HeroForge is one of the big names in tools that help you design miniatures for your board games. Over the years, the team behind the tool has introduced new customization features, the ability to print in color, and now their latest innovation is here: kitbash.
In case you didn’t know, kitbashing is the practice of modifying models and figures, usually by mixing and matching pieces from multiple kits. Kitbashing in HeroForge is a bit like that, but not quite. HeroForge was kind enough to give me some time before release to try it out. All thoughts below are my own.
First of all, kitbash requires you to have a Pro account on HeroForge which starts at about $4 per month. Also, before you can use kitbash, you have to take a little quiz to make sure you understand that there are some rules you have to follow or printing just won’t work.
This includes having really small parts, out of bounds parts, floating parts, and a couple others. Overall, it’s not a big deal and it’s helpful to make sure you keep those things in mind while playing with kitbash.
As I said, kitbash on HeroForge is different than many people think. Since there are no more models that can be taken apart and combined, it seems a bit of a misnomer. However, you can do a lot of things to modify the figure.
Basically, when you go into kitbash, your figure gets a skeleton with key points at the various joints and select other areas. You can click on a point and then you have three main controls: translation (aka moving), rotation (aka turning), and scale (aka resizing). This lets you play with the proportions of your figure, the overall shape of the figure, and more. And that’s just the basics.
If you want to dive even deeper, you can! There is an Add tool that allows you to add almost anything from the HeroForge library to your scene. There are a few reasons why you might want to do this. The first is if you want something in a place you wouldn’t normally be able to put it.
For example, you can add a tail to the scene and make it something your character holds like a weapon or trophy, instead of making it a part of their body. Secondly, when you add things in kitbash, they usually have more room for modification.
One example I ran into was with capes. If I put a cape as a back piece, it was static. If I added a cape via kitbash, it had some skeletal points that allowed me to modify it for a more customized look and feel.
The third, and probably coolest, thing that kitbash lets you do is create completely new things from scratch. This is where the rabbit hole lies, in my experience. For example, I wanted my figurine to have a spider stick.
However, HeroForge doesn’t have any. Hell, they don’t even have spiders. So what did I do? I managed to take a bunch of pieces and combine them to make a little spider-like thing. Then I combined it with one of HeroForge’s staffs to make a spider-like staff, which, while not perfect, is something.
I have shared a screenshot of my creation below and I know there are people out there who will be able to do the craziest things with this tool.
One problem I have with Kitbashing is that it isn’t very good at pointing you to problems with your model. When you go to Check, it checks the printability of your figure and warns you about problems, but I’m not sure where the different problems are coming from. It highlights certain items in red, but it doesn’t always tell you where the problem is. For example, I get the warning that the figure has small parts and I delete the pieces I added, so it’s just the figure with the stock HeroForge items and I still get that small parts error. I don’t know if it’s due to some change in the positioning of the figure or if there’s a hidden object I’m missing or if there’s something else. I wish I could click on the error message and it would show me exactly what the problem is with the model.
Kitbash is a really fun tool that HeroForge has done a good job of implementing. There are a few things I wish they would work on, like adding more joints to some objects and making it more useful for identifying what the problems are with the miniature. However, I think kitbash is a very welcome tool for people who want to have fun and make their miniatures even more like a player’s vision. I’m really excited to see the crazy things people make with it!
by Tommy Williams
Source: Geek Tyrant
Lloyd Grunewald is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. He is a talented writer who focuses on bringing the latest entertainment-related news to his readers. With a deep understanding of the entertainment industry and a passion for writing, Lloyd delivers engaging articles that keep his readers informed and entertained.
