Creator Spotlight: Titan Forge Miniatures

Titan Forge Miniatures started out selling physical, resin-cast miniatures back in 2011. My memories of the early days of the company are mostly of their pirate ogres and undead greenskins. Both ranges were fantastic. I did especially love those undead greenies…

More recently, they have become better known for the STLs they sell via their Patreon. They actually have three Patreons on the go at the moment, including their core fantasy range under the Titan Forge banner, the sci-fi themed Cyber Forge, and then the adorable little Chibi Forge. Currently, I back two out of the three. I’ve not signed up to Chibi Forge as yet.

I’ve backed Titan Forge and Cyber Forge for as long as I’ve had a 3D printer, as I really love their miniatures. Some of the first models I printed on my Elegoo Saturn S were Cyberforge miniatures:

I was delighted with the quality and I do intend, at some point, to get some of them painted up for using in games such as Reality’s Edge.

over the past year and a bit of Patreon, plus a number of impulsive purchases, I’ve amassed a lot of STLs from Titan Forge. I’ve printed off a few miniatures here and there, but it’s only recently that I’ve really started to ramp up my printing to do a full army. Indeed, two full armies.

So, today i thought I’d give some thoughts on Titan Forge, their STLs, their releases, and how usable they are. let;s start by sharing a couple of printed, painted Titan Forge Miniatures:

This warrior priest and Chaos Dwarf sorcerer are from two separate releases. They both printed well, and I’m happy with the sculpts. There’s a lot of personality here. The warrior priest also came with an alternative head. His hammer was also a separate part as, obviously, was the base. The sorcerer was a single piece miniature. Only the base was separate.

I’m delighted with both prints. They’re gorgeous miniatures that carry a lot of personality, but work as part of their larger sets. I printed them using Titan Forge’s presupports, which work really well. My only real complaint with the presupports is that bases are oversupported and I feel that a lot of resin gets wasted on these supports.

In terms of releases, let’s break down a typical month for the core Titan Forge line:

This is the Scarlet Crusade release (one of two) from which the warrior priest was sourced. If we look at the rest of the contents, we have a few different items. First, we’ve got a handful of characters. In addition to the warrior priest, we’ve got a battle standard bearer, a wizard, and a couple of mounted lords, including a big, centrepiece model. You also get a number of troops. This is where the modularity comes in. Our core troops come with options. The guards can be armed with halberds or with swords and shields. Your shooters come with handguns or crossbows. It’s great to have these options as they really help to fill out the ranks in games such as Warhammer: The Old World. I’ve printed my first unit as a unit of halberdiers. My next will be handgunners. I would like to do some swordsmen later, and possibly some crossbows.

In addition to the models, there are some scraps of scenery. These are usually fine. There’s rarely anything all that exciting among these pieces, but they can potentially be useful. Finally, there’s the RPG corner. Each month you get a trio of RPG characters and some monsters. There are usually three variants for each character, too. I especially love when characters tie in with previous releases and can be added to these armies as heroes.

Here is the release i will be using for my Chaos Dwarfs:

Again, a nice mix of different things here. There are three characters, including the sorcerer I previously printed. The troops are a lot less modular here than in the Scarlet Crusade set. You have your guard with guns, or your guards with hand weapons and shields. I’d have loved to have a halberd option. Likewise, a bow option for the Hobgoblins would have been great. The sculpts are fantastic, though. I love them. My other slight gripe is that the fantastic Lammasu does not come with a rider. Now, I understand that these models are not explicitly for use in The Old World, but come on. A rider would make this usable. I’ll need to see what I can do. I might just stick a character on the base. We’ll see. i might have to dip into some Lost Kingdom releases for this. Rather handily, the RPG corner contains some Fire Elementals that will do quite nicely as K’Daai Fireborn for the army. Amazing! Synergy!

Titan Forge releases also come with a range of different bases, all themed to the models that they’ve given us. They come in both round/oval and square/rectangle variants so that you can use them in whichever game system you like.

I’d say that my one real complaint has been in scaling. Take a look at this:

It’s just not right, is it? Everything there is supposed to be the 28mm scale. I’ve found that a bit of adjustment is required. This is an annoyance, and it’s something I’ve seen in a few of their releases. It’s not something I’ve seen as much in recent releases though. The Infernal Dwarfs, for example, were really spot on. Given the ease of resizing parts in 3D printing, this problem is an annoyance, but is hardly insurmountable.

Ok, onto the fun but; let’s take a look at some cool releases that Titan Forge has put out, before we talk a little about Cyberforge. Anyway, highlights:

These two Sylvan Elves sets are fantastic. I very nearly went with these over the Chaos Dwarfs because the range they offer is quite comprehensive in comparison to the Chaos Dwarfs. i might return to them at some point, because there’s just a little bit of everything in here. I really love the characters, the Treeman, the Eagles, and the basic troops. I’m not a huge fan of the Dryad sculpts, but they’re fine. They’re adequate. I also really love the fat dragon from RPG Corner!

If, like me, you appreciate comprehensive ranges such as this, March is the third and final month of Tomb Kings-esque releases from Titan Forge, giving you a really solid and thorough range of miniatures just in time for the release of The Old World. I wouldn’t call these a highlight for me, but I do appreciate these big ranges.

We’ve now had two sets of Everdark Elves. I like that these take some design cues from GW’s Dark Elves, but then go off in a very different direction. The insectoid theme, as depicted in their masks, is particularly interesting and sets them apart from similar ranges by other publishers. The two sets also helps to give us a reasonably comprehensive range.

There are a bunch of fantastic ranges from Titan Forge. What of the smaller imprints; Cyber Forge and Chibi Forge?

So, first of all, I love Cyber Forge. Or, rather, I love some of Cyber Forge. The quality is there, and is easily on part with the Titan Forge stuff. I just wish they’d quit it with the Space Marine knockoffs. Here are some examples:

Now, let’s consider these. On the one hand, they’re nice miniatures, especially the Crimson Khans and Moon Wolves in those examples. They’re lovely. The thing is, they’re close enough to the Space Marines to be recognisably Space Marines, but not so close as to fit into the existing GW range. They’re kind of the worst of both worlds in that respect. I could see myself doing a little skirmish force or kill team based on them, but that’s about it. I don’t see much more use. Certainly, we don’t have the sort of range here that can field lots of different Space Marines units; the sort you’d need to actually have a decent army. The Crimson Khans appeal to me, but those bikes are so different to any other Space Marine tech that it just doesn’t fit, y’know? I’ve got to ask, are these Space Marine knockoffs really what’s selling these Patreon subscriptions? I’d be surprised, but the way they keep getting pumped out, I can’t think of any other reason. Again, the models are really nice. I just don’t really think they quite fit anywhere. Personal preference, I suppose.

I much prefer their more original stuff, as exemplified in their Titan City Stories releases. They’ve got a good mix of cyberpunk stuff and some releases for Modiphius’ solo miniatures game, Five Parsecs From Home.

These are really nice minis. I like the sculpts a lot, and the presupports are excellent. They’re usually quite thematic, too. But that usually represents only a third of the offerings from Cyberforge in a month.

You generally get three sets. They could be the Fauxstartes that we saw earlier, some cyberpunk minis, some aliens, maybe some ships for a naval combat game… all sorts of stuff. Here’s a typical month:

It’s fine. It’s good. It’s not focused, though. It’s not focused. We like some focus in our releases. It would be cool, once in a while, to get an army, or a cyberpunk police precinct, or something where there’s a single theme rather than three smaller ones. That’s my issue with Cyber Forge. It’s so scattered, and so hit or miss. I clearly like them enough to keep paying for them. I am still a subscriber, a year on. The difference in value though, between Cyber Forge and Titan Forge, is staggering. Titan Forge is fantastic value. You are getting full armies that are beautiful, thematic and self-contained. Cyberforge feels a bit like they are throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. As it happens, some of those projectiles are truly excellent and I love them, but you just can’t compare the two brands and their respective offerings.

Chibi Forge also exists, but I’ve not really looked into that. I could predict that the sculpts will be great and the supports will be good. I’m confident in assuming that based on all of my other interactions with Titan Forge. I don’t know, though.

Overall, I heartily recommend Titan Forge to any and all fantasy wargaming enthusiasts. I also recommend Cyber Forge, but with a few more caveats, as listed above.

You can click here to visit the Patreon page for Titan Forge.

You can click here to visit the Patreon page for Cyber Forge.