MyMiniFactory has evolved over the years to provide digital sculptors and other artists a great way to make some cash.
If you own a 3D printer or have previously hunted around online for printable files, chances are you may have stumbled onto MyMiniFactory, a website best known for hosting digital storefronts for 3D artists. While most of the content found on the site is geared towards folk who enjoy tabletop RPGs and wargames, some changes have occurred on MyMiniFactory in recent months that opens up the possibilities not just to digital sculptors who create printable files, but also to illustrators, writers and musicians looking to make some cash from their skills. The 3D printing hobby may not have a huge community, but it’s one that’s growing at an incredible rate thanks to greater accessibility to affordable 3D printing hardware and how well it meshes with existing hobbies. The largest of this is likely to be in tabletop wargames and RPGs, where people who enjoy the genre would be expected to buy injection-molded figurines or kits from an official vendor like Games Workshop or WizKids. In some cases, this is actually a requirement in order to officially enjoy the game (like Warhammer where using non-official armies is taboo), but with 3D printers becoming cheaper and more advanced at an incredible pace each year, more people are jumping into the world of printing to explore new hobbies that were previously inaccessible. As mentioned, while the name might imply that tabletop and board game miniatures (or at the least, small figurines), you’re now likely to see all sorts of things on MyMiniFactory that will appeal to a wider range of people outside of the gaming community – from DIY Steampunk lamps and immersive RPG music management, to open-source museum Scan The World. Outside of the sheer variety of printable files you’d find, MyMiniFactory has actually introduced features to the site that just makes sense, especially if you’ve been on the printing scene for a while. It’s hardly the only 3D file website available, but traditionally there are a few hoops or systems you would use to make sure you’re getting your files from a credible source and, more importantly, that the artists who have created the work are getting fairly compensated. Artists could create their own digital store using a system like Shopify, but this makes them difficult to locate if they don’t have sufficient marketing and an active social media account. You’ll also find bulk STL files being sold as a package deal on various digital marketplaces, but many of these don’t credit the original artists who created the work, so you could be left unsure if you’ve just purchased stolen content. It’s not impossible to navigate, but it makes the process of setting up a business selling 3D printables more of a nuisance than it should be. To fix these issues, MyMiniFactory has instead started to offer pretty much every service you’d need to start selling your work, ditching the previous requirement for external sites for creatives who wanted to branch out. For example, many established artists have a Patreon where they offer a large discount on their catalog to subscribers in exchange for a small monthly subscription, with the files themselves being made available to purchase on MyMiniFactory or downloadable via a file hosting website for free subscriber rewards.
