Miniature Painting scene still thriving?

[Glovanator]

Hi All,

I was just curious, do you guys think the miniature painting scene is still thriving? I consider myself more of a collector than a painter, but I've been thinking about starting a small business more-so to give back to the community by creating some new miniature sculpts.

But I'm starting to get cold feet. From what I remember 3-4 years ago the forums I'm used to browsing look alot less active. And kickstarter looks full of complete army sizes/games sculpts. There doesn't seem to be as many studio miniatures producing one-off miniatures designed purely for painting.

Thoughts?

[dpowell]

I feel like the miniature scene is still thriving, though much of the activity has moved from the forums to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I can think of a number of small companies producing miniatures purely for painting through kickstarter. Bold Miniatures just completed their second kickstarter for the 2nd and 3rd figure. Ouroboros Miniatures is another small producer that has used kickstarter to great effect.

Golem Miniatures also just finished their second kickstarter, releasing 2 more figures in their Les Muses line (80mm limited edition pieces based on classical art subjects).

Some larger studios that have also been doing a number of lines through kickstarter are Big Child Creatives (Black Sailors line), Yedharo Models and GT Studio Creations (some dwarf figures), Aradia Miniatures (Dante's inferno) and Nocturna.

Now, I think a reason why many of the above examples have been successful is they produce pieces that are different from what you can already find out there. For example, Les Muses is creating figures based on classical art. I can't think of many other examples like that. Even Big Child, though they're making orcs, they're pirate orcs so stand out from all the other orc miniatures out there (plus they are fantastic sculpts and high quality kits). I don't know what sort of miniatures you are interested in producing, but if I were in your shoes I'd be thinking about what is something different that I can do or, if I want to make subjects that are already out there, how can I put a different spin on it?

[Darklord]

The scene is thriving in fact I would say it continues to grow at a faster rate than gaming. Social Media has all but killed of forums. Wamp is a LOt quieter in the last 3 years but its not just here, CMON and all the rest suffer the same. Ill be honest I have several times considered closing the forum but I feel they still have their place. Social media is great for quick viewing but its nice to look back in an ordered manner sometimes

[Classic]

Well, people seem to think that social media is where it's at, but you just cannot look back in ten years, twenty years time, and easily see the past. A forum has more posterity, and is easy to look back over. Social media is for the NOW, and loses much over time. Oddly only today I tried to locate a group, I couldn't find them on a Google search, as they'd shut their web-page and gone FB instead. So anyone searching to find a local gaming group on Google, it didn't show anything. Yes they'd find what they were looking for on a FB search, but it's too enclosed and terribly badly laid out.