Using unparalleled new color customization tools and the newest, cutting-edge 3D printing technology, Hero Forge is excited to bring you full-color custom tabletop miniatures!
Even the most prolific painters can find themselves overrun with hordes of unpainted figures, but no longer! Join us in our quest to cure the plague of monochrome minis; with your support, we will offer our most customizable tabletop miniatures yet!
Pledge today to get early access to the new color tools. Be among the first to order custom, full-color figures of your own design, printed with cutting-edge full-color 3D printing technology or hand-painted by our favorite mini painters!
With your support, we can’t wait to add color customization to our expansive collection of parts and features, once again revolutionizing the world of custom miniatures and allowing you to express your creativity like never before!
Hero Forge 2.0 Color Tools enable you to bring color to your tabletop, no matter how you play. We are eager to support tabletop gamers of all kinds, whether you play in person or online. Here’s how Hero Forge 2.0 Color Tools can help you…
Never picked up a brush in your life?
High-detail, vibrant color prints will capture your creativity better than ever before–no art skills required.
If you prefer the more traditional route, check out our backer tiers that offer professionally hand-painted options where artists replicate your color design by hand, the old fashioned way.
Are you a painter?
Use deep “digital paint” tools to plan your color schemes and see them applied to your model in real-time. Experiment with color theory, easily try out different schemes, or work with clients to ensure you have the right design before you even put brush to model.
Are you a virtual tabletop user?
Select backer tiers offer new tools for users who play online as well. Design and export custom “tokens” for use in your favorite virtual tabletop platform. These beautiful, drag-and-drop, 2D graphical representations of your characters will be exportable in several styles, at ready-to-use resolutions and formats.
Don’t use minis at all?
Even “theater of the mind” players will find something to love! Use new photo booth tools to create the perfect character sheet image which can be updated as your character and equipment grows and changes.
Full-Color Custom Miniatures
Design your own digital ‘paints’ and see them applied to your model in real-time as you experiment with different designs and color schemes. In-depth rendering and material design features will allow a revolutionary new level of customization.
Then, make it real; we will provide two options for producing your custom color model and help capture your creativity better than ever before. With your support, we’ll offer the most customizable and easiest to use color design tools the web has ever seen!
About the Color 3D Printed Miniatures…
For the 3D printing fan, we are using cutting edge additive manufacturing technology to make your design real with vibrant, highly detailed 3D printing. With groundbreaking 3D printing technology, color figures can be printed with remarkably vivid colors and dimensional accuracy. This represents one of our most ambitious additions to date—never before have we been so excited about a feature! We continue our long partnership with Shapeways, Inc., one of the leading names in 3D printing, to print and ship these revolutionary new figures all over the world.
About the Hand-Painted Minis…
For the traditionalist, we are also offering professionally hand-painted options. Design your color scheme online and have your miniature sent directly to professional artists who will recreate your digital color designs by hand!
We are working with top-notch painting studios like Den of Imagination and Mixed Dimension to bring you high-quality display-worthy professional paint jobs that are true to your digital design.
Design and export unlimited custom “tokens” for use in your favorite virtual tabletop platform. Available in both ‘profile picture’ and ‘overhead view’ style, you will be able to easily populate a virtual tabletop world with your hand-crafted character tokens formatted for easy drag-and-drop use.
This feature represents one of several new “pro tools” we will roll out in the coming year. Pledge for a year of Token Maker access, or pledge more for lifetime access with no future recurring subscription cost.
Achievement Unlocked! The unlocked Portrait Studio stretch goal features will be included with Token Maker Unlimited, offering new and improved camera options and effects to our screenshot tools for the ultimate character sheet image!
At the conclusion of our Kickstarter campaign, your support will immediately go to work helping us deliver these full-featured color tools while continuing regularly to expand the library of parts and customization options on www.heroforge.com.
February 2020: We begin updating our library of thousands of parts for color compatibility.
May 2020: Finalized user interface for color application, and the launch of beta access to color tools for all Kickstarter backers, and launch Token Maker Unlimited.
June 2020: We will open order submission to Kickstarter backer for both 3D printed color and hand-painted color custom miniatures. While we ultimately expect to reach our typical fulfillment speeds, note that orders placed during this closed beta may take several months for fulfillment as we ramp up capacity. Fulfillment will be gradual, as we work through orders in the order they are received.
This timeline is our best estimate, but we will open submissions and start shipping orders as early as possible. Note that, in the case of high order volume, order submission for both hand-painted and 3D printed color miniatures may be made available in stages, with priority based on time of the pledge. Backer reward redemption will be facilitated by digital voucher codes redeemable on www.heroforge.com.
We have been developing exciting new tools to fully utilize the most revolutionary 3D printing technology and hardware. It is a big job, but who better to do it than the makers of the original 3D printed custom miniatures?
High-Quality Web-Based Rendering
Whether you want to fully paint your design with a couple of clicks or hand-tune unique digital ‘paints’ to capture your character’s aesthetic perfectly, we have you covered.
We wanted users to be able to do more than apply flat colors, so we looked to traditional, real-world painting techniques to inform our designs. Our rendering and UI has re-imagined classic techniques for the digital world. Replicate the beautiful subtlety of dry brushing, ink-washing’s ability to add depth, and much more. Printed designs will include subtle shading and lighting within the color texture, making details pop and adding fantastic realism to your design.
By giving you the option to hand-tune highlights, low-lights, shininess, hue shift and more, we will give you unparalleled design tools and let you see a whole new spectrum of possibilities.
Cutting Edge Manufacturing Technology
3D printing has evolved at incredible speeds, with new technologies emerging all the time. We’re happy to say that this thrilling new print technology means that highly detailed, color printed tabletop minis are finally possible!
Color is produced by mixing a range of color materials on the fly, allowing for full, vivid CMYK prints with beautiful gradients and detail. This technology employs dissolvable support materials, removing the need for support sprues and allowing for smoother, more consistent surfaces than ever before.
This plastic is similar in durability to our premium plastic material. Faint layer lines may be visible on the surface of the figures, especially in strong direct light.
One-Click Color Schemes
No need to have an art degree or knowledge of color theory to have fun coloring your character. You will be able to quickly paint your character in seconds, using a wide range of artist-designed color motif presets so you can “try on” a wide range of color schemes or use them as a jumping-off point for your own design.
A Multitude of Digital Paint Options
We’ll offer a library of artist-tuned paint options for a wide range of materials. Experience the coloring-book joy of turning a character from grayscale to full, rich color quickly and easily!
We’ll also offer the ability to “mix your own paint.” Customize more than just the color: adjust shininess, highlight, mid-light, and low-light tones, and more. Your hand-crafted digital ‘paints’ will be saved with your character, allowing you to revisit and tweak them to your heart’s content.
Five years ago, Kickstarter’s support allowed us to launch revolutionary web-based design tools for custom miniatures. Since then, we’ve shipped hundreds of thousands of miniatures to dozens of countries around the world. We’ve continued to work tirelessly, adding content and working with the world-leading 3D printing service providers to deliver the latest and greatest technology–and the best custom miniatures on the market.
Since our launch, we’ve expanded our tools and customization options. We’ve added over a thousand new parts, two dozen new fantasy races, and ever-improving materials in both plastic and metal. In 2019, we began adding fresh content every single week.
Tens of thousands of users have visited every “Treasure Tuesday” to see what we’ve added from our ever-growing ‘user wish-list’ of content requests. And we’re certainly not done yet! You’ll even find several sneak-peeks at upcoming parts sprinkled throughout this very Kickstarter! We continue to develop new models for the site, prioritizing the most commonly requested additions.
Why Kickstarter?
Kickstarter has been an incredible tool to help us connect with tabletop and miniatures fans. This direct connection has helped us work with our most passionate supporters and offers an avenue to hear about what features and content you’d like to see added. Your backing will help us in the process of updating our library of thousands of parts to support rich, in-depth color customization, and launch exciting feature additions sooner.
The Future of Hero Forge
Hero Forge 2.0 will expand and enhance the design capabilities that Hero Forge is famous for. You can expect us to continue our tradition of innovation, setting the bar for customization and artistry for custom miniatures.
Preview just a few of our planned additions and advancements in the hero featured in our splash image: XL epic wings, dynamic and detailed bases, magical weapon effects, and cute new companions represent just some of the exciting new features we have planned, so even more people can design their perfect miniature. With your support, we can add this new content even faster, and with the new Hero Forge 2.0 color tools in mind.
Hero Forge 2.0 is the platform for the future of 3D printed custom miniatures. Design and print the most epic of characters, not only in stunning detail, but in gorgeous full color.
Backer rewards include early or permanent access to a range of new features and tools on www.heroforge.com.
Early Access to Color Tools
Be among the first to start designing in color! Backer tiers starting at $34.99 will be given early access to our color design tools. Watch our UI and tools develop before your very eyes!
The First Opportunity to Order Custom Miniatures in Color
We are employing cutting edge technology to bring full-color custom miniatures to you. Backers will be first in line to have figures printed in this exciting new material as we scale up production.
Early and Permanent Access to New ‘Token Tools’
Our token tools and new photo booth options will add a range of easy-to-use image capture features to Hero Forge. While we intend to one day add a range of pro-tools to a Hero Forge subscription services, Kickstarter backers will get access to the Token Maker Unlimited with no recurring subscription fees, receiving either a full year of access at lower tiers, or lifetime access at higher backer tiers!
…and Much More!
Want to offer even more support? Check out backer tiers which will allow you to work with our art team to add parts of your own requests and design to Hero Forge! Pledge to add decals, weapons, or armor to Hero Forge and be credited in the mouse-over flavor text of the character builder!
Do you want more than our existing backer tiers offer? No problem! Customize any backer tier with “Add-Ons.” Simply add the following amounts to your pledge to add these perks to your pledge à la carte:
We have a long list of features that we’d like to add to our color options. Your support will help us deliver them even sooner! Read on to hear about the first batch of six stretch goals, with more to be announced once these are met soon!
Sky Castle Studios, LLC is a Santa Monica-based development studio dedicated to using gaming and technology to inspire creativity and connect people. Established in 2014 after the runaway-hit Hero Forge crowdfunding campaign, we continue to grow our cutting-edge web-based design application and explore the latest in 3D printing manufacturing.
Special thanks to Fantasy Grounds for letting us feature screen captures of their virtual tabletop program, Kraken Dice for providing the dice featured in our photography, Izzy Gramp for color design, and Kate Elliot at www.kvephotography.com for editing our Kickstarter video.
We are lucky to with incredibly talented artists all over the world, and would like to thank them for their contributions to Hero Forge. In particular, for their creativity and dedication, we would like to thank Glenn De Leon Garza, Ilya Bondarenko, Roman and Vadim at ZugZug Art, and Rich Carey.
Q: Will reaching your funding goal distract you from adding new content? Color is great, but I want more stuff on Hero Forge too! A: Our modelers’ time and effort will still be dedicated to new content, parts, fantasy races, and features, even as our tech development team works on color at the same time. With independent, focused effort by our art team, we anticipate accelerating additions to the site, even as we add our new color features. Q: Will I be able to redeem my reward for an “XL” or mounted “XXL” figure? A: For simplicity, we have set rewards for our standard size-range, unmounted figures. If you prefer to redeem your reward’s value towards a more expensive XL or mounted figure, that’s alright: we will apply your pledge value and you can pay the difference. Pricing on larger-sized XL and XXL figures is TBD. Q: I saw a part or feature in your video which isn’t on your site yet! What’s the story? A: We have new parts, features, and content in development constantly. In order to keep up with weekly content releases, our art team works diligently on future releases, both those near completion and ones much further away. If you don’t recognize any particular parts on this page, chances are they are in development and will appear on the site in the future! Q: When are you going to add X part? Will Y feature be available when color launches? A: We process all feature and part requests through the following survey, so please feel free to fill it out to have your request added to our official user wish-list: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HeroForgeRequest. Our user request wishlist has many hundreds of unique entries, so we cannot provide estimated dates for specific additions. Q: Will Hero Forge 2.0 be backwards compatible? A: Yes! All of your existing characters and saves will be fully compatible with our new tools. You will be able to revisit old designs and add color. Q: Will digital download .stl files be available in color? A: No. Not initially, at least. File formats which support color are less widely supported by 3D printing software platforms, as color is not yet common for home 3D printers. While we expect to one day offer textured, color 3D model files, for the time being we will continue to distribute digital download model files in .stl format: the most commonly supported format for 3D printing software platforms. Q: What Printer are you using for your color prints? A: We plan to manufacture full color prints using the Mimaki 3DUJ-553 full color printer. We have experimented with a wide range of color printers, and have found this technology to offer the most vivid color, cleanest gradients, and best quality at miniature scale. At Hero Forge, we are always exploring the latest and greatest materials, and have historically added to or updating our material options as 3D print technology improves–this is always a possibility for the future. Q: Do I have to use all my rewards at once, or can I order figures one at a time? A: Backer tiers include one instance of shipping. If you’d prefer to redeem your backer rewards one at a time, you will simply need to pay for any instance of shipping after the first.