I very much liked the idea to get 3D printed figurines for my D&D campaign from Hero Forge. The $15 basic plastic version looked too rough for 30 mm figurines, so I went for the $25 ultra detail plastic ones. That worked well in many aspects: Delivery was fast, the detail on these is fantastic, and I was able to get figurines for my Zeitgeist campaign that would have been difficult to represent with generic standard fantasy figurines. For example I now have a figurine of a sword-and-shield fighter with a rifle on his back, wearing a policeman's helmet.

In other aspects I was not perfectly happy with the figurines I got: They are reportedly fragile, so I have to carry them around in bubble wrap. They are also very lightweight compared to the usual metal figurines. And they are made of a semi-transparent plastic that has a slight yellow tinge, so the finer parts look white, but the thicker parts look distinctively yellow. Painting will fix that, but I can't paint myself, and haven't negotiated yet whether one of my players is willing to do so.

In any case, a while after receiving my plastic figurines I noticed that Hero Forge now has two new materials on offer: Steel figurines for $35, and bronze figurines for $99. Now the bronze ones look absolutely fantastic, but I need 6 figurines and wasn't going to pay $600. So I ordered a set of figurines in steel. They arrived just in time for my campaign start on Monday.

The steel figurines are made out of steel powder fused together by bronze. So they are incredibly sturdy, probably more so than standard white metal alloy miniatures. The surface is rougher than those of the ultra detail plastic ones, but less pitted than it looks on the Hero Forge website. The photos on the website also don't quite catch the color: The bronze/steel mix results in a rich, dark brown that looks very good by itself, even unpainted. I am very happy with these figurines, because they will be perfect for starting play Monday in their unpainted form, and then we still have the option to paint them.