One of the most exciting things about this new era of Insurgent Creatives is seeing independent entrepreneurs figure out their own paths to selling creative output online. New business models are popping up every day, and we can learn from all of them.
I find this idea particularly brilliant. Tom Tullis and his company, Fat Dragon Games, have for years been selling printable files for cardstock miniatures and terrain. They’re probably the best in the business in that category, in my opinion.
They’ve decided to take it to the next step, given the home 3D-printing revolution that is only just now beginning. They’re selling ready-for-3D-printing .stl files of 28mm fantasy miniatures:
3D PRINTER MINIATURES ARE HERE! This set features .stl files for five different 28mm scale orc miniatures, all designed to print as-is without additional printing supports and minimal cleanup (each miniature in the photo had less than 1 minute of trimwork done, mainly stringing.) The best part about 3D .stl minis is once you buy the set, you can print massive armies and never run out (average plastic cost per mini is about 5 cents each!)
That’s just a great idea. 5 bucks, and you get 5 professionally-designed files, and you can print as many as you want, for about 5 cents in plastic per figure. I expect that we’re going to see more and more of this as 3D printing becomes more common.
To quote Hamilton, the musical that I’ve been listening to quite a bit recently:
Look around, look around, how lucky we are to be alive right now…
Right?
Get to work. You’ve got stuff to create.