One of the many Facebook groups I belong to is a D&D page. One topic that constantly comes up other than people bitching about the ranger is where someone can get a figure for their D&D character. While I have already done posts talking about minis for your D&D game (see my Sept 2016 postst) I only briefly have mentioned a company called Heroforge https://www.heroforge.com/. This is a company that is brought up constantly and upon every mention I throw up in my mouth a little. In short I do not like the company.
Before I go into my dislikes of the company and club them like a baby seal or an NFL spouse, let me tell you a bit about them. They started as a kickstarter (what small company doesn't these days?) producing one of a kind 3d printed minis for your game. Need a wizards with a staff, they have you covered, need a fighter, boom figure.
Pros:
- They are constantly adding mini/item options daily
- I must admit their customization menu is fun as hell to play with
- They are also one of the few companies with tiefling and dragonborn options
- Minis are produced in various materials from "strong plastic" to "bronze"(not sure if this is a pro however)
Dislikes:
- Price: Minis range from $14.99 to 99.99(American Dollar) for a 28-30mm figure. While I have paid around $20 for some figures, the minimum 15 is not worth it, as you will see.
- Durability: There are various materials that you can get a mini in, all have their drawbacks. Lets assume you are a painter (as I am) I will be looking at the ultra detail plastic. I dropped a mini off my desk from a height of about 3 feet onto a soft rug. The figure broke into 3 pieces!
- They also produce a strong plastic option, that has NO DETAIL.
- Detail, again using the "ultra detail" as my metric, I will prove my point with the following picture:
In the above picture there are 3 Ultra Detail Heroforge figures and two primed Star Wars pre-painted figures. Unless you knew what was what you would not be able to tell the difference. The three on the left are Heroforge. Even after having been washed and given an alcohol bath you can still see grit and an uneven surface.
Here is how the figures looked before the prime job. I can't even see any detail and these are suppose to be the good ones!
To further my point I want to link you a fellow mini painter and fellow Dwarf-kin Minigrinder Studios. He has painted a few Heroforge minis on his channel and take a moment to look at how you can still see the tool striations and bumpy texture.
While gathering my thoughts for this article I hit on the reason I so loath Heroforge as a company. Simply put they are not for me. There are a ton of companies out there (many of whom I have linked and commented about here on this blog) who produce tens to thousands of beautiful figurines for figure painters. There are wonderful sculptors like Patrick Keith, Bobby Jackson, Werner Klocke, and Kev White, to name a few who have produced awesome figures that each bare the mark of their creator in some way. Heroforge figures are static, the detail is generic, and are boring to look at. Simply put Heroforge figures have no soul, and are not for Miniature Painters, they are for role-players who might not give two shits about the sculptor of a mini or care about blends, layers, and other painting techniques. They want a Halfling with a crossbow for their game and this is the only source they know because it is talked about so often. I think this is reason I also hate pre-paints for PC minis too. They are too Kardashian...no soul.
It is no secret I do commission work, and while I love that I can pay for my hobby with the funds that I make I would be a great deal happier having more painters out there attempting the craft. That takes knowledge that there is more out there which is one of the reasons I started this blog, to document my journey and inform you the reader. There are a ton of more options out there to help. Reaper Miniatures http://www.reapermini.com/FigureFinder has their own figure finder that you can search by race, weapon, clothing/armor. Likewise Dark Sword http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/shop/index.php/catalogsearch/advanced/ has their own finder too. Both of which are to help the consumer find the figure for them and fly in the face of another ignorant line of the Heroforge mission statement
"Gone are the days of rooting through poorly stocked shelves or browsing low-rez image galleries for something that vaguely resembles your hero: design your character from the ground up and see it in full 3D, and finally have a miniature that captures your vision."
I would very much like someone to explain to me how those sites are low-rez. A good majority of miniature sites are very much helpful to navigate and give bright bold image. This statement might have run true in the early days of the internet, but now is just false advertising.
I am an opinionated bastard and I pull no punches when it comes to telling you what I think. But having been married I am no stranger to apologizing and admitting I am wrong. They have recently released a beta grey plastic, that is suppose to be more durable and more detailed. It is also 25 bucks a figure. Assuming the first two statements are true, I would love to give this material a try, but there is no way I am doing this on my own dime. If anyone out there would love to give me the money to order my own I would gladly document my process here on the blog.
As always I am Chuck and I paint.
No comments:
Post a Comment