Some Miniature Philosophy: Will A.I. paint our miniatures for us?
Some feedback and 2 videos
Once I published this. I sent it to 2 creators who like to tackle philosophical ideas. One politely declined to talk about “things they are not an expert on”. The other was Big Lee from Miniature Adventures who took the time to make a video essay, and for whom I am both moved and grateful that he did.
Two quick points worth mentioning from his essay:
He moved the timeline further in the future where slop appears in our hobby in a physical form. Where you could be buying miniatures that look great online, only to find out messed up A.I. slop sculpts that make no sense.
The second point was a deep philosophical one, where he points out that “In the end the conversation isn’t about wargamers, it’s about how people relate to making things in a world were machines can make things for us.”
So wargamers would not suddenly stop painting once automation is available. Like oil painters didn’t stop painting once printing press and lithography could produce images. It’s just that before lithography, people could make good money painting. Once this was automated, painting was switched from a profession to leisure.
In the video’s comments there was a discussion about the actual technology available right now, and it turns out we already can print painted resin miniatures.
Its not something you can do at home. You would need at least 20k for the printer and I can imagine the materials and costs of the print itself would be prohibitive for wargaming. But the tech is here, which means it will be commercially available one day.
A still from the video showing a sculpt exactly as it came out from the printer.This is the tech for the 3d printing part. Fon Davis (the special effects guy being interviewed) did not mention anything about any A.I. sculpting or coloring the sculpt. Its still 100% human artists, and Fon implied that they are scarce. So for now, even if the printer was available in wargamers homes, actual humans would still have to create coloured sculpt files. This sounds far harder than sculpting a 3d model, so unless A.I. can somehow take the task, owners of said machines will print the same handful of coloured models. Don’t expect to be able to print fully coloured Carolingian Franks in this decade.
As Big Lee says, the hobby will evolve once more. Some people will stick to metal, others will work on 3d prints doing shading or kitbashing, and others will be taking up those skills digitally, pre-painting sculpts, or printing the basic colours and using a brush for details and shades.
Around 30 years ago, I saw colour 3D printers being used for architecture; at the time, those printers were around $75,000 a piece. And still needed a fully trained tech to make the model. It printed colour like Lego – blocky, but still colour.
I fully believe these printable models will be available in my lifetime, and will be a massive shift in how gaming is done.
Already, people don’t paint – of the 400+ minis/models I painted this year, maybe 50 are mine. The rest? Neverending commission work. And I already have projects lined up for 2026…
30 years! i didn’t know 3D printing goes back that long! and multi-color for that matter! do you remember what was the maker of that machine?
And yes, i do think people paint less and less. i blame the social media for this. people scroll way too much and do way to little these days. I don’t have your skill. I paint at a simple tabletop standard. yet i probably sold over 6.000 painted miniatures in the last 10 years, (and i own around around 300 for myself currently). There is always demand for simple, non-artistic painted miniatures.
i wonder if painting is pivotal for the hobby. it seems owning painted miniatures is the heart of the hobby. And having a way to use them is why there is also a game part. but we dont necessarily need to have them painted by ourselves.