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D&D Miniatures: Printed by Dynafabs, Painted by Pros

By Dynafabs

Get your D&D characters and monsters 3D printed by Dynafabs and painted by Some Miniatures, with tips on tiers, briefs and resin prints.

Not every miniature is headed for a Warhammer battlefield. Plenty of the models we print at Dynafabs end up on a dungeon map: a party of adventurers, a recurring villain, the dragon your group has been dreading for six sessions. And it turns out our painting collaborator, Some Miniatures, started in exactly the same place. This post is for tabletop roleplayers who want their characters printed and painted properly.

Some Miniatures started with D&D

On the Some Miniatures home page, founder Jonathan Kahn explains that it all began with someone who simply wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons and paint miniatures, and who then kept going. He estimates around a thousand miniatures painted so far, across ranges and brands including Games Workshop, WizKids, Reaper, Avatar of War and Scibor. He also mentions painting a hero or villain for your D&D game, or making a board game's miniatures pop, as reasons people get in touch.

So if you've been wondering whether a commission painter will take your single party character seriously next to someone's full army, the answer from their own site is a clear yes.

Custom characters, printed and painted

One of the examples on the Some Miniatures painting page is a pair of painted HeroForge miniatures, a human necromancer and a tiefling warrior. That's exactly the kind of one-off character model RPG players love: designed around your character sheet rather than picked off a shelf.

That's where Dynafabs comes in. If you have a digital miniature file you own or are licensed to print, whether it's a custom character, a purchased fantasy sculpt or a bespoke monster, we can print it so it's ready for paint. A few things are worth knowing:

• Resin is usually the right call for 28–32mm characters. It captures faces, hands and fine detail far better than filament. If you're unsure which suits your model, just ask when you request a quote.
• Supports leave marks. Every resin print needs cleanup. Our earlier prep checklist for printed minis covers what a painter needs from a print.
• Bigger monsters may be split. Large creatures are often printed in parts and assembled. Tell us in advance if it's heading for a painter so we can plan the join lines sensibly.

Picking a tier for an RPG party

Some Miniatures offers five painting tiers, from Bronze ("tabletop quality") up to Diamond. For a roleplaying group, the useful thing is that you don't have to paint everything to the same standard. Their own descriptions suggest a natural split:

• Player characters: the painting page describes Gold as the tier for heroes and pieces you want to stand out on the table. Your party gets looked at every single session, so this is often where people spend.
• The big bad: Platinum is described as the "display piece" tier, recommended for centrepieces and larger monsters such as dragons and demons.
• Goblins, skeletons and henchmen: Bronze is pitched at "troopers in mass", and still includes shade, contrast and highlights. Silver adds extra contrast if you want the horde to look sharper.

Your mileage will vary, and only Some Miniatures can tell you what your project will cost, so use their Get a Quote form and describe the characters in detail.

Tips for briefing a painter on a character

Characters live in your head long before they're painted, so the brief matters. A few things that help:

• Share the backstory in a sentence. A paladin of a sun god and a disgraced paladin on a revenge quest might wear the same armour but want very different colours.
• Send reference images. Character art, a colour palette, even a screenshot from a game. Several reviews on the Some Miniatures testimonials page mention Jonathan turning vague descriptions and ideas into finished pieces, but clear references always make that easier.
• Mention skin tones, hair and eye colour. These are easy to miss and personal to the player.
• Think about the base. A forest floor, a dungeon flagstone or a snowy pass can tie a whole party together. Their quote form asks whether you'd like a base made.

FAQ

Can Dynafabs print my HeroForge or custom character file? If you have the file and the right to print it, yes. Send it through our quote form with the scale you want and mention that it's going to be painted.

Does Some Miniatures only paint Warhammer? No. Their site lists D&D and board game miniatures alongside Warhammer, and brands such as WizKids and Reaper.

Should the whole party be painted at the same tier? It's up to you. A common approach is a higher tier for the player characters and the main villain, and a lower one for minions.

Roll for initiative

Ready to see your character on the table instead of on a character sheet? Get a Dynafabs quote for the print, then hand it over to Some Miniatures for the brushwork.

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