If I were starting my miniature-selling journey today with absolutely nothing — no audience, no platform, no clue where to upload anything — this is exactly the roadmap I wish someone had handed me. A friend messaged me yesterday asking how to make money from his sculpts, and as I walked him through the whole thing, it struck me that half the miniature community is trying to solve the same puzzle in the dark. So rather than repeat the advice one DM at a time, I thought I’d turn it into something useful for everyone here. This isn’t theory, guesswork, or “I watched a YouTube video so now I’m an expert” fluff. It’s what I’ve learned from years of selling minis, working across multiple platforms, getting things wrong, correcting course, and eventually figuring out what actually moves the needle. If I were starting again, this is the exact blueprint I’d follow — the platforms I’d prioritise, the ones I’d treat with caution, and the strategies that genuinely make a difference when you’re a one-person operation trying to get your sculpts out into the world. So grab a drink, settle in, and let’s get you selling your minis in all the places that matter. ***Before we start I want to make a note about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Get your preferred home page established early (a landing page on your own domain or your Patreon would be the best options). Any time you create a product, make sure you put a link back to that URL on there. Back Links (links from other websites to your own) are a big factor in SEO, and you shouldn't underestimate the power that a link on every product listing on every platform could possibly be for your home page!*** TIER 1 — HIGH TRAFFIC, HIGH VISIBILITY, HIGH POTENTIAL 1) Cults3D Traffic: roughly 8–10 million visits per month Commission: around 25% Why It’s Good: best traffic-to-sales ratio for miniatures and no monthly store fees My take:Cults is slightly chaotic behind the scenes, but it genuinely gets results. If you're going to sell STLs anywhere, this is the platform where most creators see their first real traction. Not the cheapest commission, but the visibility makes up for it. Bonus: it can import your models directly from Thingiverse, which saves a huge amount of time.

Hey all! So looking at Skool and trying to figure out how we get the best out of it. It looks like all of the users gain points every time you comment on a post or make a new post of your own. The majority of people here are stuck at level 1 right now so I'd love to set you all a challenge to comment on every post on here so far and help push your level up a little bit more, and hopefully get this channel more visibility and bring more people in. So lets start with this one! What is on your hobby bench right now? I'll start! Aside from a million unpainted models that need some attention at some point, I've been dabbling with my FDM printer to try out some of the Crystal Collapse terrain pieces to make sure they print well in FDM as well as resin! so far going pretty well I feel! Now it's your turn! :-) Oh, and one more thing - make sure you like every comment and post you read to help level everyone up!

When I first started my miniature range, I made a set of 4 multi part heroes - a wizard, barbarian, fighter and rogue. Each of them had 3 heads, 3 left arms and 3 right arms. When I came to get them produced, the manufacturing costs were prohibitive because it was based on individual components and mould cavities so I had to pare it back. I changed to making dynamic posed hero miniatures without the options, that were cast in resin. But these frequently required parts to be removed and keyed to facilitate the moulding process. When I later started selling the STL files, I sold the files cut up like I was using for my resin masters, 3D printing customers were baffled by this and couldn't get their heads around multi part models to the point where many didn't even know what glue to use to fix the bits together. So I went back to doing single piece miniatures and they went down quite well. Later on I found those 4 original minis and decided to release them. They instantly became best sellers and I never once got a complaint about them. So Multi Part models tend to go down better with customers if they have options. Now some time later I started releasing Level Up Heroes - one body for a Noob, another for a Veteran of the same class, and then finally the Epic version - see the pics for some examples). Each one had a ball socket for the head and at the wrists. I had a whole library of heads and weapon options that were all interchangeable. Each month, I made a male and female of each class along with a bunch of new accessories. These sold well, but were a drain on me trying to design this progressive upgrade and make them all cross compatible. So each month, my output was just these 6 bodies and the various new heads and weapons etc that I was making. (On a tangent, I will probably be returning to these soon to expand the range). In the same 1 month window, I also made the entire contents of the first image by making myself a modular collection of different leg poses, torso poses, heads, weapons etc, and essentially kitbashing the whole lot. I subsequently spent a few months expanding this group into a full army and released it all as a Kickstarter project that made me over £30k.

How often do you see companies offering the same miniature in 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 75mm and 150mm scales? Its become a lot more common since the advent of 3D printing, and in fact before consumer 3D printing this phenomenon was actually unheard of! The fact is that you cannot produce the same model in multiple scales by simply changing the size that it prints at, because scale is sculpted into the model. So what do I mean when I say "Scale"? With table top miniatures we're typically dealing in a set range of relative scales - this is not to be confused with modelling scales that are more precise and use a scale ratio such as 1:72 or 1:56. In wargaming miniatures, we typically deal in 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm, 28mm, Heroic 28mm, 32mm, 54mm and 75mm. This is measured with the model in a T pose from the bottom of the foot to the eyeline of a standard human character. That's not to say that you can't have characters smaller or larger than that, but the level of detail on them should be relative and look consistent across a range. The image below shows our Captain Zed's Mercenary Company set - the characters are all individualised and have their own personalities and a variety of different body types and height differences, yet the scale is clearly uniform and they obviously belong in the same set. 54mm scale and up tend to be reserved for display pieces, whilst historical gaming is usually between 15mm-28mm. Games-Workshop pioneered the Heroic 28mm scale with miniatures that were 28mm scale in size but have comic book style exaggerations in the limb, head, hand and head sizes - rescale a heroic 28mm scale miniature to actual human size and it looks insane, but it reads great on the table and paints well so it became popular. In recent years we've seen a bit of a popularity shift more towards 32mm scale as a gaming standard because you can still get good detail but without having to comically exaggerate the features of the model. They also provide a nicer painting experience whilst not looking entirely out of place with 28mm miniatures. Everything we produce is by default sculpted at 32mm scale, with just a few exceptions with some of our display pieces. We can rescale them to 28mm for you by request without any significant losses as its not a huge leap, but trying to reduce them far beyond that is a big ask.

Hi, thanks for coming! I just started up this Skool community in September so I'm going to be inviting people in and trying to build this community up. If you've arrive here and are wondering why there's not much going on, this is why. I'm working on my first proper zbrush sculpting course right now (check it out here https://dankelly1.gumroad.com/l/uxser) and it's almost complete as of the end of October. I'd love for this community to be a hub for like minded people who want to learn about the full ecosystem of miniatures. Whether you're doing this for relaxation and mindfulness or you want to turn miniature sculpting into a career and free yourself from the shackles of your 9-5 job, I'll be here to help you every step of the way! Please post an introduction and let us know who you are, what you do for a living, what level your miniature experience is at, and what skills you're looking to develop. Oh, and where you are in the world - it would be great to organise some in-person meetups if we start getting groups of people with common geography! Everyone is in the same boat so don't be shy! Oh, and if you had to pick one and banish one - Lord of the Rings or Starwars?! 😉