How GW could/should embrace 3D printing going forward

[Evil Eye]

Yep. It's that time again; there's been thoughts stewing in my brain and they've coalesced into a vaguely coherent stream of consciousness about something related to the hobby. That's right! It's time for an Evil Eye Essay!

 

(Cue the boos and throwing of tomatoes)

 

Anyway, I'll preface this by saying I might be a bit biased as I adore 3D printing, and even if 40K ceased to be a thing entirely overnight I'd still be into printing because being able to turn goo or plastic spaghetti into 3D objects is absolutely magical to me. It's also considerably less hassle than paper printing, amusingly enough. So please do bear that in mind whilst reading this spiel.

 

With that aside, let the logorrhoea commence...

 

PART 1: GOO, GW AND YOU.

 

First and foremost I think it's fair to say 3D printing has massively evolved from the days of the first consumer-grade printers. Speaking purely on resin (as I feel it's the most relevant to our hobby) we've gone from temperamental machines that can make decently detailed but visibly layered models, quite slowly and out of rather brittle material to incredibly hands-off devices that can quickly produce miniatures that look flawless with minimal sanding, and a wide variety of resins- including some strong enough to make functional parts out of, never mind wargaming models! Resin printing has become better, more accessible and as a result more popular than I had ever though possible in a very short span of time. On top of that, whilst technology is improving rapidly even now and previous-gen machines rapidly depreciate in cost, they're still just as good now as they were when they came out, which means if you forsake a few bells and whistles you can get a fantastic printer for a surprisingly cheap price. I do feel like the accessibility element may have slightly plateaued if only because I don't think it's possible to get around the inherent faff of washing and post-curing the models, though as a counter, auto-supports are becoming incredibly reliable which means you don't have to rely on being an engineering expert or getting professional pre-supports to print your stuff. But the point is, getting into printing is not massively difficult or even necessarily expensive nowadays, and there is a quite large and healthy ecosystem and userbase for it.

 

The result of this is that 3D printed parts or even full models are now commonplace in wargaming and miniature modelling circles. This, on the whole, has been a very good thing; beforehand, if you wanted a specific piece for a conversion, or a replacement part for an incomplete or damaged miniature, you'd have to trawl eBay or bitz seller sites and pray they had what you needed for a good price and that Goldfishblue (ech) hadn't snatched them all up to sell for horrifically inflated sums of money. Nowadays, it's comically easy to find almost any bitz you might need on STL sites, often for free, and once you have the file you can print as many as you want- at whatever size you want even! Likewise, it's given amateur miniature sculptors a new means to distribute their creations without having to mess about with silicone mould making or sell their kidneys to afford enough pewter to cast half a goblin's nose. The worst thing I can say is the barrier to entry has been lowered so much there is now a lot of absolute dreck on STL sites (not even touching on AI generated models; frankly even before the days when AI became able to generate STLs, there was no shortage of utter slop being peddled), but the existence of low-quality nonsense is not worth negating the genuinely amazing models that people put out.

 

With all that being said, it's no surprise that more than a few people have taken advantage of the 3D printer boom to supplement 40K players' arsenal, either providing conversion parts for existing minis or in some cases entire models that can fit in an army- and in some cases actual 1:1 scans of existing GW models. Obviously GW has not reacted very kindly to this and are very swift to strike down anything that could even be perceived as infringing on their property (ironic considering that Warhammer itself started as an excuse to sell models of settings they didn't have the rights to). Now, whilst I am quite, uh, outspoken on my thoughts on GW and IP law in general (TLDR: IP law is an absolute mess in dire need of revision, and GW are way too quick to abuse it, often using lawfare against completely innocent people- see the "Spots the Space Marine" debacle) I am going to try and remain as objective and nuanced as possible here, because I think there's quite a lot to unpack here.

 

My personal view of GW's approach to the 3D printing market and their lawfare against it is that it's incredibly heavy-handed and, even if borderline-justifiable under the precise letter of the law, takes protectionism to a frankly unnecessary degree and I would argue makes a solid basis for the case against current IP law. This isn't just me saying "GW sucks and charges too much for their miniatures, they get what they deserve" either; whilst there are definitely arguments that could be made that GW models are ridiculously overpriced (they are), and we will come back to that later, it actually doesn't matter whether I think GW is the best thing ever or literally (insert least favourite IRL dictator here) because their absurd protectionism is very difficult to logically justify.

 

For conversion parts, not only is striking down files that are intended to supplement existing models completely unnecessary (as A: they require the purchase of GW parts to begin with and thus are actually boosting sales, and B: are 99 times out of 100 something GW doesn't offer themselves...hence why there's even a market for them) but last I checked, offering parts that are compatible with an existing product is completely legal, and actually protected as such by law. If as an example someone designs from scratch an STL for a flail for a Contemptor Dreadnought kit, I'm fairly certain GW isn't even legally in the right if they try and get it taken down any more than if I design a replacement dial knob STL for an oven and distribute it (monetized or not), Russell Hobbs would not have the right to C&D me for doing this. Of course, these legal protections often don't hold much real weight as most people lack the resources to point this out to them in court, but even disregarding that, the point that a conversion part is fundamentally useless without an existing kit to convert remains. You could make the argument that GW loses sales of someone buying a whole box for one shoulder pad, but even aside from the inherent absurdity of that argument, that isn't necessarily a lost sale- but we'll get to that.

 

The more grey area is entire models. GW are definitely more justified in going after these, however I do maintain it is a bit of a "case by case", uh, case. Someone selling STLs of direct scans of a model GW is actively producing is asking for trouble, for certain. Where it gets more difficult is 100% original sculpts (that is, not scans) that resemble existing models/concepts but differ from them substantially enough that they could be considered transformative or legally distinct. Here the argument could be made that the "loss of sales" angle falls flat as the buyer of such a model is doing so not to avoid paying for GW's model, but because he fundamentally likes how it looks better- no sale has been lost because the sale would never have happened in the first place. For example- someone wants a Carnifex, but the current model is not to their taste (blasphemous I know). A sculptor offers a printable totally-not-Carnifex kit which, whilst instantly recognizable as a Carnifex from a WYSIWYG perspective, is quite obviously a very different sculpt rather than a direct clone. In this case, the customer was explicitly not going to buy the plastic Carnifex to begin with- GW striking down such a file doesn't gain them a sale, it just means he doesn't now have a Carnifex. Nobody gains anything from GW C&Ding it. Even more of a grey area is reproductions (including scans) of models GW just straight up doesn't make anymore, or have never made. In the former example, regardless of whether I successfully source an STL of the original Mk I Rhino kit from RT or it gets bonked, GW aren't making/losing any sales of it because they haven't sold it in over 25 years; I physically cannot buy it from GW. For the latter, if I want modern scale Mk VII Marines, I have no choice but to go 3D because GW have NEVER made them; even if I upscale existing Tacticals (all the while they're still available...) I still have to print bigger legs. In either event, going after such things seems less to do with GW not wanting to lose sales and more to do with just not wanting people to have models. Which doesn't sound like a great moral standpoint... The above gets even MORE murky when people distribute files for free, thus even the argument of "They're profiting off our IP" goes out the window.

 

Anyway, to cut a long, long, LONG story short, it's not quite as cut and dried as it might seem at first glance, and I certainly think GW could choose to be a lot more lenient and probably save money from not having to dispatch their lawyers every five seconds.

 

However, that's not really what I'm here to talk about.

 

PART TWO: THE BRIGHT AGE OF TECHNOLOGY

 

What I really wanted to discuss was not "Should GW be as aggressive as they are towards STL distributors" (IMO no) but more "How could GW actually make 3D printing work for them". Because they absolutely could, and I genuinely believe that they'd only stand to gain from it, both financially and in terms of community goodwill.

 

The first approach I can see would be selling STLs of certain things themselves; nothing crazy, but conversion parts like shoulder pads, heads, weapons etc that wouldn't sell well enough to justify the cost of a new sprue, but people would still definitely buy. Now, obviously people redistributing the files is a concern, however this is where the old truism of piracy being a service issue comes up. For the sorts of things GW would be selling this way, and given the production cost is effectively zero as they're not making any physical inventory, as long as the prices were reasonable I reckon far more people would just buy the files than try and save a few pounds on a head by trawling through Telegram groups or whatever. And given GW are already experienced and bopping STL sellers, I can't see it posing a huge issue for them.

 

Even aside from the obvious benefit of being able to sell models without having to actually stock them, I feel like it would also be a massive good-will generator for GW. "Hey, we know how annoying it is when you can't find quite the right arm for your Space Marine Captain- but now you can get the exact parts you need from the comfort of your own home!" would honestly be a really welcome move, and also undercut third parties.

 

The other approach is for whole models or larger parts, and rather than selling STLs, they could effectively bring back the Forge World name and use it to sell models made to order in house. Forge World already existed for the purpose of selling models that wouldn't be viable as plastic kits, and switching from poured resin in rubber moulds to printed resin in, well, a printer would actually make such an endeavour viable again. GW would only even produce these models when someone actually bought them, so no stock sitting around taking up space, and this would also allow for proper QC- you don't have to worry about getting a miscast, not only because the MTO-model means they can afford to inspect the parts thoroughly and ensure there's no issues, but also because, once the models have been set up to print (supported etc), well... that's it. No need to worry about mould wear or miscasts- as long as the printer is properly maintained, a well supported model will print identically every single time. Oh yeah, and no need to worry about making and storing moulds because the printer is basically every single mould you could possibly imagine in one package. To be honest, the only concern is they would need to use decent resin, but with GW's budget and the progress of UV resin over the years, it's absolutely possible for them to develop a resin for this purpose that's strong enough for the job.

 

TLDR: You'd have all the benefits of the resin cast models of classic FW (higher detail, lower production costs and thus less time to break even on said costs, etc) pumped up to 11 with basically none of the downsides (variable QC, the inherent difficulty of casting resin, storing moulds and inventory).

 

 

 

To summarize:

>GW are definitely overprotective regarding STLs, and even aside from the legal/moral arguments, probably don't actually gain much practically speaking from their lawfare crusades

>GW could possibly get into the STL game themselves for smaller conversion bits so long as they didn't overprice the files

>GW could absolutely resurrect the Forge World brand as in-house MTO prints for the sort of things FW used to make, except without the downsides.

 

Anyway. That's my thoughts. Over to you!

[roryokane]

3 hours ago, Evil Eye said:

Yep. It's that time again; there's been thoughts stewing in my brain and they've coalesced into a vaguely coherent stream of consciousness about something related to the hobby. That's right! It's time for an Evil Eye Essay!

 

(Cue the boos and throwing of tomatoes)

 

Anyway, I'll preface this by saying I might be a bit biased as I adore 3D printing, and even if 40K ceased to be a thing entirely overnight I'd still be into printing because being able to turn goo or plastic spaghetti into 3D objects is absolutely magical to me. It's also considerably less hassle than paper printing, amusingly enough. So please do bear that in mind whilst reading this spiel.

 

With that aside, let the logorrhoea commence...

 

PART 1: GOO, GW AND YOU.

 

First and foremost I think it's fair to say 3D printing has massively evolved from the days of the first consumer-grade printers. Speaking purely on resin (as I feel it's the most relevant to our hobby) we've gone from temperamental machines that can make decently detailed but visibly layered models, quite slowly and out of rather brittle material to incredibly hands-off devices that can quickly produce miniatures that look flawless with minimal sanding, and a wide variety of resins- including some strong enough to make functional parts out of, never mind wargaming models! Resin printing has become better, more accessible and as a result more popular than I had ever though possible in a very short span of time. On top of that, whilst technology is improving rapidly even now and previous-gen machines rapidly depreciate in cost, they're still just as good now as they were when they came out, which means if you forsake a few bells and whistles you can get a fantastic printer for a surprisingly cheap price. I do feel like the accessibility element may have slightly plateaued if only because I don't think it's possible to get around the inherent faff of washing and post-curing the models, though as a counter, auto-supports are becoming incredibly reliable which means you don't have to rely on being an engineering expert or getting professional pre-supports to print your stuff. But the point is, getting into printing is not massively difficult or even necessarily expensive nowadays, and there is a quite large and healthy ecosystem and userbase for it.

 

The result of this is that 3D printed parts or even full models are now commonplace in wargaming and miniature modelling circles. This, on the whole, has been a very good thing; beforehand, if you wanted a specific piece for a conversion, or a replacement part for an incomplete or damaged miniature, you'd have to trawl eBay or bitz seller sites and pray they had what you needed for a good price and that Goldfishblue (ech) hadn't snatched them all up to sell for horrifically inflated sums of money. Nowadays, it's comically easy to find almost any bitz you might need on STL sites, often for free, and once you have the file you can print as many as you want- at whatever size you want even! Likewise, it's given amateur miniature sculptors a new means to distribute their creations without having to mess about with silicone mould making or sell their kidneys to afford enough pewter to cast half a goblin's nose. The worst thing I can say is the barrier to entry has been lowered so much there is now a lot of absolute dreck on STL sites (not even touching on AI generated models; frankly even before the days when AI became able to generate STLs, there was no shortage of utter slop being peddled), but the existence of low-quality nonsense is not worth negating the genuinely amazing models that people put out.

 

With all that being said, it's no surprise that more than a few people have taken advantage of the 3D printer boom to supplement 40K players' arsenal, either providing conversion parts for existing minis or in some cases entire models that can fit in an army- and in some cases actual 1:1 scans of existing GW models. Obviously GW has not reacted very kindly to this and are very swift to strike down anything that could even be perceived as infringing on their property (ironic considering that Warhammer itself started as an excuse to sell models of settings they didn't have the rights to). Now, whilst I am quite, uh, outspoken on my thoughts on GW and IP law in general (TLDR: IP law is an absolute mess in dire need of revision, and GW are way too quick to abuse it, often using lawfare against completely innocent people- see the "Spots the Space Marine" debacle) I am going to try and remain as objective and nuanced as possible here, because I think there's quite a lot to unpack here.

 

My personal view of GW's approach to the 3D printing market and their lawfare against it is that it's incredibly heavy-handed and, even if borderline-justifiable under the precise letter of the law, takes protectionism to a frankly unnecessary degree and I would argue makes a solid basis for the case against current IP law. This isn't just me saying "GW sucks and charges too much for their miniatures, they get what they deserve" either; whilst there are definitely arguments that could be made that GW models are ridiculously overpriced (they are), and we will come back to that later, it actually doesn't matter whether I think GW is the best thing ever or literally (insert least favourite IRL dictator here) because their absurd protectionism is very difficult to logically justify.

 

For conversion parts, not only is striking down files that are intended to supplement existing models completely unnecessary (as A: they require the purchase of GW parts to begin with and thus are actually boosting sales, and B: are 99 times out of 100 something GW doesn't offer themselves...hence why there's even a market for them) but last I checked, offering parts that are compatible with an existing product is completely legal, and actually protected as such by law. If as an example someone designs from scratch an STL for a flail for a Contemptor Dreadnought kit, I'm fairly certain GW isn't even legally in the right if they try and get it taken down any more than if I design a replacement dial knob STL for an oven and distribute it (monetized or not), Russell Hobbs would not have the right to C&D me for doing this. Of course, these legal protections often don't hold much real weight as most people lack the resources to point this out to them in court, but even disregarding that, the point that a conversion part is fundamentally useless without an existing kit to convert remains. You could make the argument that GW loses sales of someone buying a whole box for one shoulder pad, but even aside from the inherent absurdity of that argument, that isn't necessarily a lost sale- but we'll get to that.

 

The more grey area is entire models. GW are definitely more justified in going after these, however I do maintain it is a bit of a "case by case", uh, case. Someone selling STLs of direct scans of a model GW is actively producing is asking for trouble, for certain. Where it gets more difficult is 100% original sculpts (that is, not scans) that resemble existing models/concepts but differ from them substantially enough that they could be considered transformative or legally distinct. Here the argument could be made that the "loss of sales" angle falls flat as the buyer of such a model is doing so not to avoid paying for GW's model, but because he fundamentally likes how it looks better- no sale has been lost because the sale would never have happened in the first place. For example- someone wants a Carnifex, but the current model is not to their taste (blasphemous I know). A sculptor offers a printable totally-not-Carnifex kit which, whilst instantly recognizable as a Carnifex from a WYSIWYG perspective, is quite obviously a very different sculpt rather than a direct clone. In this case, the customer was explicitly not going to buy the plastic Carnifex to begin with- GW striking down such a file doesn't gain them a sale, it just means he doesn't now have a Carnifex. Nobody gains anything from GW C&Ding it. Even more of a grey area is reproductions (including scans) of models GW just straight up doesn't make anymore, or have never made. In the former example, regardless of whether I successfully source an STL of the original Mk I Rhino kit from RT or it gets bonked, GW aren't making/losing any sales of it because they haven't sold it in over 25 years; I physically cannot buy it from GW. For the latter, if I want modern scale Mk VII Marines, I have no choice but to go 3D because GW have NEVER made them; even if I upscale existing Tacticals (all the while they're still available...) I still have to print bigger legs. In either event, going after such things seems less to do with GW not wanting to lose sales and more to do with just not wanting people to have models. Which doesn't sound like a great moral standpoint... The above gets even MORE murky when people distribute files for free, thus even the argument of "They're profiting off our IP" goes out the window.

 

Anyway, to cut a long, long, LONG story short, it's not quite as cut and dried as it might seem at first glance, and I certainly think GW could choose to be a lot more lenient and probably save money from not having to dispatch their lawyers every five seconds.

 

However, that's not really what I'm here to talk about.

 

PART TWO: THE BRIGHT AGE OF TECHNOLOGY

 

What I really wanted to discuss was not "Should GW be as aggressive as they are towards STL distributors" (IMO no) but more "How could GW actually make 3D printing work for them". Because they absolutely could, and I genuinely believe that they'd only stand to gain from it, both financially and in terms of community goodwill.

 

The first approach I can see would be selling STLs of certain things themselves; nothing crazy, but conversion parts like shoulder pads, heads, weapons etc that wouldn't sell well enough to justify the cost of a new sprue, but people would still definitely buy. Now, obviously people redistributing the files is a concern, however this is where the old truism of piracy being a service issue comes up. For the sorts of things GW would be selling this way, and given the production cost is effectively zero as they're not making any physical inventory, as long as the prices were reasonable I reckon far more people would just buy the files than try and save a few pounds on a head by trawling through Telegram groups or whatever. And given GW are already experienced and bopping STL sellers, I can't see it posing a huge issue for them.

 

Even aside from the obvious benefit of being able to sell models without having to actually stock them, I feel like it would also be a massive good-will generator for GW. "Hey, we know how annoying it is when you can't find quite the right arm for your Space Marine Captain- but now you can get the exact parts you need from the comfort of your own home!" would honestly be a really welcome move, and also undercut third parties.

 

The other approach is for whole models or larger parts, and rather than selling STLs, they could effectively bring back the Forge World name and use it to sell models made to order in house. Forge World already existed for the purpose of selling models that wouldn't be viable as plastic kits, and switching from poured resin in rubber moulds to printed resin in, well, a printer would actually make such an endeavour viable again. GW would only even produce these models when someone actually bought them, so no stock sitting around taking up space, and this would also allow for proper QC- you don't have to worry about getting a miscast, not only because the MTO-model means they can afford to inspect the parts thoroughly and ensure there's no issues, but also because, once the models have been set up to print (supported etc), well... that's it. No need to worry about mould wear or miscasts- as long as the printer is properly maintained, a well supported model will print identically every single time. Oh yeah, and no need to worry about making and storing moulds because the printer is basically every single mould you could possibly imagine in one package. To be honest, the only concern is they would need to use decent resin, but with GW's budget and the progress of UV resin over the years, it's absolutely possible for them to develop a resin for this purpose that's strong enough for the job.

 

TLDR: You'd have all the benefits of the resin cast models of classic FW (higher detail, lower production costs and thus less time to break even on said costs, etc) pumped up to 11 with basically none of the downsides (variable QC, the inherent difficulty of casting resin, storing moulds and inventory).

 

 

 

To summarize:

>GW are definitely overprotective regarding STLs, and even aside from the legal/moral arguments, probably don't actually gain much practically speaking from their lawfare crusades

>GW could possibly get into the STL game themselves for smaller conversion bits so long as they didn't overprice the files

>GW could absolutely resurrect the Forge World brand as in-house MTO prints for the sort of things FW used to make, except without the downsides.

 

Anyway. That's my thoughts. Over to you!

I actually agree with most of this. However, it feels too sensible for GW to take up!

Edited June 16 by roryokane

[Scribe]

You realize of course, of course!?, that its only by the good graces of their models, that GW has the absolutely comical profit margins that they have, and that without an ironclad monopoly on the 'best wargaming miniatures around' and yes the basis of the IP which gives those models form, that GW would have quite literally nothing?

 

I mean lets be real, they are not going to make it as an actual game company.

 

They HAVE to smash 3d printers, and they can never start encouraging it, because they would die otherwise.

 

I mean they have let their novel lines wither, their rules have been borderline offensive to anyone with an eye for design, and...the lore is the lore.

 

Without the models and their monopoly on said models? Toast.

[sarabando]

you cant put the genie back in the bottle. They will keep swinging the ban hammer but to paraphrase princes leia "the more your tighten your grip the more will slip between your fingers" 

 

The files are on the internet, even if the internet evaporated then people would share files via USB etc. 

The only way to tackle the problem is provide a better product/service. 

 

Licencing takes the cost of any production away from GW and protects their IP, they can have strict rules about what is an isnt permitted and aim it towards the more senior hobbiest who they have repeatedly shown that they dont want to cater for. 

[Grotsmasha]

GW prints masters themselves, have their own proprietary resin. 

I think a *reasonable* way forward for them would be licensed vendors who can sell physical only prints, on GW's resin, of Legends / OoP models that they themselves no longer stock or sell.

[phandaal]

6 hours ago, Scribe said:

They HAVE to smash 3d printers, and they can never start encouraging it, because they would die otherwise.

 

Agreed. It is far more likely that GW has their lawyers working on whatever law they can find to take down the main printing file hubs like Cults3D and MyMiniFactory.

 

Right now, their lawfare strategy seems focused on individuals, but it is only a matter of time before they go after the sources. I rate that as a much higher probability than GW ever embracing printing as a way for people to get their minis.

 

On the production side... Maybe for Forge World stuff? (Although I am not convinced they will even keep that line of minis, since everything is moving to plastic and all the brands are becoming "Warhammer.") If printing becomes cheaper than the traditional resin process and GW is still even selling resin, maybe.

[Lord Marshal]

3D printing I think is far more likely to hurt GW's competitors than GW itself. People outside of a GW-Bubble have already shown they're happy to go elsewhere than 'the biggest game in town' and tend to be more mercenary about their purchasing habits - the percentage of non-GW gamers using 3D prints is probably higher than the percentage with GW kits. Those competitors also don't have the legal resources of GW (save maybe certain big licenses like Star Wars being able to call on Disney lawyers by proxy) to get into an extended fight about people ripping them off.

 

I always use the airbrush analogy. The airbrush is an excellent tool for getting primes, basecoats and potentially even shading and highlights done quickly Long-term the initially high investment pays off versus buying rattle cans (especially Citadel ones), but at the end of the day... the majority of people don't airbrush, whether because they can't or simply have no interest in doing so, sometimes because of that upfront cost, sometimes because they simply lack the space for it, sometimes because they just don't want to bother learning another tool, but the result is the same. I think 3D printers very much fall into that same camp, except you have even more fiddly setups and the resin fumes to contend with as well. 

 

At the end of the day, the vast majority of people are always going to be content grabbing a plastic box off the shelf versus everything that 3D printing entails. The amount of damage that Finecrap did to the perception of resin as a material also cannot be understated, which is probably in part what is driving GW's plastic push.

 

I've been hearing that GW will be shuttered by 3D printing for well over a decade at this point and we don't appear to be any closer to that, despite the technology having improved in that time. I'm not saying that the 3D printing scene won't also grow with it, just not to such an extent that GW will pay much attention to it beyond sending their lawyers after the most blatant derivatives. If I was Corvus Belli or Steamforge I'd be more worried, though.

 

I think Trench Crusade is an excellent case study to look at it too - if anything it probably undermines my concerns for non-GW games. It initially set itself up as the 3D printer/proxy/conversion darling of the wargaming scene and it's fair to say a lot of drivers behind the initial hype were "this isn't your GW slop baybeee, here the printer goes BRRRR and it never stops!".

 

Then, once they had the capital, they pivoted to focusing on plastic kits and said their own 3D offerings were done. So long and thanks for all the fish. Has that actually hurt Trench Crusade? It doesn't seem like it. A lot of the hardcore printer-individuals were declaring it the death of Trench Crusade overnight, but if anything the plastic drive seems to have driven a lot more people to the game who were initially on the bench or waiting for a retail release.

 

TLDR I just don't think GW really care beyond lawyering the worst derivatives and their ongoing plastic push. Convenience and ease will trump everything else. Maybe if their profits shrink dramatically but- well, that's seemingly not going to happen anymore. With said profits always on the rise there's not much reason for them to throw a bone to 3D printers.

 

Edited June 16 by Lord Marshal

[Brother Casman]

Much as I agree with the initial premise, I doubt that GW will want the hassle of trying to help individual people with failed prints, printer troubleshooting, etc. Even if GW were to partner with a 3d Printer company (let's say Prusa, for fun), are their new partners prepared to deal with the influx of hobbyists? Will GW want to have an "official Warhammer" branded product and will their erstwhile partners want to provide such? Will they be able to develop a Warhammer branded resin? Would it even be any good?

 

Of course, this also supposes that GW deems it cost-effective to provide stl files for upgrade sprues, etc. While I have no doubt that the internal design process throws off all kinds of "almost good enough" things that could get turned into cheap digital files, will these be acceptable enough to be Warhammer branded? It also supposes that GW returns to a more forgiving modularity for building minis, is this something GW will want to do?

 

Much as I would totally be on board for selling stls under a resurrected Forge World brand, I get the sense this plan is probably too high-risk, low-reward for GW. I think the vast majority of their customers are content with the existing process of buying, building, and painting minis.

 

Though, I will admit, I do like your vision of a more customer friendly future, @Evil Eye. Perhaps we'll get there someday!

[Evil Eye]

2 hours ago, Lord Marshal said:

Has that actually hurt Trench Crusade? It doesn't seem like it. A lot of the hardcore printer-individuals were declaring it the death of Trench Crusade overnight, but if anything the plastic drive seems to have driven a lot more people to the game who were initially on the bench or waiting for a retail release.

I would slightly disagree, but more because I think the (IMO extremely dickish) rugpull of STL artists and printer users was just one thing that contributed to Trench Crusade shooting itself in the foot; they've absolutely alienated a LOT of potential customers in all sorts of manners, most of which fall outside the purview of this forum. It's not dead (yet) but it could be doing a hell of a lot better had they not done some of the things they did.

 

I do completely agree that I don't see 3D printers spelling the death of GW (which wasn't something I was trying to insinuate, for what it's worth) but rather that GW could actually make make money and recoup community goodwill from putting their own finger in the pie rather than trying to smash it with a hammer.

[Antarius]

I'm honestly not sure what would be the smartest thing for GW to do. There's a subset of the community who will interpret whatever they do in the worst possible light, so I'm not sure they can actually gain a lot of goodwill from going the 3D printing route, but personally I think it'd be nice to have the possibility to buy more niche things like shoulder pads for less mainstream chapters, bionic limbs etc. from them whether they were 3D printed or cast normally.

[phandaal]

2 hours ago, Lord Marshal said:

Those competitors also don't have the legal resources of GW (save maybe certain big licenses like Star Wars being able to call on Disney lawyers by proxy) to get into an extended fight about people ripping them off.

 

Funny thing about this is there are VERY close proxy creators for SW Legion, with legit websites and everything, and Disney seems not to take any notice of them. It was something else to realize that even the evil mouse empire is less litigious about their wargame product than Games Workshop. You would think Star Wars would be more important to them, but apparently not in this instance.

 

As a B1 Droid enjoyer and man of culture (but I repeat myself), I appreciate this fact. 

[Evil Eye]

29 minutes ago, phandaal said:

As a B1 Droid enjoyer and man of culture (but I repeat myself), I appreciate this fact. 

My clanka! Droidekas/Destroyer Droids are my personal favourite but the Battle Droids are a close second. Honestly the visual design in Episode 1 was fantastic in general, shame the movie is kind of a mess (even if I maintain it's mainly the attachment to Star Wars that hurts it and if it had the Star Wars identifiers removed it would be a goofy but really fun sci-fi lark).

 

But yes, that is a very salient point. Disney is known for being extremely controlling over their IP, and have many times the wealth of GW, but they're nowhere NEAR as bad with this sort of thing. Likewise, Nintendo is incredibly litigious to an absurd degree but they're STILL better than GW in that regard.

[Ahzek451]

As a few people have pointed out, sometimes its just easier to buy a rattle can/ plastic box off the shelf. Despite vast improvements, getting into 3d printing still isn't as easy as it could be regarding setup, knowhow, fumes management, etc. . Nothing I said is new, HOWEVER...what I am curious to see if it pushes the needle is advancement in AI. We are at a point where you can show AI an artwork and image and it will make a 3d model. Refine the process a bit and this could push the needle to add incentive to get into printing. "hey AI, make me a 3d render of a wood elf". "Processing....model complete. Do you approve model to print?" "Well yes, that looks fine dandy, print away".  

[Jukkiz]

The 3d printing ain´t issue for GW, we know very well that they aswell use 3d prints. Seen those often in articles, promos sneak peeks etc. 

How GW could prevent much of said 3d printing by "fans" is the question with simple asnwer or two. Lower the prices, bring back modularity and stop pushing space marines down everyones throats. Keep MADE-TO-ORDER selection open all year around aswell. 

[ThaneOfTas]

I'm definitely in agreement that using 3d printing to still sell bits that they view as being not worth producing kits for would seem to be an all around good move. Simly as a current example, I flat out do not believe that GW intends to produce plastic upgrades for all of the Legions in all of the mks of power armour for 30k, and yet with them seeming to be taking resin out behind the woodshed, were left with nothing at all, meaning that 30k fans, statistically already more likely to be older and more invested in the hobby to begin with, are thus likely to already be turning to 3d prints to full that gap. GW is never going to be able to slap down all of the stls of helmets and pauldrons on these websites, frankly they're just too simple to model at this point, its like trying to fight the hydra. So either they can produce their own official options and get a large slice of the pie simply by didn't of being the official option, or they can try and get the pie stall shut down while four more get up down the street.

 

Also for the record, I fundamentally disagree on Trench Crusade, While the way that they've treated 3d printing isn't ideal, its not the worst thing in the word either, and as for their other actions and statements that has caused controversy? Suffice to say that I and a great many others would have been unwilling to touch the property with a ten foot pole had certain parts of the community not been nipped in the bud. It took trench crusade from something that I figured I'd be unwilling to associate with, be being something that I was actively interested in very quickly. Also, frankly they're continuing to ramp up production of official plastics while also rolling out official 3d printing partners all over the world, so I think that its safe to say that its not hurt them finacially.

[AenarIT]

On 6/16/2026 at 6:46 AM, Scribe said:

You realize of course, of course!?, that its only by the good graces of their models, that GW has the absolutely comical profit margins that they have, and that without an ironclad monopoly on the 'best wargaming miniatures around' and yes the basis of the IP which gives those models form, that GW would have quite literally nothing?

 

I mean lets be real, they are not going to make it as an actual game company.

 

They HAVE to smash 3d printers, and they can never start encouraging it, because they would die otherwise.

 

I mean they have let their novel lines wither, their rules have been borderline offensive to anyone with an eye for design, and...the lore is the lore.

 

Without the models and their monopoly on said models? Toast.

This. I've been an avid printer for the past few years, to the point I print more than I buy nowadays.
But I agree on this, they can't even aknowlegde the existance of 3d printers if they want to keep their monopoly.

It's all about this, which they reiterate multiple times in their annual reports (last one here): 

Quote

Review of the period 
[...]
We once again have designed, made and sold in record quantities, the best fantasy miniatures in the world.
[...]

Review of the period - core business 
Design
Our Warhammer Studio has remained focused, as always, on designing the best fantasy miniatures in the world.
[...]

Manufacturing
Our manufacturing focus has remained, as always, on producing the best fantasy miniatures in the world. [...]

The best fantasy miniatures in the world are theirs, and theirs alone. The moment they say you can make them yourself, it all crumbles down.

[kabaakaba]

GW is big enough (or biggest in hobby) company  to make their own Printing app. I'm sure resin printers manufacturers would be happy to make drivers for such app.  Since label GW PRINTER would boost sales of such printers. So there would be GW approved printers and gw approved resin. So you open app, pay said 50% of plastic kit price and print your kit/miniature/upgrade. 

[Antarius]

I'm honestly not sure what is the right or most economically sound decision for them to take. I mean, if they go down the 3D-printing route, people might be willing to pay for the things or they might ask themselves "why would I pay 50% when I can just as easily pay 0% now that I've already gone to the trouble of getting a 3D printer and learning how to use it?" and it's really not easy to say, how many people will think what. But I can see why GW are somewhat cagey about it.

[kabaakaba]

Corporations already make us pay for cinema, music and games in internet. God-Empreror, HP makes printers with subscripions. I think many hobbyist would prefer high quality STLs optimized for printing right from GW exactly to not trouble themself with some not approved printer and stuff

[Halandaar]

If it was me running the company, I'd be resurrecting the ForgeWorld brand as an in-house 3d print shop, not unlike Pop Goes the Monkey. There's a massive market for faction-specific bits and GW used to tap into that with the FW resin upgrade sets - switching that same principle from cast resin to 3d printing allows you to pump out those armour-mark-specific shoulder pad sets with chapter icons on with basically no production setup costs and no warehousing, just print/QC/pack/ship. The number of product variations you can offer skyrockets because you don't have to maintain physical moulds or inventory, and just a couple of competent 3d artists can roll out new products on a weekly basis.

 

It can be all your usual fare like shoulder pads, helmets, weapons, accessories, vehicle icons etc, but because they've got all the 3d assets for the plastic range already it would be fairly trivial for them to make upgrade parts that match specific kits; imagine a webstore where you can add a Primaris Captain to your cart, and then you can select optional resin upgrades designed specifically for that kit like an Imperial Fists chestplate or a Exorcists legplate with the runic designs on, maybe whole sets like a Salamander kit that gives you a scaled version of the cloak, a chestplate with chain decoration rather than ropes, chainmail tabard with hammer/smithing tools, a chapter-specific shoulder pad etc. You can repeat that for basically every kit to create a sprawling product range that never needs maintenance or physical storage space. 

 

It would also be a far more effective (and profitable) way of undermining the third-party bits market than their continual litigation efforts.

 

 

 

[Jukkiz]

7 hours ago, ThaneOfTas said:

I'm definitely in agreement that using 3d printing to still sell bits that they view as being not worth producing kits for would seem to be an all around good move. Simly as a current example, I flat out do not believe that GW intends to produce plastic upgrades for all of the Legions in all of the mks of power armour for 30k, and yet with them seeming to be taking resin out behind the woodshed, were left with nothing at all, meaning that 30k fans, statistically already more likely to be older and more invested in the hobby to begin with, are thus likely to already be turning to 3d prints to full that gap. GW is never going to be able to slap down all of the stls of helmets and pauldrons on these websites, frankly they're just too simple to model at this point, its like trying to fight the hydra. So either they can produce their own official options and get a large slice of the pie simply by didn't of being the official option, or they can try and get the pie stall shut down while four more get up down the street.

 

Also for the record, I fundamentally disagree on Trench Crusade, While the way that they've treated 3d printing isn't ideal, its not the worst thing in the word either, and as for their other actions and statements that has caused controversy? Suffice to say that I and a great many others would have been unwilling to touch the property with a ten foot pole had certain parts of the community not been nipped in the bud. It took trench crusade from something that I figured I'd be unwilling to associate with, be being something that I was actively interested in very quickly. Also, frankly they're continuing to ramp up production of official plastics while also rolling out official 3d printing partners all over the world, so I think that its safe to say that its not hurt them finacially.

Oh yes, they sometimes produce one time kit and then poof, it´s gone, usually replaced with "better" or kit with more options, Example 

[roryokane]

3 hours ago, Jukkiz said:

Oh yes, they sometimes produce one time kit and then poof, it´s gone, usually replaced with "better" or kit with more options, Example 

They could bring back the old style catalogue to allow us to order individual sprues/bits... and print them on demand?

[Scribe]

7 hours ago, kabaakaba said:

Corporations already make us pay for cinema, music and games in internet. God-Empreror, HP makes printers with subscripions. I think many hobbyist would prefer high quality STLs optimized for printing right from GW exactly to not trouble themself with some not approved printer and stuff

 

GWs mark up is on raw plastic. That's how they make their money.

 

Once someone else is printing the same models and undercuts them, then what?

[Scribe]

Lol @SvenIronhand what do you so respectfully disagree with? Everyone knows what makes GW its money.

 

they reinforce it every financial statement!

[phandaal]

7 minutes ago, Scribe said:

Lol @SvenIronhand what do you so respectfully disagree with? Everyone knows what makes GW its money.

 

they reinforce it every financial statement!

 

He just doesn't like that you said it. As for why, who knows, because that is just about the most neutral thing you could say, and also objectively true. 

 

Just imagine it coming with a "nyeh!" sound effect and it goes from confusing to funny.