avien
What is your personal take on the current situation on the miniature market? Are there too many minis, games and companies?
I’ve been in the hobby for about 30 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the miniature market as diverse or as fragmented as it is today. Even taking into account the first 15 years when I lived entirely inside the GW ecosystem, the sheer range of what’s available now is on another level.
Getting into 3D printing a few years ago completely changed how I interact with the market. In the last two years I can probably count on two hands the number of physical minis I’ve bought for myself. Instead, I fell into the very common 3D‑printer habit of hoarding STLs. I backed every Patreon that caught my eye, jumped on a dozen huge Kickstarter bundles, and convinced myself I was being sensible because I wasn’t filling cupboards with unbuilt plastic. It took me a while to realise that an STL library of thousands of models, many of which I have no intention of ever printing, is just a digital version of the same old problem.
That part is on me, and I know I’m not the only one who has done it. But I don’t think the explosion of variety is inherently bad. It gives people far more choice and lets you find exactly the aesthetic you want. The downside is that it has changed the modelling culture.
There was a time when, if you wanted something niche like sci‑fi samurai, you had to plan a project, kitbash, convert, and really push your modelling skills. Now you can almost always find something that fits the idea, either from a physical manufacturer or on MMF or Cults. That is great for accessibility, but it does mean the old conversion mindset is less necessary, and those practical skills get used less often.
So yes, the market is crowded and maybe even oversaturated, but I don’t think that is the real issue. The bigger shift is how easy it has become to get exactly what you want without having to build it yourself, and that has changed the hobby in ways we are still figuring out.
And if they all would please stop trying to be GW that’d be even better.
Couldn’t agree more with this one @limburger ! Between the not-GW crowd and the pin-up crowd it’s overshadowing the real talented sculptors out there doing really interesting work
Will we see a drought once G’Wullu puts out the next edition of 40k?
No. The GW release cycle is so predictable at this stage that most people have it baked into their habits already. Some players will drift back for the new edition hype, but once it becomes clear that it’s the same formula with a fresh coat of paint, they’ll settle back into whatever they were doing before. And of course the folks who are happily rooted in the GW ecosystem will just keep going as normal.
Where will you be at the end of 2026?
So far in the first couple of months of 2026 I’ve managed to do two things:
- Glue together a 2B statuette I printed for my brother’s birthday… in 2024
- Drybrush and airbrush a wash over about 200 8mm marines and 30 tanks for my Dark Angels project
At that heroic rate of progress, by the end of 2026 I’ll probably have just about finished whatever is sitting on my painting desk right now. Having three young plague bearers in school and pre‑school has brought a whole cocktail of blessings into the house this year, so hobby time has been a bit of a moving target. In an ideal world I’d also have a few Deadzone and DreadBall teams painted, but we’ll see how reality treats that ambition.
Pledge for this week: actually paint some miniatures with a real brush. A proper old fashioned non‑airbrush effort.
