For instance- if I were to tackle Eldar, doing a Wave Serpent styled after the old Armourcast model.

[Slave to Darkness]

You could do a fine line in bolt cutters for Guard so they dont have to chew their way through razor wire.

[Mazer Rackham]

16 hours ago, Slave to Darkness said:

You could do a fine line in bolt cutters for Guard so they dont have to chew their way through razor wire.

Not trying to derail the thread, but you need to report to your local Commissar for...correction.

The Guard can chew through anything.

[Evil Eye]

I won't lie, assorted tools and doodads for either equipping troops with or clamping to tanks would be a neat idea.

In fact, on a similar line, one of my ideas for Tyranids was some printable "assorted kitbashing/detailing packs" consisting of various organic spines, plates, sacs, antennae, vents and other nonspecific bits and pieces that could be used to add detail to any Tyranid conversion without having a specific intended use. Some of my buddies on Instagram make very creative use of the strangest bits, and it made me think that a Tyranid equivalent of things like Kotobukiya's mecha detailing sprues would be rather useful.

[Lord_Ikka]

As a thought, while full minis are nice and can be really cool, starting out with bits for existing models might be a good way to go as you learn and get more experience/create your own style. Example- You did mention that you didn't think Sisters of Silence would be good, but I think rather than full models for them maybe some alternative arms would be nice- they only have so many poses as is and giving them options would help out their players. 

[Evil Eye]

Sorry to necrobump but I think I may have gotten carried away...

[Slave to Darkness]

Im interested in the Rhinos... I still need some to scale with the OG plastics for my 1st ed notSquats army.

[Evil Eye]

18 hours ago, Slave to Darkness said:

Im interested in the Rhinos... I still need some to scale with the OG plastics for my 1st ed notSquats army.

The idea is that they'll be printable at 3 scales; the original Rhino size (if you can provide me with the basic dimensions that'd be grand), modern Rhino size, and slightly bigger for true scale/art scale/INQ28 or whatever. I'm also planning on having plates be available that allow any sized Rhino to use any size cupola.

 

Of course, being a 3D object it should be easy enough to scale up and down.

 

I'm also planning on doing some modular RT style Marines (Loyalist and Chaos) to go with it.

[Slave to Darkness]

Ill dig one of the old Rhinos out later and measure everything.

[Maximus]

I'm a GSC player and have seen very little by way of aftermarket alternatives, although, as with Orks, any kit can be a Cult kit with a bit of creative modification. What I would like to see, and may be an idea for you would be extra bits/ weapons/ modified bits that relate to each of the cult creeds. For example the Balded Cog are cyborgised hybrids, so insted of having to buy a load of Ad-Mech kits to bash, an add on kit of mechanical bits would be useful. Twisted Helix are gene modified, so some genetically enhanced or modified body parts as opposed to buying nurgle bits; you get the drift.

[Gamiel]

On 9/20/2022 at 3:30 AM, Evil Eye said:

Space Marines: Already incredibly well served both from GW and 3D printing, not sure there's much point?

But mostly within a very specefic range, most of the 3rd party stuff are versions of the 1th Founding chapters + Black Templars, and even then are Space Wolves, Dark Angels, and Blood Angels very over reprecented, and most of the IF I have seen is leaning toward the BT/Templar Brethren in look more than anything else. The Ultramarines do have a bit more stuff than the Salamanders, who in turn have more than White Scars, Raven Guard, and Iron Hands who (what I have seen) are really under reprecented. There is also that much of the WS stuff I have seen have Samurais as their main inspiration instead of any of the Eurasiatic steppe culturs. 

 

I would say that there is a large area of bits inspiered by cultures that are underreprecented by GW and 3rd party people that you could do stuff for. I have suggestions if you are interested.

 

On 9/20/2022 at 3:30 AM, Evil Eye said:

Imperial Guard: A bit of a tough one as whilst there's endless scope for options, finding a niche is tricky not already taken by other printmakers, GW themselves or 3Ps like Victoria Minis (who makes some of the best Guard on the market IMO). Still a possibility, however.

I would say that there is a large area of bits inspiered by cultures/military forces that are underreprecented by GW and 3rd party people that you could do stuff for. I have suggestions if you are interested.

 

On 9/20/2022 at 3:30 AM, Evil Eye said:

Sisters of Battle: The Sororitas kits are already pretty cool, and their aesthetic very defined. Whole models would be tricky outside of some outliers like Repentia. However, add-on bitz would be a good market to exploit maybe?

Yes. I don't think I have seen stuff that are non-catholic-ish monastic inspiered. There is also stuff like shields with icons on them, more knightly (and other warrior groups) heads, heads with other haircuts, etc. I have suggestions if you are interested.

 

On 9/20/2022 at 3:30 AM, Evil Eye said:

Inquisition/General Imperium: Definitely a potential, as it's a very open subject.

Yes. I have suggestions if you are interested.

 

On 9/20/2022 at 3:30 AM, Evil Eye said:

Chaos Space Marines: Whilst there are a lot of printable Chaos parts (and any Space Marine part can be Chaos'd up!) the sheer level of options as far as Chaos Space Marine "looks" go is good and if I could find a niche that hasn't been filled, there's a huge amount of potential.

Yes. I don't think I have seen bitz reprecenting corrupt versions of the Loyalist legions/their inspirations, or reprecenting cultures corrupted by Chaos. I have suggestions if you are interested.

 

On 9/20/2022 at 3:30 AM, Evil Eye said:

Lost and the Damned: Whilst more limiting than Daemons, still possibly a very open subject. Also AFAIK not massively served.

Yes. I have suggestions if you are interested.

 

On 9/20/2022 at 3:30 AM, Evil Eye said:

Eldar: Quite a lot of people doing them but mostly just "clones" of existing models, and I feel like there is room to carve out a niche. Also as mentioned in the thread on Eldar design variants, there's some unexplored potential there. This also applies to Harlequins and Exodites.

Yes. I don't think I have seen any stuff reprecenting the older, more baroque style that we see e.g. with The Visarch. Bits drawing inspiration from other culturs outside of Japan and Celtic-ish is somethign I don't think I have seen nor stuff noding toward other IP's elves (like ElfQuest, DragonLance, and the LotR movies). I have suggestions if you are interested.

 

On 9/20/2022 at 3:30 AM, Evil Eye said:

Tau: There are almost zero Tau prints available I've seen, and I feel there's room for more. Definitely a consideration, along with their auxiliary races.

The stuff I have seen mostly makes them very japanese, and ignore all the stuff about them that are not Japanese-ish. There is also lots of Tau-auxila forces that you can make bits, and/or alternative models for. 

 

 

 

 

[Noserenda]

Id suggest the Sisters of silence just got a fresh lease of life and have people hunting for various weapons not produced by GW like snare guns, sniper rifles, Umbra combi weapons at their scale and the various heavy and melee options. 

Plus the dual swords for Custodes but theyd be easy to find im sure.

[Gamiel]

On 10/27/2022 at 1:42 AM, Evil Eye said:

Sorry to necrobump but I think I may have gotten carried away...

I think you started of a bit big. I suggest (hypocritical as a hobby butterfly myself) that you decide to focus on one range/theme of stuff and make at least ten things for that before jumping to the next one. I think starting with bits for existing stuff is better than trying to make a whole new body or tank. One thing I have not seen other 3rd party people do is to create "upgrade bits" for AoS kits that will make them 40k, maybe take a look at GW’s Gloomspite Gitz or Sylvaneth range (for example) and think about how you could make alternative bits (arms/hands heads, backpacks, with science-fiction weapons/equipment/cybernetics) for those that people could use to easily make them 40k. 

[Evil Eye]

Nice hot fresh wings, anyone?

[Elzender]

As an idea, what about Imperial civilians/non combatants ? I think it has a lot of potential to explore (feudal/hive/farm/death worlds), the aesthetic can be as varied or homogenous as you'd like (more tech-ed up, more medieval, relatively modern, sci-fi, or a mix of them) , and it gives people something a bit different to just another proxy for GW armies.

With that said, as long as models were not single parts and they were to scale with GW range, nothing would stop people from giving them alternate weapons and heads to use them as cultists (of the chaos or genestealer varieties), conscripts, serfs, servitors, exalted rabble following a priest/demagogue, or whatever crazy idea comes to mind. 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I'll second GSC and say that while there are a lot of IG out there for printing, the vast majority are DKoK clones. If you could come up with a decent looking option that differs from that, I'm sure it would be popular whether it be entirely new figures or conversion parts for some of the existing plastics.