One of the great joys of historicals is that it’s rather difficult to copyright the uniforms of a decades or centuries old European nation that may or may not even exist anymore. As such, there’s always a fresh stream of digital sculptors releasing models from a myriad of different historical periods and factions. It can all be a tad overwhelming, of course, but thankfully we’re here to spotlight a selection of recent Patreon and Kickstarter offerings.
Patreons
BattleCat Miniatures
BattleCat are the recently renamed incarnation of Madox Historical/Warbear Miniatures, who also produce Grim Dark and Star Wars miniatures on separate accounts. Every month they produce a big set of miniatures for three ranges – Ancient Warfare, Horse and Musket, and WW2.
Over the last few months, they’ve been putting out some nice looking kits for all three. In WW2, their focus has been on the French and French Foreign Legion, with sets for infantry, HQ, support weapons, and tanks. The Horse and Musket line includes the Napoleonic Wars, as well as various 18th century conflicts. Recent releases have focused on Napoleonic Spaniards and Portuguese – artillery, infantry, cavalry, and commanders. Lastly the Ancient Warfare line has included Gallic troops, and this month a range of Samnites!
BattleCat has the advantage of producing a high quantity of solid kits that also happen to be very modular. They’re a valuable resource for digital kitbashing, as with a little bit of work in Blender they’ll merge nicely with Wargames Atlantic and the like. It’s worth double checking each model for internal hollows and such, as I’ve had some of these small errors slip through on occasion. It’s somewhat to be expected, given the insane volume of models they put out each month!
Medbury Miniatures
An invaluable subscription for SAGA or Baron’s War fans, Medbury produces a monthly set of historical models. In recent months they’ve been putting out a whole bunch of 100 Years War kits suitable for the recent Age of Chivalry release, including Scots, miscellaneous peasants, some absolutely gorgeous multi-purpose mounted and unmounted character models, and a great set of artillery. If you’re so inclined they also produce lovely Lord of the Rings-style fantasy ranges, suitable for Age of Magic or MESBG.
Medbury models tend to be either monopose, or perhaps in two pieces (head and body), so for the purposes of digital kitbashing you’ll need to do some artful slicing and dicing in Blender or some such. I’ve found the quality control from Medbury to be very good indeed, and I’ve found their presupports effective.
Wargames Atlantic Digital
The variety show of the 3D printing world, Wargames Atlantic Digital put out a staggering amount of sets for a staggering variety of periods, settings and games. In May they’re releasing, and let me take a deep breath, the following: a Pharaoh on chariot, Lombard Cavalry, Aztec leaders, Napoleonic Cavalry, WW2 Spanish Foreign Legion, Ogre Samurai, Mummies, Zombies, sci-fi infantry, a ballista elephant, ancients archer cavalry, middle ages polish infantry, WW1 French mortar, chinese cavalry and a chinese war wagon.
I may have missed some stuff.
Wargames Atlantic stuff isn’t necessarily the highest sculpt quality around. It is high detail, but they tend to be multipart kits that can sometimes look a tad stiff, and the joins between parts are quite visible. However, the sheer volume and variety of bits make them a kitbasher’s dream. If you can’t find specifically what you’re after from them, chances are you can make it yourself with a combination of their other kits. If you know how to merge parts and repose them in Blender, you’re laughing. If you don’t, uh, look up tutorials for BoolTool and the Pose brush. You won’t regret it.
Turner Miniatures
I would feel like I had performed a dereliction of my duty if I didn’t include at least one small scale sculptor in this list. Turner Miniatures is easily my favourite of this category, due in no small part to the sheer breadth of their range. Recent offerings include age of sail boats, Mahdist War Brits and Egyptians, and WW2 Fallschirmjager, but Turner also has a massive range of Napoleonics on offer. The sculpting style is designed for small scales, with stocky builds and big heads and weapons, ideal for anything from 6-15mm.
An added advantage of this scale is they tend to require very few supports, often none at all. You can even print them flat on the plate, though some models of printer have some strange zeroing issues that make this a challenge at times.
Lost Heresy
This is a slight lean into “impure” historicals, as Lost Heresy’s historical stuff tends to be made specifically for games like The Silver Bayonet and Trench Crusade, but I’ve got to mention it here, because it’s damn good stuff. Recently they’ve put out a very Sharpe looking model for Silver Bayonet Brits, and a whole bunch of cool Trench Crusade-esque sculpts. For Silver Bayonet they’ve also put out full bands for Austrians, Russians and various creepy ghoulies.
Reconquer Designs
Reconquer specialise in mid-late medieval stuff, with special attention to various historical forces from the Spanish and north African continent. Much like Medbury, they’ve been recently putting out sets perfect for the recent Age of Chivalry release – Scots, knights, crossbowmen with pavises, rural buildings, and numerous personages of historical significance.
Reconquer’s sculpting style is very much truescale, so they may not mix as well with other sculptors on this list, or with the more popular plastic kits. They are excellent and highly detailed, though use a durable resin, as the truer scale means thinner limbs and weapons.
Black Knight Miniatures
Another excellent option for SAGA and Baron’s War fans. Very similar in sculpting style and period to Reconquer, but focused more on eastern European and Baltic nations. True to their name, they also specialise in armoured knights, both mounted and unmounted.
Honourable Mentions
There are so many different historicals companies, it would be a hefty task indeed to name them all. But so to cover bases, I’ll run down a few more in brief:
- Colonel Muller: excellent range of monopose WW2 miniatures.
- Productions Diratia: WW2 ships, and various periods in 6mm and 15mm, including late medieval, napoleonic, pike and shotte, and ancients.
- Wargame3D: Any conceivable vehicle you might desire from both modern and historical conflicts.
- Eskice Miniature: Not my favourite sculpts, but cover a wide range of conflicts in different scales. Their 15mm WW2 stuff is very useful!
- Styriwar: Lots of beautifully sculpted late medieval miniatures and bits.
- Hokusa 3D Designs: A fantastic one-stop-shop for all manner of Japanese feudal miniatures.
- Smol Miniatures: No ongoing tribe/patreon here, but lots of very nice small-scale feudal Japanese, and Vikings.
- Lee McColl: Again, no ongoing crowdfunding options, but a great selection of WW1+2 ships, and some spaceships to boot.
Active Kickstarters
French Battle Planes of WW2
Campaign status: Funded. Ends 12th of May.
Wargame3D are one of those workhorse STL outfits that are a boon to historical wargamers. Very little glitz and glamour, just a dogged approach to churning out solid sculpts for all manner of wartime vehicles.
Their latest kickstarter is perfect for those into Bag the Hun or any other WW2 air war game. This time, as the title would suggest, they’re focusing on French planes. Should you require other planes, however, you can also pledge for Addons that cover their previous kickstarters, a truly staggering array of tanks, utility vehicles, planes, bunkers, turrets, and miscellaneous terrain pieces.
Join or Die Ancient World: Roman Empire
Campaign status: Funded. Ends 21st of May.
The Join or Die series of Kickstarters is the child of 3DBreed Miniatures, and refers to their 28mm, traditionally scaled lines. In the past JoD campaigns have covered the Wild West, Weird West, and various WW2 lines. This campaign is the first foray into ancients for the JoD range (they have previously covered the period in their March to Hell range, which features more stocky, cartoon-like sculpts ideal for smaller scales), and includes expansive ranges for both the Roman Empire and Germanic peoples, with more unlocked as the campaign progresses.
I’ve personally printed a lot of JoD miniatures in the past, and I’ve never been dissatisfied with the quality of their sculpts or the quality control of their models. While a lot of STL producers have a tendency to sculpt for the render (i.e. lots of fine detail that looks wonderful in pictures but is difficult to see or paint in physical form), 3DBreed Miniatures don’t have this problem.
Throne and Ash
Campaign status: Funded. Ends 15th of May.
This is not quite a Kickstarter, but more of a campaign bundle available through Printable Scenery directly. Printable Scenery has put out a massive array of 3D printable terrain, perfect for FDM printing. They use a proprietary locking system, so that terrain tiles and buildings from all different ranges can be slotted together.
Their most recent campaign is a massive castle set, including battlements, keeps, barracks, turrets, bastions, and ruined variants of all of the above as well. To flesh out the ground surrounding your castle, they’re also providing trees, livestock (perfect for Victrix’s upcoming Pillage game) and lower walls and steps. While I’d definitely say that this set leans more towards the fantasy than the historical, it certainly provides more than enough components to mix-and-match to create a historically authentic castle.
While perfect for skirmish games, this may not be the kit you want for rank-and-flank, given the thickness of the walls. If you’re skilled at blender you might be able to make the necessary modifications without ruining the locking system, but it’ll be quite the job.
Recently Finished Kickstarters
Echoes of War: Punic War
Campaign status: Funded. Ends around 10pm on the 8th of May, jump on it now if you can!
The latest in a series of Kickstarters offering expansive ranges of Ancients factions. This iteration focuses on, surprise, the combatants of the Punic Wars. The Punics, Eastern Numidia, Western Numidia, Libyans, Iberians, the Kingdom of Epirus, Syracuse, Cisalpine Gauls, the Roman Republic, and Carthage, they’re all here with leaders, infantry, cavalry, charioteers and elephants. In addition, you can add previous kickstarters to your pledge as addons, including the Son of Mars and Blades of Persia campaigns. Each faction requires a €45 pledge, with a bundle of all of them costing €245 (would be €450 individually).
This is perfect for anyone after full rosters for SAGA: Age of Hannibal or Age of Alexander. With 12 separate sculpts for most infantry and cavalry units, there’s plenty of variety here to fill out a mass battle system as well, particularly if the new stuff retains the modularity of the Sons of Mars.
1918: A First World War Miniatures Wargame
Campaign status: Funded. Ended on the 11th of May.
This one is quite close to home, as our own eccentricbear is involved! Even if he weren’t though, this would be an easy recommendation. A new platoon scale 28mm WW1 ruleset, plus lovely STLs for both Brits and Germans, and modular trenches and fortifications. That’s not to mention all the stretch goals!
I won’t go into great detail here about the rest of these since they’ve finished up last week or before; keep an eye on them for the possibility of late pledging, and for future Kickstarters from the same companies that might include them as addons.
- From Turner Miniatures, Europe Asunder 3 and Battleground 1940, providing small scale ranges for the Napoleonic Wars and early WW2, respectively.
- Join or Die: WW2 Airborne and Comrades in Arms from 3DBreed Miniatures. A wide selection of 28mm WW2 miniatures, covering American and German paratroopers, and UK and Soviet forces, respectively.
- From Studio Historia, Sundered Union: Raid and Raiders. The latest in a series of Kickstarters covering different forces from the American Civil War. Keep an eye also on Studio Historia’s WW2 kickstarters, which often cover forces not produced by anyone else.
- The Fall of Berlin: Part 1, from RKX Miniatures. This Kickstarter focuses on the Soviet Army of 1945. Previous kickstarters have produced Canadians and Fallschrimjager.
- No Man’s Land by Multiverse, a range of modular trenches ideal for WW1 or Trench Crusade.
- From Hokusa 3D Designs, Samurai Rebellion, a range of Sengoku period rebels in 28mm.
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