When Hero Forge first came out with their 3D printed miniatures, I did an interview with the creators and backed them on Kickstarter. I used my Kickstarter codes to order miniatures for review and I did a review of the miniatures from stem to stern, showing what they looked like by getting miniatures made of my gaming group. A few months back, Hero Forge sent me complimentary codes for their new Premium “Grey” plastic option. It took me a while to get them painted and prepped, but here is an update to the previous review.

Overall Thoughts

The Premium “Grey” plastic option is right in line with the level of detail, quality, and durability I would expect from any plastic miniature. They paint as easily as Reaper miniatures and have a lot more details than the level of detail I could get from 3D printing them myself or using the Strong plastic. The premium plastic has just a bit more detail than the Ultra Detail options from Hero Forge, but the durability is much higher. I’ve had many of the ultra detail miniatures break at weak points, and even the fiddly bits on the strong plastic pieces have broken on me once or twice, but the Premium “Grey” plastic option holds up far better.

Painting Tips

I’ve rarely had to use primer on many of my Reaper bones miniatures, but with the Premium “Grey” plastic, I found it very helpful to prime them first. Unlike the strong nylon miniatures, which soak up paint, these almost repel it. The first layer of paint I put on the miniatures was fairly slippery, and the thinner my paints, the less likely they were to stay on. I usually use a flow agent to make my paints a little lighter, but for the Premium “Grey” plastic, I had to have a slightly thicker paint to get it to stick on the plastic easily. It took two coats for the miniatures, and having a primer layer would have made it take only one. The miniatures were easy enough to paint, and I mimed the color schemes and setup of other Hero Forge miniatures I had for comparison. Bear in mind that I am not a master painter by any stretch of the imagination. I can do okay, but I am perpetually jealous of the miniatures I see posted in DM Scotty’s Facebook page.

Photo Review

Really, the only way to show how well these do is through photos, so check out the pictures below to see the comparisons, and be sure to check out the other review I did to see the other plastic options from Hero Forge.

Unpainted








Painted


 

Compared to other Hero Forge Options

 







 

 

Comparison to Reaper Bones


 


Conclusion and Giveaway

I’m a big fan of the Premium “Grey” Plastic option for a miniature. The quality, detail, and durability of the Premium “Grey” Plastic far surpass the other options out there for 3D printed miniatures and are on par with Reaper bones miniatures. For a character or the Big Bad for my game, it is well worth the cost, especially if I plan to play the character for a long time. Now let’s talk giveaway. For the miniatures we created, I duplicated one of my primary characters and we did a female gamer gnome.

That unique and original gamer gnome can be yours! How do you get it? Well, there are two ways.

  • First, everyone who is a Patreon supporter is already entered into every giveaway contest we do.
  • Second, you can leave a comment here.

We’ll compile all of our patreon supporters and the commenters here and roll a die to pick a random winner, then we’ll contact that winner by email to get shipping information. So, if you want to see what the Hero Forge grey plastic is like in person, and have your very own custom painted gamer gnome from Gnome Stew, go back our Patreon (because you love us and want to help us make cool stuff for everyone!) or leave a comment here before 03/06/2017 to be entered into the giveaway!