Interview with "Crazy Dwarf Miniatures"

Today, we had a chat with "Crazy Dwarf Miniatures", one of our valued Tablehammer merchants. During our conversation, we delved into the beginnings of his business, the ins and outs of 3D printing, and the criteria for quality 3D-printable miniatures. Join us as we explore the world of 3D-printing & tabletop gaming.

Please introduce yourself!

Hi my names Mat and I'm the founder of Crazy Dwarf Miniatures!

When did you first get in touch with the 3D-printing business?

My journey with 3D printing began not too dissimilar to most. Rewinding a fair few years to my early teens I happened to stumble upon a toy shop whilst on holiday. This shop just happened to contain a small stock of Warhammer, including the Warhammer Fantasy 6th Edition box set with Empire Vs Orks inside.

Ever since that fateful day I've been hooked! As the years passed this spread into various platforms such as 40k, D&D and even board games. Throughout this period I was very much eager to develop my painting and "kitbashing" skills to allow me to field awesome models that others didn't have so they stood out that little bit extra.

When did you decide to go "pro" with a printing business?

Due to this I was always purchasing extra resin cast parts over the internet, all the while watching how 3D printing was progressing in the background. Then in January 2022 after extensive research, I decided to get my very own 3D printer in the form of a Phrozen Sonic Mini 4K, which to this day is still a great bit of kit.

This is also where Crazy Dwarf Miniatures began! Although the main focus of this printer was for personal use, I decided that I'd start this business in hopes that by December the equipment would have paid for itself.

Little did I know, not only would this come into fruition a lot sooner, but by January 2023 I decided to make the jump into doing this full time and haven't looked back since.

Are there any memorable or unique experiences you've had while running Crazy Dwarf Miniatures that you'd like to share?

My journey through 3D printing has not been without its hardships. Achieving what I have to date has been through many "blood, sweat and tears" moments. There is an incredible amount of research and learning you need to maintain to keep up with the ever evolving industry and just owning a business in general. Also when things tend to go wrong, they go incredibly wrong! However, this is all part of the learning curve.

What makes Crazy Dwarf Miniatures stand out from the rest?

Well, I have one key tenet that I have used since day one and its quite simple. Would I be happy with that product? This ranges from quality control, packaging and even selecting which artists to use. As I have quite high standards, I believe this has been a key factor in the success of this business and has allowed us to achieve such positive feedback from our customers.

How do you go about selecting which miniature files to include in your catalog? Are there specific criteria you use?

How do we go about picking which artists to support? Selecting artists can be a very tricky process as there are so many things to consider. However, generally I go back to that key tenet, would I be happy with this product? In terms of Tablehammer, absolutely yes!

Originally what drew me into Tablehammer’s work was the "Federation Of Tyr" line. As you may have gathered by the name, we absolutely love dwarfs, so space dwarfs was an absolute must! Once we started working with Tablehammer we soon realized how well made the files were with high detail and great cuts for ease of printing.

After developing a good relationship with Josef at Tablehammer we decided we needed a mascot for our store and wanted to commission him to do this for us. The entire process of this was great fun and we absolutely love the end results we received. Not one, but two variations of Grundil The Crazy Dwarf so he could be used in Fantasy and Sci-fi settings!

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Why should you support or even join the 3D printing community?

Although 3D printing sometimes gets a bad stigma around it for allowing people to essentially make "pirate" copies of miniatures, that is very much a small minority of the community which agreeably should be shunned.

However, 3D printing also allows incredible artists such as Tablehammer bring their art work to life! Letting them create new games or even alternative models to existing game systems, allowing you to field the same army as a friend, but with completely different miniatures.

Thank you very much for the interview!

Click this link to check out our Etsy store!

The special commission model "Grundil – the crazy dwarf" is included in the current crowdfunding project "Federation of Tyr" that is live on kickstarter. Join today to get your hands on a ton of dspace dwarf models!