Suppliers of model figures

[ge_rik]

A list of suppliers for figure models copied from Durley's thread about figure painting

Physically sculpted - this is where the miniature figure is sculpted, either directly to create the model or as a master to be reproduced through casting. I am certainly not skilled enough to sculpt my own figures, but there are a few sculpted figure ranges commercially available in garden railway scales. Some of these tend to be of the ‘toy town’ or cartoonish style, which is not what I am looking for but nonetheless are popular and do have a lot of character. The level of detail is variable in these figures, but generally, they lack the crisp detail that my painting style accentuates, and are therefore suited better to other painting approaches.

Some examples of available ranges:
https://motleyminiatures.co.uk
https://www.modeltown.co.uk
https://www.trenarrenmodelsonline.co.uk ... eople.html
https://modelearth.co.uk/wp-content/upl ... s-2023.pdf
https://modelearth.co.uk/wp-content/upl ... f-2023.pdf

Digitally sculpted - this is where the sculpting is done digitally on a computer in programmes such as ‘Blender’ to create a 3D model that can then be exported in an appropriate file format (STL, OBJ, etc.). Online marketplaces list thousands of digital model figures that can be downloaded. These files can then be 3D printed, either at home if you have an appropriate 3D printer or from a 3D printing service.
Similarly to physically sculpted figures, the proportions and detail are dependent on the style and skill of the sculptor, and there is a huge variation in quality and price.
Digital models have the advantage that they can be scaled to produce a model figure at whatever size you require. Even if you haven’t got the digital sculpting skills or software yourself, the models can be simply modified before printing in the 3D printer slicer software to produce a mirror image if you want a figure looking left instead of right, for instance, or combined with other 3D files to, as an example, add something to be held in the figure’s hand.

Some examples of ranges that I have bought figures from:

https://cults3d.com/en/users/3Dimontis/3d-models
https://cults3d.com/en/users/Willo/3d-models
https://cults3d.com/en/users/artejaol/3d-models
https://cults3d.com/en/users/haller3d/3d-models
https://cults3d.com/en/design-collectio ... characters

If you don’t have the inclination to deal with downloading files and 3D printing, some of these figures are sold as physically ready printed from vendors such as:
https://scalesceneryandfigures.co.uk
https://ebay.us/m/8QenCc

AI (artificial intelligence) generated digital models - AI tools such as Meshy AI https://www.meshy.ai allow 3D models to be created from photos or text descriptions, similar to digitally sculpted figures. This topic is discussed on another thread, so I won’t expand here other than to say I have tried Meshy AI and had some reasonably promising outputs but not anything that I have deemed worthy of printing as a physical model. See: https://gardenrails.org/viewtopic.php?t=15078

3D scans of real people - scanning of real people to create 3D digital models that can be 3D printed has become more common as 3D scanning technology becomes more accessible. It is possible to create 3D models from images taken on a camera (photogrammetry) using a smartphone and suitable app or from laser scans (LiDAR Light Detection and Ranging). Some smartphones have LiDAR scanners (e.g. iPhone Pro models), but these tend to lack the fidelity to accurately scan people in the sort of detail we would want to create a scale model figure.

More satisfactory results come from dedicated laser scanners that tend to be expensive and therefore at the top end of the hobby market or for professional use. Companies selling model figures created from high-quality 3D laser scans of people include:
https://www.modelu3d.co.uk
https://scalesceneryandfigures.co.uk
https://narrowmindedrailworks.com

Scanned 3D models are also available as downloadable files to purchase, with Modelu3D offering some of its range this way to allow models to be printed at home. Modelu3D also offers a subscription through Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/modelu3d) that provides typically five figures a month as downloads through a tiered membership scheme starting at a fairly reasonable £7.70 a month.

There are other companies offering 3D scanned files for download, one of the best I have found being https://3dprop.store. It is one of the figures from here that I will be painting to illustrate this topic. The file is available to purchase from here: https://3dprop.store/library/single-sca ... 210909_01A. Scaled and printed, the model is about 90mm tall, representing a 6ft tall person at 16mm/ft. You can see the model contains lots of well-defined details, including pronounced creases in the clothing, facial features, and hair. Being derived from a 3D scan, the proportions are just right, and the figure is in a natural pose.