Article - Games Workshop is Still Driving Frustrated Warhammer Players to 3D Printing

[Brother Tyler]

I saw this on my news feed today and thought it might be of interest to the community.

 

https://all3dp.com/4/games-workshop-driving-frustrated-warhammer-players-to-3d-printing/

 

For those who don't want to read the article, it can be summed up in the opening tagline:

 

"Games Workshop’s perennial product shortages are testing the patience of its passionate players and pushing them towards 3D printing solutions."

[Vassakov]

The article cites SpikeyBits as "excellent"... you'll forgive me if I don't take it entirely seriously. 

[phandaal]

Couple of things.

 

1 - Buyers are not liable for GW's copyright just by purchasing something GW considers to be a violation of their IP. The question is will GW make the claim that someone who copies an IP infringing printer file to their computer is "copying" their product.

 

As someone whose legal experience is watching reruns of Matlock as a kid, my understanding is that downloading a file technically is "copying," under US law which is how people got hit for downloading movies and songs back in the day. But downloading a single file will have such negligible impact on GW that the damages they claim will be pennies.

 

2 - FOMO and shortages are probably the least important reasons why people print GW-esque miniatures. Mainly it is cost, aesthetics/bits, and after some practice "push button get army" is fun.

 

Also not seeing anything in the article that actually supports the thesis. There is a generic quote from the guy at Spikey Bits but otherwise the claim does not seem to be backed up.

 

Either way, thanks for posting this!

Edited August 19 by phandaal
a word

[Halandaar]

13 minutes ago, phandaal said:

Couple of things.

 

1 - I am not violating GW's copyright by purchasing something GW considers to be a violation of their IP. The question is will GW make the claim that someone who copies an IP infringing printer file to their computer is "copying" their product.

 

If somebody produces a 3d scan of an actual GW model and makes that available as a downloadable file, I think it would be hard to argue that this isn't fundamentally piracy, in the same category as downloading films or music which obviously have had big legal campaigns against individual users in the past. Would GW go after file owners? I doubt that they could even if they were of a mind to - they don't have the clout that the early 2000s music industry used to compel platforms to identify individuals who downloaded copyrighted files so I can't see any actual consequences there, but I am not in any way qualified to say that with any certainty.

 

Outside of that specific case, I can't see there ever being any pushback to end users if they are downloading stuff that is essentially, but not exactly copying GW IP.

 

 

 

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

You still need to have facilities at home which permit printing resin models without impairing your health in the long run. Most people can´t safely run a 3D printer at home so this article is just creating drama. The solution would be to have rows of 3D printers at a FLGS where customers could buy those printed models. 

[conscriptboris]

2 minutes ago, Deus_Ex_Machina said:

You still need to have facilities at home which permit printing resin models without impairing your health in the long run. Most people can´t safely run a 3D printer at home so this article is just creating drama. The solution would be to have rows of 3D printers at a FLGS where customers could buy those printed models. 

 

I imagine in 5 years this wont be a problem (ref printers at home).

 

I print OOP stuff, as newer stuff interests me less and less. And there is plenty of Hobby Groups and meet ups playing Older Edition of 40k, or HH.

[Vassakov]

14 minutes ago, conscriptboris said:

 

I imagine in 5 years this wont be a problem (ref printers at home).

 

I print OOP stuff, as newer stuff interests me less and less. And there is plenty of Hobby Groups and meet ups playing Older Edition of 40k, or HH.

 

Perhaps, but let's not kid ourselves that 3D printing Warhammer models is a niche hobby of a niche hobby. Of the 30 or so people I play with regularly, maybe 4 have printers, and two of them use them primarily for terrain or additions rather than printing copies of models wholesale. And they still buy the plastic kits from an LGS or GW, so I think for a decent chunk of the hobby it's additive to the hobby rather than replacing it.

There's also the fact that you can condense hobbying stuff down to not a lot - I have a folding desk, a box with a hobby knife, files, sprue cutters and some glues I keep at my parents in a cupboard for when I'm dogsitting and just take over what I happen to be working on. Can't do that with a printer, and think the same principles of "this can easily be tidied away" will keep traditional hobbying around for a while.  

[conscriptboris]

3 hours ago, Vassakov said:

 

Perhaps, but let's not kid ourselves that 3D printing Warhammer models is a niche hobby of a niche hobby. Of the 30 or so people I play with regularly, maybe 4 have printers, and two of them use them primarily for terrain or additions rather than printing copies of models wholesale. And they still buy the plastic kits from an LGS or GW, so I think for a decent chunk of the hobby it's additive to the hobby rather than replacing it.

There's also the fact that you can condense hobbying stuff down to not a lot - I have a folding desk, a box with a hobby knife, files, sprue cutters and some glues I keep at my parents in a cupboard for when I'm dogsitting and just take over what I happen to be working on. Can't do that with a printer, and think the same principles of "this can easily be tidied away" will keep traditional hobbying around for a while.  

 

I agree. However any adoption of a new technology takes time. Ive said amongst my hobby group that when a 3d printer is of similar ease to a home paper printer at the £100-200 mark (which is coming) then people will buy. Its 4 now in your group, how many was it 5 years ago, 1? In the next 5 years it will be 8-12, but it will never be everyone. Not all people print documents at home either (some use work).

 

Now, Im not saying that it will stop model purchases. But the space is about to get much busier. The size of my local club, for years it would be one games system mostly. Now I see people playing other Games Systems with printed Armies, but they still buy GW.

[Evil Eye]

I've found 3D printing an extremely fulfilling diversion myself, and I'd say my Saturn 4 Ultra has been one of the best investments I've ever made, to the point where even if I lost all love for 40K I'd still be using my printer regularly. I'm a massive proponent of the "decentralized production" angle of 3D printing, beyond just miniatures (you can now buy, for not excessive prices, 3D resin sturdy enough to make action figures from, which as a toy nerd is extremely cool!); the fact it lets me supplement my models with custom parts or reproduce models that can no longer be obtained from GW without either spending a fortune on the aftermarket or waiting months for delivery from Russia is a massive boon to my hobbying. And whilst I don't think 3D printing will ever totally replace molded kits to the point GW will go extinct (because of that at least), I think it's only going to get more and more commonplace/accessible.

 

If GW were wise, they could sell STLs of more niche models (high-quality scans of classic models, upgrade parts etc) that wouldn't make their money back if sold as injection-molded plastic but would have enough of a demand people would be willing to pay to print them from home. Assuming they were reasonably priced and not attached to some ridiculous DRM, they'd make considerably more money than the frankly-tiny investment they'd put in, AND would probably win a lot of good will in the process. Not to mention it would undercut recasters. There's the risk of piracy of course but assuming they didn't overcharge, I doubt most people would go through the hoops of getting into obscure telegram channels for free models versus paying like, £5 for an official ST of a RT Techmarine or whatever.

[Helbrechts_Sword_Servitor]

14 minutes ago, Evil Eye said:

I've found 3D printing an extremely fulfilling diversion myself, and I'd say my Saturn 4 Ultra has been one of the best investments I've ever made, to the point where even if I lost all love for 40K I'd still be using my printer regularly. I'm a massive proponent of the "decentralized production" angle of 3D printing, beyond just miniatures (you can now buy, for not excessive prices, 3D resin sturdy enough to make action figures from, which as a toy nerd is extremely cool!); the fact it lets me supplement my models with custom parts or reproduce models that can no longer be obtained from GW without either spending a fortune on the aftermarket or waiting months for delivery from Russia is a massive boon to my hobbying. And whilst I don't think 3D printing will ever totally replace molded kits to the point GW will go extinct (because of that at least), I think it's only going to get more and more commonplace/accessible.

 

If GW were wise, they could sell STLs of more niche models (high-quality scans of classic models, upgrade parts etc) that wouldn't make their money back if sold as injection-molded plastic but would have enough of a demand people would be willing to pay to print them from home. Assuming they were reasonably priced and not attached to some ridiculous DRM, they'd make considerably more money than the frankly-tiny investment they'd put in, AND would probably win a lot of good will in the process. Not to mention it would undercut recasters. There's the risk of piracy of course but assuming they didn't overcharge, I doubt most people would go through the hoops of getting into obscure telegram channels for free models versus paying like, £5 for an official ST of a RT Techmarine or whatever.

 

I'd gladly pay to have RT era minis printed at a local Games Workshop store.

[Domhnall]

11 hours ago, Evil Eye said:

I've found 3D printing an extremely fulfilling diversion myself, and I'd say my Saturn 4 Ultra has been one of the best investments I've ever made, to the point where even if I lost all love for 40K I'd still be using my printer regularly. I'm a massive proponent of the "decentralized production" angle of 3D printing, beyond just miniatures (you can now buy, for not excessive prices, 3D resin sturdy enough to make action figures from, which as a toy nerd is extremely cool!); the fact it lets me supplement my models with custom parts or reproduce models that can no longer be obtained from GW without either spending a fortune on the aftermarket or waiting months for delivery from Russia is a massive boon to my hobbying. And whilst I don't think 3D printing will ever totally replace molded kits to the point GW will go extinct (because of that at least), I think it's only going to get more and more commonplace/accessible.

 

If GW were wise, they could sell STLs of more niche models (high-quality scans of classic models, upgrade parts etc) that wouldn't make their money back if sold as injection-molded plastic but would have enough of a demand people would be willing to pay to print them from home. Assuming they were reasonably priced and not attached to some ridiculous DRM, they'd make considerably more money than the frankly-tiny investment they'd put in, AND would probably win a lot of good will in the process. Not to mention it would undercut recasters. There's the risk of piracy of course but assuming they didn't overcharge, I doubt most people would go through the hoops of getting into obscure telegram channels for free models versus paying like, £5 for an official ST of a RT Techmarine or whatever.

 

 

The biggest issue of selling STL's (and this goes for everybody, not just GW)  is that once they've sold one to you for £10, your entire circle of friends/gaming group now have access to it. Not to mention people then selling them online for their own profit. So from that perspective, if I were a model company*, I would NOT be willing to give out those files for my main line of product. 

As you mention, niche models or upgrade parts would be more viable, but once that file is out in the wild, you're control over it is gone, and if 1 in 10 then buy it from etsy or their friend, that's 1/10 of your potential income gone. It would make more sense for GW (or other model companies) to then invest in a few printers in stores that you order direct from them so you can still get those nice parts but they still have control of the supply. 

 

It would be good if GW gave away OOP files though, but they do seem to make a nice bit of cash on limited run MTO stuff, so that's not going to happen 

 

I'm not saying this to say that 3D printing is bad, as I'm also playing Marvel Crisis Protocol and most of my figures are 3rd party figures bought at 1/5 of the price of official models (because they are ridiculously expensive!), and would be willing to print off 3rd party made sculpts, so I am also a 'filthy little scumbag'  My point is more that 3D printing is a completely new legal minefield for everybody that needs some kind of regulation, but how that would work is way beyond me. 

 

@Deus_Ex_Machina mentioned the idea of FLGS having rows of printers for printing files, which I agree would be a great idea because I've got things I'd like printed, but this is where the need for regulation would come in. As they are a business and not some guy in his garage, they would be more open to being hammered by the GW's of the world if they were found to be printing their works, so the store may need some kind of licence to be able to do so legally, but GW won't allow that. Some other smaller companies might, but then what form would that licencing take? Would they need a blanket licence from everybody? Or a by print licence that they inform xyz that they have done so? Or do they just print whatever they want and hope nobody comes after them and potentially shuts them down or whatever?

Do you allow any Tom, Dick, or Harry to come in and print whatever they want unsupervised, or does it need cleared by the staff? Because I can guarantee without any kind of supervision that a giant realistic willy will get printed at some point and ruin that idea! 

 

Anyway, as I say 3D printing is still a relatively new minfield, and it's expanding far quicker than any controls can be placed on it. I still feel it's not as 'big' as some people believe it is, but I also don't think it's as big a problem as many believe it to be either.

 

This is all just my opinion, and my opinion can, and may change over time based on what I see. 

[MARK0SIAN]

15 hours ago, Evil Eye said:

I've found 3D printing an extremely fulfilling diversion myself, and I'd say my Saturn 4 Ultra has been one of the best investments I've ever made, to the point where even if I lost all love for 40K I'd still be using my printer regularly. I'm a massive proponent of the "decentralized production" angle of 3D printing, beyond just miniatures (you can now buy, for not excessive prices, 3D resin sturdy enough to make action figures from, which as a toy nerd is extremely cool!); the fact it lets me supplement my models with custom parts or reproduce models that can no longer be obtained from GW without either spending a fortune on the aftermarket or waiting months for delivery from Russia is a massive boon to my hobbying. And whilst I don't think 3D printing will ever totally replace molded kits to the point GW will go extinct (because of that at least), I think it's only going to get more and more commonplace/accessible.

 

If GW were wise, they could sell STLs of more niche models (high-quality scans of classic models, upgrade parts etc) that wouldn't make their money back if sold as injection-molded plastic but would have enough of a demand people would be willing to pay to print them from home. Assuming they were reasonably priced and not attached to some ridiculous DRM, they'd make considerably more money than the frankly-tiny investment they'd put in, AND would probably win a lot of good will in the process. Not to mention it would undercut recasters. There's the risk of piracy of course but assuming they didn't overcharge, I doubt most people would go through the hoops of getting into obscure telegram channels for free models versus paying like, £5 for an official ST of a RT Techmarine or whatever.

The problem for GW with selling STL isn’t time or cost it’s quality control and brand image. 
 

The STL could be bought by someone who is highly experienced with 3D printing and has a top of the line printer that will produce an excellent model. However, it could just as easily be bought by someone who has no clue what they’re doing and trying to produce their models on a dirt cheap, poor quality printer.
 

The end result in the latter case is that there would be several misprints and even if they got the model to print, the quality wouldn’t be very good and probably wouldn’t compare to the pictures on GWs website. Suddenly social media is filled with “look at this trash GW sold me” pictures and videos and most people wouldn’t understand it was a user issue and would just think GW were selling a poor quality product. 
 

GW pride themselves on the quality of their minis and by and large (even if they don’t like the individual designs) I think most people would acknowledge the quality is high. GW wouldn’t want to risk that reputation for anything, particularly the paltry returns they’d get on selling some STL files of older models.

[phandaal]

31 minutes ago, MARK0SIAN said:

Suddenly social media is filled with “look at this trash GW sold me” pictures and videos and most people wouldn’t understand it was a user issue and would just think GW were selling a poor quality product. 

 

Good point. Go on any printing forum and it will have multiple posts front and center from people whose models exploded due to being hollow and filled with uncured resin, or people who cannot figure out how to use the "auto support" feature on their slicer.

[Pacific81]

On 8/18/2025 at 3:06 PM, Halandaar said:

Would GW go after file owners? I doubt that they could even if they were of a mind to - they don't have the clout that the early 2000s music industry used to compel platforms to identify individuals who downloaded copyrighted files so I can't see any actual consequences there, but I am not in any way qualified to say that with any certainty.

 

 

Every person with a printer fearfully opening their inbox to find an email from Metallica..

[Osteoclast]

A print on demand service from GW for old models or for bits makes the most sense imho; as soon as those STLs are available, people will be sharing them freely and/or openly selling the prints. 

[Dr. Clock]

On 8/19/2025 at 8:10 AM, MARK0SIAN said:

quality control and brand image.

Plus the fact that their existing value chain and its margins are very strong. Why would they pivot in such a way as to make their own factories and catalogue instantly obsolete? 

 

GW is leveraging its designs and stories in digital media, but they are not doing it in a way that competes directly with their core business. They will always make more money selling a finished physical product than a digital asset for all the reasons that have been identified, and it is very much in the firm's DNA.

 

When you're selling digital you need to sell something that's at least a little bit inconvenient to pirate, and it needs to be aimed at the digital machines most people are using, i.e. phones, computers and consoles. The 'video game' net is SO MUCH bigger than the '3d printer' net, and it's where GW can make quite literally free money while continuing to offer their niche physical products far into the future.

 

Distributed Print-on-demand shops is an interesting business model that they could explore in the future, but only if there is a crisis in existing materials and tech like the one that spelled doom for metals as a core offering, I'd think...

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.   

[Doghouse]

I personally am really glad that this happened for me. It broke me from the FOMO cycle and showed me that there are so many opportunities to explore the hobby beyond 40k.

 

I have far more enjoyment making my own models from scratch than I ever did with GW conversions and if I create something I really enjoy making I can share it with others for free. For me personally it makes it a hobby again rather than the conveyor belt of product pushing it has become.

 

 

[Arikel]

Until it becomes as simple as selecting a mini, hitting print, and you get the product at least 90-95% as shown safely, and without any kind of mucking about, 3d printing will mostly be a sideshow for those who can’t personally take the time/initial start up expense to do it at  home. 
 

I could see the 3rd party marketplace picking up  for printing models on demand, but at the moment home 3d printing makes me think more of people who take up tinkering on cars, or even making your own preserves like jam,pickles etc. It can provide a lot of satisfaction, a better product, and even be cheaper, but you need time, a certain amount of space, specialized equipment and the cash on hand to set up in the first place. Along with that, the materials you’re working with, as well as the work itself, are or can become dangerous so personal safety can be an issue.

 

It may be that in the near future they will be able to provide cheap safe printers that you could set up in the living room like paper printers but for sure we aren’t there yet, and until it does, I don’t think the market for physical minis bought off the shelf will ever disappear.