Month 2 of a Monthly subscription, is it worth it?

So, recently I signed up for DM Stash's (not affiliated/promotional material, I use my own money on these) monthly subscription fee to trial if I liked the models before considering diving in on their commercial membership to sell the models.

And, it's been pretty good overall, but there are some downsides.

So, let's have a chat about my pro's and con's for subscription services. But first, here's some of the beasties all painted up.

"Get in loser, we're going TPK'ing"

First off, subscription? To what?

That's right, some 3D studios/designers (most really) offer a monthly subscription option which allows people to get certain digital files from that month's "release". I've not really signed up to one of these before properly, as my 3D printing for resin was mostly Warhammer centric, meaning there's very few things I need as routinely as monthly.

But my friends and I have recently started playing Dungeons and Dragons! Which works great for monthly subscriptions as I'll relly quickly be able to build up a "model library" (a bunch of models we use frequently to represent things in game). So it was about time I signed up for something, and DM Stash had some cool looking minis for their November release. About $15 USD a month later, I started downloading the files and got printing.

Look how beautiful these guys came out!

Now we've hit December, I've gotten my second release of files, last month's was Monster hunter themed, this month it's kind of like Dungeons and Dragons Mafia themed (I'm still in the process of getting these one's printed, more on this in the pro's and con's).

Let's jump into the Pro's and Con's shall we?

Pro's:

• Depending on who you sign up with, the monthly releases are, genuinely, great value, like the value you get from these DM Stash kit's are great.

• November's kit had 15 or so little heroes themed for the pack, 5-6 monsters from memory, and a FULL huge ass dragon, plus terrain and rules for the models to use as a standalone campaign.

• Often comes with some form of discount to their regular store as well.

• Really affordable way to get multiple files, even if you don't like all the models, sometimes it's cheaper to sign up to get the 3-4 you may like, rather than buying them individually.

• No lock in contract (may vary per subscription and location of subscription).

Con's:

Now realistically, there's not actually that many that are genuine "Con's" but moreso, considerations.

• Monthly releases means you're getting, a lot, like a lot of files.

• You need to be comfortable with potentially supporting models yourself, or be aware that existing pre-supports from various designers may be hit and miss.

• If you print the whole set, you will have more than you can paint in the span of a month (looking at the 10 or so models and huge dragon I've still got left to paint, while already being part way into December and printing this months set...).

• Monthly release may not line up with something you like aesthetically.

I really can't say there are true "con's" to signing up to a designer you like, would I personally sign up to multiple? Probably not, there's only so many mini's I can paint in a month and I don't like having backlog. But is it worth signing up to a designer you think puts out consistently cool material? Yes.

My personal issue that I maintain, and this just may be an issue from the subscription that I have, but I find that the auto supports provided in a lot of the files, feel like they're done by different people from within the studio? Like some are quite oversupported, and some are right in the sweet spot, while luckily so far, none have been undersupported.

But over supported can sometimes be just as problematic as being over supported. However that's a post for another time.

If you're interested in DM Stash Mini's but don't have a printer, get in contact, I've got a service offering that may be beneficial for you (https://www.useful3dprints.com.au/product-page/dm-stash-monthly-lootbox-crusader)

Until next time.