Vogland Miniatures by VogMan

Download my Free miniatures here:

• Cults3D
• Printables
• Thangs
• Thingiverse

I review a lot of 3D printers and because of this, a lot of folks offer me excellent looking miniatures to print (in exchange for a little free publicity). The problem I found is that despite these guys being professionals and charging good money for their models, 9 times out of 10 the models FAILED to print, and in almost all cases this was down to poorly supported prints.

Consequently, I decided to make my own miniatures. These are NOT fantastic, brilliantly designed, high-detail professional models… but they are fun and they will print (I test each one! Why don’t the pros do this?). Additionally, as I used to enjoy painting minis, I decided to try and make these minis easy to paint too.

Vogland

Vogland is, of course, a fictional place pulled from the dark recesses of my imagination – which should be enough to have any passing psychiatrist rub his hands together in anticipation of a new client. So Vogland is mine… it’s fictional… it’s a bit silly and hopefully a lot of fun.. but it is MINE so please respect the copyright. If you want your own daft world, just make one. I did.

Orc Number One

The first creature I created was an Orc. Why an Orc? I’ve no idea… but the whole point is that it’s supposed to be a little silly, fun, but mostly an easy print and paint. He was never supposed to win any design awards or be in any way realistic / anatomically correct (see the word “fun”).

This chap had separate arms, heads and weapons, allowing him to be customised from one Orc to many. I also provided supported and unsupported versions. And if I haven’t made this clear yet, this model was and is FREE… I just wanted to join in the fun and maybe inspire others to do the same.

When uploading him, I added a brief description that I guess had always been in my mind…

So I’ve had a few questions about the Vog Orc, mostly along the lines of, “Where’s his trousers?”
Well, the Orc’s of Vogland are a strange breed. Fiercely proud of their shiny codpieces, they typically wear nothing else, other than a stout pair of boots.
Even their armour is skimpy. Vogland Orc’s generally stare across the battlefield, locking eyes with their foes, and polishing their codpieces with great enthusiasm. This alone is usually enough to disturb the enemy.
Download the Vog Orc and paint him any way you like… just have fun doing it and don’t take it too seriously. That way lies madness!

Anyone reading that and failing to grasp that I was NOT taking myself very seriously is clearly in need of help.

I was thrilled when Cults3D later included this in their Best Designs.

Vogland Orc Au Naturel

As I’d already pointed out that most Vogland Orcs wore nothing but a shiny codpiece and sturdy boots, and as I felt in my heart that they’d consider armour a bit sissy, it made sense to create to next Vogland Orc to show exactly this.

Thus the natural state Vogland Orc came to life… overly large head (still interchangeable with other heads I’d designed), overlong arms, a shiny codpiece, a sturdy pair of boots and, as hands are a pig to design, a pair of polishing gloves.

However, Anycubic changed all that by developing the world’s first budget DLP printer, the Anycubic Photon Ultra. For me this changed budget resin printing forever as I quickly fell in love with the extreme accuracy of these machines.

He continues to be my personal favourite.

Vogland Orc Hogrider

Asking my YouTube audience for a little inspiration, they offered a number of suggestions for more Vogland characters.

The one that jumped out (literally I guess), was the idea of a Hog rider, as made famous in Lord of the Rings.

The idea struck me to have a massive oaf of an Orc riding upon a tiny pink pig, and I laughed at my own wit and originality. A few weeks later a friend said, “Oh yes, like they did on Clash Of Clans a few years ago.” I’d genuinely forgotten about that… but I did play the game and clearly that’s where the idea had originally taken root. I guess it goes to prove how difficult it is to have an original idea. We’re all bombarded with the genius of others constantly.

However, I’d already come up with the background of our piggy hero, and I’m fairly sure that at least was original.

This version finds the Vogland Hogrider sitting upon his magnificent steed, the infamous Vogland Suicide Pig. Whilst small and cute in stature, the Vogland Pig has probably the tastiest meat in Vogland. However, nature has been kind to it, giving it incredible strength and such a violent disposition that trying to eat one is tantamount to Suicide. Probably for this reason, they’ve struck up an uneasy alliance with the Vogland Orcs, whereby neither species eats the other.

Vogland Orc Mage

My next creation, also inspired by viewer suggestions, was a Mage.

I struggled with the Mage if I’m honest.

I wanted him old and wizened, but he never quite got there. He had a suitably wobbly staff with a roughly hewn gem haphazardly lashed to it. He also wore a large cloak… which is when the problems really came in. Like many wizened figures, he’s bent over with hardship and age. This was fine, but with the cloak in place, he looked a bit of a mess.

I confess he’s my least favourite character to date and I would never have released him at all if it hadn’t been for his familiar. He needed something perched on his shoulder, and the idea of the horrifying Vogland Terror Hawk (shudder) came to mind. That evil, soulless stare still haunts my nightmares. But it made the Mage fun enough to actually print.

But only just, I think.

Vogland Castle Tower

At the same time I was working on the Mage, I had an inkling to design a building. Like a lot of folks, I’ve fantasised about owning a castle and I guess this is about as close as I’ll ever get.

Up until this point, I guess my designs were heavily favouring guys with Resin printers and I confess I love the extra details these messy machines give us. So, to make printing as practical as possible on these smaller printers, I broke the design into sections, ie “floors.”

To really challenge myself, I added an interior flight of stairs and made it so that these matched up perfectly between flights. However, when it came to the top of the tower, I did cop out a little, and added a mock trapdoor instead.

I was very pleased with the overall detail and loved the way the stonework turned out. I admit it took much longer to build than I expected, but to date this appears to be the most popular item I’ve designed.

After a couple of requests, I scrapped the interior of the structure in favour of a twisty pipe to convert the design into a Dice Tower. Both designs are still available.

I was thrilled when Cults3D later included this in their Best Designs.

Vogland Orc Berserker

Hopefully by now you’ve realised I don’t take myself too seriously. My minis are meant to be fun and not necessarily fabulous works of art.

I had it in mind to design a Berserker, a big, strapping lad that would tower above his fellow Orcs. Whilst pondering what sort of weapon he should carry, I saw one random miniature with a hammer that looked slightly over scale. This had my tiny mind buzzing with glee. I envisaged a massive, muscular beast of an Orc clutching between thumb and forefinger the tiniest of hammers – the sort you used to get in an old-fashioned Toffee tin.

Unfortunately, the design didn’t pan out that way. The hammer was just too insignificant, so much so that the gag was lost.

So I decided to keep the love of toffee hammers, but felt that to these Orcs, a toffee hammer could be massive. Thus, if you look carefully, the gigantic hammer is held in place by only two fingers; plus the Berserker has an erect pinkie finger, like an English Gent sipping tea.

I planned on having a small sword sticking through the head, but against the backdrop of that massive hammer, again the gag was lost.

I was thrilled when Cults3D later included this in their Best Designs.

Suggestions Welcomed

If you have any suggestions for miniatures you’d like me to produce, them feel free to contact me. I can’t make any promises, but I do find the whole design process very relaxing.

I will say at this point that various “professional” companies keep contacting me asking if I’ll employ them to design these miniatures for a suitably massive fee. If you belong to such a company, then please don’t bother. I produce these miniatures because I want to… I enjoy it… so why would I pay someone else? Yes, no doubt pros could do a much better job, but where would the fun be for me then.