We live in a boomtime for 3D printing and tabletop gaming right now. Just about anything you could ever want to see on a game board you can print off. RPG figures? You got’em. Historicals? You got’em. Suspiciously Similar but Legally Distinct Wargaming Figures? We’re absolutely drowning in STL files. It’s a damn good time.
But if there’s one complaint I hear a lot, there’s a little something lost with a lot of STL minis thanks to the vast, vast majority being single-pose one-and-done figurines. We’ve been spoiled by the vast array of customization options in traditional model kits.
Luckily 3D sculptors Eldritch Tabletop are swinging in to scratch that itch, with their line of heroic scaled RPG and wargaming figures coming packed with all kinds of options to customize your tiny soldiers. Today, we’re looking at their brand new Lorekeepers figures, which they very kindly provided the files for.
Right up front, the Lorekeeper file suite brings two big points that I really love. First up, Wizard Cowboys is just such a neat idea, and the aesthetic design of the Lorekeepers really amps up the fantasy side of the equation in a way we rarely see. Secondly, and by far the largest part of this, the sheer amount of CHOICE.
I’m not gonna mince my words, I was absolutely stunned when I unpacked the files and saw just how many parts I had to work with here. Not only are you getting 10 unique body sculpts, you’re getting just as many heads and an absolute bucket of weapons and spell effects. But why read me pontificating about it when I can just show you how many potential options you have for just a single Lorekeeper?
This is such a nice suite of options to pick from, allowing you to lean in every sort of direction with these figures. The scale on the options make them fantastic kitbash options as well, I’m particularly looking forwards to adding some spell effects to any wizard figures I find myself modelling in the future. The breadth of options makes them a dream for the RPG inclined amongst us, while making them also useful as cool wargaming options or proxies. We can easily see these guys fitting in both as Frostgrave gang or as any flavour of magical skirmisher in your wargame of choice.
Assembly is pretty simple but allows for the right kinda control you want with all the ball and socket joints on the necks and wrists. They’ve got just enough of the range you want for a naturalistic pose, but are reassuringly snug fits on some traditionally very breakage-prone anatomical areas.
If I had to pick a main sticking point, however, I’m not overly fond of a certain bobbleheaded-ness these figures have. While the facial sculpts are very nicely done, the heads are scaled a little big in a noticeable way. While obviously you can scale them down in a slicer, this exacerbates an issue with the neck joints on the figures that can restrict posing, or make them look a little goofy. Particularly on the fem-coded models, who have this problem a little more noticeably.
On a more practical than aesthetic quibble, I had a little bit of issue when rigging supports on the more dramatically posed figures. While obviously this can be, as the kids say, a skill issue it was a bit of an trial and error ache to hit the sweet-spot where the end of the Lorebringers’ coats and boots wouldn’t get a little squished.
Overall I found myself really impressed with these lil’ spellslingers. When it comes to what I choose to print out, I’m always there for figures that I can’t really find anywhere else. You can find a thousand Cosmic Rangers or Fantastical Landsknecht files out there, but stuff like this deserves the spotlight a whole lot more.
You can purchase the Lorekeepers either as STLs or as physical prints from Eldritch Miniatures here, or check them out on MyMiniFactory and Cults3D. Join us next time when we take a look at some of Eldritch’s other offerings!
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