Online services for designing your miniatures
In my travels through the endless Internet, I came across several sites for creating miniatures. And some of them came across me as well (via Facebook ads). Considering that I am currently in the Star Wars phase, I tried two such sites where I successfully created several characters from this famous franchise.
These are Eldritch Foundry and TitanCraft and they are primarily intended for creating D'n'D miniatures, but they have lightsaber options so they can be used for SW as well. Also worth mentioning is the Hero Forge, which I haven't tried because I haven't found the option to add a lightsaber.
I will not explain the character creation process in particular, because the matter is quite intuitive and clear. Each of these two sites has a handful of options such as body, head, clothing, items, base, pose, etc. Almost every one has sub-options, so the combinations are practically endless. I think the figure can be created and purchased without registration, but I definitely recommend registering - it's fast and free. Registration allows you to create a base of characters that do not have to be purchased, i.e. that can be saved for later and subsequently refined. Even after purchase. The problem is that if you want to move your character's little finger after purchase, it is a new figure that has to be paid for (Eldritch Foundry). For a 3d printed figure this is as clear as "good day", but it is also true for STLs. And now I have practically revealed to you that you can download your creations on both sites as STL or order as a 3d printed miniature.
In the rest of this article, I will list some good and bad sides of each site. I repeat, I am writing from the point of view of someone who is interested in Star Wars. Fans of D'n'D, fantasy, sci-fi, and even steampunk will find more for themselves. I also haven't spent much time trying out these two creators. This means that some of my criticisms may not be appropriate - maybe I just haven't learned how to do something.
Eldritch Foundry
There are definitely more options and sub-options. In addition to the humanoid, I also managed to create a character of the Zabrak type (Darth Maul). From the lightsaber, there is a regular, dual, t-hilt guard (Kylo Ren) and something I would call pulsating while they called it "unstable beam".
If you don't like it, you don't have to put together characters from scratch, there are ready-made ones divided into groups such as casters, fighters, cyberpunk, etc. If you still decide on your character, and you don't want to deal with every detail, there are outfits for scourers, warriors , monks, etc. There are also predefined poses (cast, defend, duel, mount) that you can modify yourself if you want.
I'm not sure what scale they come in (by default these characters). However, there is a scaling option with a ruler, so you will easily adjust the scale of the figure according to your needs. And if you take STL, you will be able to additionally correct it in the slicer.
A bunch of options can be turned off. Don't want your character to have hair? No problem, turn off the currently active hair option and you get a character without hair. However, I have not found that the bases can be turned off. The issue has been resolved so that when you purchase the STL you will receive 3 files. One is a figure with a base, the other is the figure itself, and the third is the base itself. But this is not clear until you buy the first STL from this site. Even customer support confuses you. To my inquiry about the separation of the bases, I received the answer that it is impossible, even though the purchased STL refutes them.
Eldritch Foundry is slightly more expensive than its competitor, which will be described below. The 3d printed figure costs a whopping $25 (I didn't check how much shipping is), while the STL price is $5. However, they recently started a promotional campaign, so many YouTube content creators give a code for a 15% discount. Another disadvantage is that their conversion of US dollars to euros is 1:1 (the conversion rate at the time of writing the article is $1 = €0.91). But not to end with the negative sides, there are monthly ($15/month) and annual options ($10/month) with the possibility of unlimited download of your creations, which is great for those who need a lot of characters and who print a lot.
TitanCraft
In principle, both described sites are very similar, but there are several differences. The TitanCraft service offers slightly fewer options and sub-options than its predecessor, but this number is still enough for a huge amount of creations. It seems slightly less inspected and the sculpts are of lower quality. However, these differences compared to Eldritch Foundry are measured in shades. Be sure to register to save your creations, but also for one detail that will be described in the finance section.
I personally like using this site because the lightsaber they offer is much more realistically proportioned (the one on EF seems too thick although the difference is not as obvious when the figures are printed). Unfortunately, I was only able to find one type of lightsaber (eg no double bladed).
What's great about TitanCraft is about to be described. 3d prints are cheaper than EF ($15), while the STL download is free. What's the problem? Well, there is. Items cost (usually $0.75 per item). Of course, some items are also free, so you can put together a character that will be free to download. I managed to assemble characters for 2-3$. It's a great thing that once an item is purchased, it remains yours on your profile, i.e. you can use it for free for the next character. That's why I mentioned above that it's good to register (although I'm not sure if shopping can even go without registration). This is a great thing if, for example, you want to change the pose of the same character. Or, for example, you can use a breastplate purchased once on another character for free.
There is no subscription like EF, but for $360 you can buy a commercial license that includes free access to all items and permission to sell prints. If you subscribe to the newsletter during registration, you will also receive a one-time coupon for a 10% discount. Unfortunately, I didn't find an option to buy items without using them and put them in one of my libraries, but they are bought when downloading the STL of the character you created.
I note once again that the article presents my views and my (modest) experience with these two sites. This means that some options may exist, but I have not been able to discover them.
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