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Heroforge is a fantastic online application & tool used for creating custom-designed figurines. Using the built-in intuitive tools, users can customise the figurine’s traits to suit their intended vision. Once finished, you have a choice of mediums to export the design to whether it’s a digital file (STL) or 3D printed miniature by the Heroforge 3D printing service.
For ordering parts, Heroforge offers a 3D printing service in the USA to print the design in a variety of finishes including plastic, premium plastic, colour plastic & bronze. For physical parts outside of the USA (Europe & United Kingdom), Heroforge uses a 3rd party manufacturing partner.
This blog post is written for Heroforge users, answering questions such as; how they can get their designs manufactured quickly and how they can limit spending by using our 3D printing service.
For a sample Explorer 3D model, we’d recommend printing this part using SLA / Resin 3D printing. This option is the same as Premium Plastic option on the Heroforge 3D printing service and provides incredible detail at a very small scale making it ideal for 30mm 3D printed miniatures! Typically, this part would cost £6.14 (incl. VAT) however our minimum order value is £10.00 (incl. VAT). So, if you’re looking for multiple models, we’d recommend ordering these at the same time to avoid this threshold.
Source: Heroforge
Unlike Heroforge pricing, we offer attractive discounts for one or more models with our Heroforge 3D printing service. We recommend if you’re looking for multiple 3D printed miniatures to, check these out, as in some circumstances, we offer discounts up to 30% off (subject to volume).
| Service Provider | Technology | Quantity | Download | 3D Printing | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heroforge | SLA | 1 Unit | £0.00 | £22.29 | £22.29 |
| SGD | SLA | 1 Unit | £5.94 | £10.00 | £15.94 |
| Heroforge | SLA | 10 Units | £0.00 | £222.90 | £222.90 |
| SGD | SLA | 10 Units | £5.94 | £56.80 | £62.74 |
Heroforge offers a typical shipping time of about 4 weeks to produce and dispatch your custom design. We offer a typical shipping time of 5 working days! This is possible thanks to our advanced equipment & extensive manufacturing capacity and is done without compromising quality.
1. Design
Create your design using the Heroforge app. Using their easy-to-use interface, it’s simple to create your custom miniature and tailor your design to meet your wildest dreams. You can choose a variety of different options including the species, gear, clothing, poses and many more! It’s easy to spend hours getting lost creating the perfect figurine.
Once your custom design is perfected, we recommend selecting ‘STL Download’ this comes at a small premium of $7.99 however you retain full ownership of the 3D file and can print as many parts as possible you want with this file.
Source: Heroforge
2. Size & Scale
Heroforge characters are typically exported out at 30mm height and 1” base diameter when downloaded from the app. This is sometimes okay for some 3D printing technologies; however, some small details and complex geometry may not translate well on a small scale.
We recommend scaling the model to a larger size to improve the level of surface detail. As different 3D printing technologies have various constraints & minimum design requirements. Check out our design guide for more information.
3. Upload & Choose Material
We have two processes that excel for 3D printing miniatures, these are SLA & SLS. Both processes are ideal for printing these types of designs and have materials like those listed by the Heroforge 3D printing service.
Upload your custom miniature file to our instant quote tool & select your material. If you’re having difficulty choosing the right process or material, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our technical team. We advise starting with SLA as a starting point for 3D printing your custom miniature model. As the surface finish is smooth and perfect for painting your custom creation.
SLS is perfect for models with complex geometries and intricate details such as 3D printed miniatures. Thanks to it not requiring support structures, this process produces really clean parts. Be mindful when selecting this material that the surface finish is porous and will require post-processing & painting to achieve a smooth finish.
SLA / Resin 3D Printing ideal for small & detailed 3D printed miniatures. This process can produce incredibly small parts at an affordable price!
Want to know how much it costs to professionally print your files?
Once you have downloaded your 3D file from Heroforge there is a lot more you can do to customise your final design! Using 3D design packages such as z-brush, Maya & Mudbox. You can add detailing and textures, way beyond the capabilities and scope of the Heroforge app.
The standard height and size Heroforge exports 3D files are 30mm tall. Parts produced at this scale come with challenges and some details may become lost. We recommend scaling up your custom design to any size, 2x is usually a good benchmark and provides incredible detail at this scale.
Using our attractive quantity discounts, you can find a deal on producing 2 or more of the same file. We highly recommend trying to batch together as many parts as possible to maximise any discounts available.
Like using Heroforge? We also recommend checking our Hum3D which is another excellent resource for detailed & 3D printable miniatures & models.
Thanks for reading! If you’d like to know more about SLS / resin 3D printing be sure to read some of our other helpful guides and blog posts or get in touch with our technical team. Please leave a comment below if you’d like us to create a tutorial on how to create metal-plated miniatures for a fraction of the cost of online services. Do you have a 3D printing project we can help with? Please get in touch
Managing Director at SGD 3D Limited
Explore cutting-edge 3D printing solutions with our expert service, offering the latest technologies, a diverse material selection, and complimentary UK-wide delivery. With 100+ 5-star reviews on Google, it’s no surprise why so many customers trust us with their 3D printing needs!
