print your own figures

This post is perhaps not Malifaux specific. OK, it' s not at all Malifaux specific, it's generic and applicable to any figure gaming system.

A quick google suggests a 3D printer is currently available for a mere £15,000. Hmm.. OK, that's a lot of money, but, like any technology it'll start to come down. And I was wondering, does this have implications for our hobby?

Why accept the costs of manufacturing, packaging and distributing figures if you can sell the template for people to print their own in their own home?

You the user would browse the wyrd web site, think, hmm.. I like that one, click a button, order it, receive the template there and then and have a figure 5 minutes later.



Mini figure 3d printed. image by Creative Tools

Now I'm no 3d printing expert, I don't know what the limitations of these devises are, but from what I've seen of what can be printed, I think these machines are more than capable of printing these figures, maybe some of them will need to be printed in sections and glued together, but they could still be printed. In fact, as you can see, a quick search and I've found someone that's already done it.

Also, for those that aren't painting fans, colour 3d printers are also available. Perhaps before too long they will be sophisticated enough to print colour well enough that you could buy a colour template and not need to paint the figure afterwards?

There would need to be a method of limiting the number of times you could print a template. GW aren't going to sell you one orc template and watch you print off 200 of the blighters are they?

Not sure if figure prices would be cheaper for the consumer or not, the manufacturer could reduce their prices as they'd have no manufacturing costs, no distribution costs and no packaging costs. However consumers would need raw materials, and the printer of course.

There are of course implications for game stores too. They sell plenty of things beyond figures, but this could make a dent.

But, at the end of the day, maybe this is all just a rambling pipe dream.

These printers are still very expensive, it might cause too much of an upheaval to the industry, and lets face it, it hasn't happened in an area it could have done already.. the books and manuals our games rely on.

What do you think? Let me know.

crew creator

Fed up with deciding which models can be used with which masters under which circumstances?

What you need is an app, something that knows all the rules, prevents you from making invalid selections and shows you how many Soul Stones you have left to select from and what your pool will be.

What you need can be found on Malifaux's web site, right here - Crew Creator

This excellent little on-line app is truly superb.
Select your faction and game type, game size, Master(s) and Henchman with Totems or without and if applicable select your masters Avatar.

Crew Creator

Then select your minions.  Special forces and mercenaries are all handled correctly dependant on master.


Nothing could be easier.

Each minion is listed in a colour relevent to the faction it is from, Guild Burgandy, Arcanists Blue etc.. so you can see where you're hiring out of faction.

Add and delete minions, see what mix you can come up with.




If you change your master, and you can, the list will also disappear, which is a pity but hard;y surprising.

One thing I'd like to change is the seemingly random order that Minions are listed in the drop downs.  They're not listed alphabetically, or by faction or soul stone value.  It'd be nice if you could specify how you want them listed.

In addition you have to be on-line to use it.  Please Wyrd, can we have this as an App soon?  (Android preferably).

february releases

Wyrd have posted their February releases on the forum:  February Releases

Here are my favourites from this months selection.

Witchling Handler

Witchling Handler (c) Wyrd Miniatures

Original artwork (c) Wyrd Miniatures

I really like this figure, very much reflective of the gorgeous artwork.  I currently have no Withcling Stalkers, but I feel I may have to change that.  I'll certainly get this figure at some point, even if just to paint.

(c) Wyrd Miniatures

Kirai Avatar

This is a gorgeous sculpt, really organic and flowing.  The sleeves are almost too much for me, but I love the detail of Kirai lying on the floor, her hand reaching out.  If I ever get Kirai, and she's top of my resers list, I'll definately be getting this figure too.

(c) Wyrd Miniatures

Rafkin the Embalmer

Yet another reason to go resurs sooner rather than later.  nice figure.  Though I know I've no chance of re-creating those trousers, beautiful paint job here really helps to sell the figure.

(c) Wyrd Miniatures

Ghost Town Bases

Lastly this month I love the Ghost Town bases.  They look cool at all sizes, however it's the 50mm which I love the most.  It really looks like a diorama all by itself.  It wont suit all figures, SnowStorm wont look in place on here for instance, but, get the correct figure and it's going to look so very very cool on here.

random bits and pieces

Not too much to report but a few things I thought I'd jot down.

(c) Wyrd Miniatures

Last night I put together Santiago Ortega.  Nicely modelled figure with little to no flash.  It's a two piece kit, his right arm is a separate piece.  This has a small contact point for gluing, there's a 'ball and socket' join to give more gluing area, but this was tricky to clean up as it was on this 'elbow' the arm was attached to the sprue.
Once I had it tidied up I was once again very grateful for my Filla Glu super glue and Kicka pen, which sets the glue off quickly.  My only worry is that the angle of the arm might make painting the face tricky, specifically his fabulous mutton chop sideburns, and I think they're important for this figure.  I should probably have pinned the arm in place but I am very impatient.  The glue, though I only used a very small amount, has left a gap between the parts of the arm.  I don't think the glue fills it all so this will give me a great opportunity to try out GW's Liquid Green Stuff tonight.  Will post pictures and thoughts on LGS afterwards.

Tonight I hope to finish off the Santiago build and to do some more painting.  The big question is what to paint?
I probably aught to finish off the Sorrows, but I'm mighty tempted to paint Candy, or Perdita, or maybe even Lady Justice.

On Thursday this week I will be giving my brother in law an introduction to Malifaux.  I plan to start with a very small game to get him used to the mechanics, before, if we have time, opening it up for something slightly larger.
hopefully I wont have to look too much up as we go along.
I'm planning on using 2 Guild crews - Lady Justice and Perdita, with 2 minions each.

There's a very interesting thread on the Wyrd miniatures forum regarding the future of Malifaux, worth a read if you have 10 minutes.  For what it's worth my take is that Malifaux is not and probably never will be 'complete'.  that we will see a regular output of new books and models.  Each of these will be independent of the main game (which I consider to be the Rules Manual, or first 2 books if you will) so you could play a core crew against an expanded crew quite reasonably, giving the player the choice as to whether or not to buy and play the expansion.
Anyway, you could check out the thread here - Malifaux Complete?

Scenery.  Don't know about you but I love having good scenery to play with.  However, when I sit down for a hobby evening it's the last thing on my mind, so I end up with half built un-painted scenery.  Here's a place selling laser cut HDF wild west buildings that I think would be fabulous for a game of Malifaux, I've added half a dozen of these buildings to my Christmas list. Check out Sarissa Precision cut Heroic scale Wild West buildings.

Lastly, I'm enjoying reading the  stories from Twisting Fates, should have bought this book a long time ago.  Am particularly enjoying the Ortega sections, Nicodems brief appearance and the Collette sections, this may fuel where I go next in my model collecting.

(Previously published elsewhere November 2011)