Its time to delve into the reviews of 3D Printing Patreons. There are a great number or really great Patreons that you can sign up for to get your miniature STL files for a great price and really support the artists that are putting them out.
This is the first of a series where we will be looking at each one with and indepth coverage to see really what they are about. We are going to start off with one of the most artistically awesome Patreons Infinite Heroes. Other Patreon service will be reviewed in this manner soon.
Since we will be comparing many Patreons I am going to give them a score on my own impressions I have had from being a Patreon of them. This is not something I take lightly, people making these patreon services are real artists and are pushing our industry/hobby in a new direction that is most likely to take over the traditional gaming companies. If your company is not heading in this direction, you may be forced to in the coming years.
All ratings are listed 1-5 with 5 being top scores. Do not expect 5's from me unless something here is over the top crazy good. 4 is excellent. 2.5 will be an average and anything 2.0 or below is a problem
Heroes Infinite is a part of Raging Heroes who is well known for their miniatures and sell a tremendous number of Sisters and other miniatures that are used in sci-fi games everywhere. They are based in the South of France and have run Kickstarters and other promotions for Raging Heroes over the years.
https://www.ragingheroes.com/pages/heroes-infinite
Ive now been a part of their Patreon for 3 months. So far Heroes Infinite has done mostly Fantasy Patreon releases but they have said they are going to be doing both Sci-fi and Fantasy. A cyberpunk release is on the horizon..... really looking forward to this one!
Here is my experience with Heroes Infinite
Value 4.5- Each Month Heroes Infinite puts up a larger number of miniatures that are artistically over the top. Cost: $10/Month. The number of miniatures is quite a few and to be honest I wonder just how they are able to get so much done every month.
Here are the last three months of Patreon Downloads.
- Summer Fairies of the Enchanted Forest- July
- Winter Fairies of the Enchanted Forest- August
- Angels of the Emphyrean- September
Customer Service 5.0- Lets talk customer service. Heroes Infinite has been doing polls like many of the Patreons for 3D printing, but they also have been extremely responsive to the comments, questions, and problems that have come up. Lets look at recent examples I have seen.
1. They Really Care what you want to see. Recently a division among subscribers came up on whether or not to stick to fantasy or do both sci fi and fantasy. They took it seriously and listened to the comments and were very responsive to what people had to say to the level of doing a very long video after the dilemma to work out the position they are taking. It was well thought out and one of the reasons that I will be holding onto this Patreon account after the review process.
2. Problems with a sculpt or two- There was an issue this month (sept) where a spear or part of the sculpt was protruding through another piece. While the subscriber complaining was rather harsh about it, Heroes infinite took it in stride and just fixed the sculpt with a couple of days. It was fast enough that it caught me by surprise on how efficiently and professionally it was handled. While this may have caused a problem with a few peoples prints, by the 11th of the month it was handled.
The Sculpts 5.0- Heroes Infinite focuses on taking on challenging and thrilling projects. Many of these miniatures would not ever be done in a traditional miniature company simply because the cost of the miniature would be daunting to sell. They have stated this before as one of their motivating factors in moving to a Patreon 3d Printing service. The sculpts are amazing and really I would like to see that you take a closer look at them. Its well worth your time if you are thinking of getting into this Patreon (even in the near future you should start collecting the files now!) Lets look at a couple of them.
Are these the best sculpts out there?........ If you would say they are not, you had best step up and provide proof. Simply amazing sculpts.
This video gave me chills..... so needed to be included
Ive printed these two out below....... see below for my own prints and how they turned out.
Printing 4.0- So how was the printing?..... Everything I have printed out so far has been astounding. I did have one problem with the base for the Summer Queen as there was no supported file for the base, it was missing and I had to use a non-supported file.
Patreon Tip of the Day: Download all the files both supported and non-supported just in case you need something.
So I had some problems with the base and my skills at setting up the files are not quite at the expert level where I can yet split the sculpt and insure that I have my supports in order. (well my support placements got way better when working on this).
So beyond the printing of the Summer Queen's base..... everything has been great. Here are some of my prints!
I did put some primer on these images, simply because it helps bring out the detail.
Downloading 2.5- Downloading the files comes from Sync.com. While sync works just great and most 3D printing patreons use them, downloading the files can be a problem. These are common problems so not detrimental or something I would make me reconsider becoming subscriber to Heroes Infinite. (there are some other solutions out there that other Patreons are looking into).
Downloading the day the files are released is a no-go. Even with extremely fast connections I have here in my office the files took hours to download. This is a popular Patreon with large files! and in order to avoid these problems I have a few suggestions.
Wait to download. Yea patience is hard. If you wait to download the files a day or so you will be much better off and if you can do it when Europe is asleep.... your golden. Late at night for me has been my best time to download the files.
For Gaming 3.0- Heroes Infinite has been very upfront about who buys their miniatures. They have been around for quite some time and have declared that Fantasy miniatures are mostly a roleplaying (like DnD) like crowd. Because of this their miniatures are not modular or have different weapon load outs you can use as easily for Tabletop Wargaming.
They do however provide different sculpts for several of their miniatures... like the the Wild Hunt Riders from the Winter Fairies, or the Angels of the Host. This makes it so that you can make squads or groups of the miniatures without using the same sculpts. Oh yea you can mirror the sculpts easily, so with a couple different sculpts and mirroring you can create decent sized armies for your tabletop wargames.
In the future this may change with their Sci-Fi releases which was mentioned their sales are more focused more on Tabletop Wargaming. Since I personally play Tabletop Wargames and very little rpgs..... Kings of War, Genesys Project, Age of Sigmar, Warhammer 40k, and so on...... are my focus. Heroes infinite handles these types of games in an acceptable manner with their additional sculpts and like I said Mirroring prints to give more variety.
It should be said that these releases can also be supplemental to existing armies or like in the dual month release of Summer and then Winter Fairies combined into a single army.
Getting Older Months Sets you Missed 4.0- Heroes infinite has you handled on missed previous months through My Mini Factory and get a good rating here for it due to entire sets being available and giving discounts to current Patreon subscribers.
Here is their link for My Mini Factory where there are some great sets to check out or pick and choose what you want.
https://www.myminifactory.com/users/HeroesInfiniteByRagingHeroes
While non of the last few months are up yet, I am assuming that these are coming soon. (so no Summer/Winter Fairies of the Enchanted Forests)
Overall 4.0 Heroes Infinite is at the top of Patreon accounts you should be considering for 3D Printing. If not as a subscriber, as a Patreon account to watch for releases on a monthly basis to get the months that you want. Their prints are hassle free with amazing sculpts, and are easily one of those amazing services that is worth your monthly investment.
Out of all the monthly Patreons accounts I am trying out, Heroes Infinite will be kept past this review period 9 of 3 months to support the talent and dedication the team has for this service.
Heroes Infinite makes the beginning of each month exciting to see what they are releasing next.
