9 Obscure 3D Printing Sites You Need To Check Out

3D printing has grown from a niche and obscure hobby for people who also like to build their 3D printers from scratch in a basement, to a multi-billion-dollar industry. You can order a cheap 3D printer that’s user-friendly and reliable and doesn’t require a degree in engineering to operate. In other words, 3D printing is pretty mainstream, and anyone can get into it.

However, the actual printer is only part of the equation. Without models to print, it’s just an overpriced paperweight. There are numerous sites for free 3D printing projects like Cults, Thingiverse, and Printables, but if you’ve been printing for a while, then you’ve already explored those extensively.

The good news is that there are many smaller, less well-known sites where you can find 3D models. Thanks to a narrower focus, they often have more impressive models or some interesting ideas that you won’t see elsewhere. We’ve dug up some of the best obscure 3D printing sites frequented by those in the know, and now you’ll know about them too.

If you love the mecha genre, where giant robots play a central role in warfare, then you’ll love Tecco Toys. Think of properties like “MechWarrior” or “Mobile Suit Gundam,” and you’ll get the idea. This isn’t just a loose grouping of themed models, either. Tecco Toys has crafted a fun fictional backstory for these models, and it’s good enough to equal those beloved toy commercials masquerading as cartoons in the ’80s and ’90s.

The toys are 1/35 scale and highly detailed. You can see master examples on the Tecco Toys YouTube channel, which also gives you a great view of how detailed these models are. If you check the product pages of individual kits, you’ll see detailed information on what you’ll need to print these with the best results.

The kits come as files formatted for various printer types. Tecco recommends resin printing, but you can use a regular plastic printer, as long as you understand that the fine detail on the model will be lost unless you scale the model up to a larger size. The kits are printed in separate parts, making it easier to select different colors of filament or resin types, and detailed assembly instructions are included. The pricing may seem a little steep (starting around $10 at the low end) until you consider how much artistic and engineering work went into it. If you use the right printer and follow the instructions correctly, you’ll end up with something that would have cost hundreds of dollars from a professional model brand.

There was a time when tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons represented player characters with portraits, often crudely drawn by the players themselves. These days, it’s becoming more common to also use miniatures to represent characters, monsters, and other entities in the game. They can help players better immerse themselves, and can be useful in tactical battles.

No doubt, the rise in popularity of 3D printers has made this easier, although you can buy official miniatures, as well. Hero Forge leans into this by letting you use its browser-based app to make a custom 3D model. It works pretty much like the character creators you find in video games. Choose a species, head, body, clothing, gear, and a pose. Then, when you’re happy with the unique figure you’ve created, you have several options.

You can order your model in various materials, such as steel or premium plastic, or you can also pay for a set of STL model files and print out your model using whatever method you prefer. Hero Forge is great because it solves the biggest hurdle to making tabletop minis: Not everyone is a digital sculptor. With this solution, you’re just a few clicks away from being the envy of your next tabletop session.

3D printing tends to attract a certain geeky audience, so it’s no surprise that you’ll find plenty of models online from sci-fi and fantasy franchises. Starships, dragons, robots, aliens, monsters, and so much more are on popular sites for you to download, usually for free.

However, while these models, often sculpted by amateurs, are perfectly fine, they have nothing on the models you’ll find on Gambody. This site specializes in extremely detailed models that will reset your expectations of what a 3D model can be. These models come with hundreds of parts, and multiple file versions formatted for different printer technologies. You’ll also get an assembly manual and plenty of recommended print settings.

Perhaps most importantly, these models are tested, which is not always the case with a free model you get from a mainstream site. It’s often up to the community to test models for bugs, but with Gambody, you’re buying a finished product.

Fab365 is a particularly interesting site. Most of the models seem to be print-in-place designs, which simply means they have been designed to be printed as-is, without the need for additional supports. There are also plenty of models that can be printed in parts and assembled.

The site is arranged in such a way that you can see models that are exclusive to Fab365, and also arranged by designer. It feels quite curated, and the categorization system is both comprehensive and accurate, as far as we were able to determine by clicking through to several specific pages.

There are also plenty of models from big and popular franchises, although this brings up the major oddity of how Fab365 works. While some models are listed as being free, these can only be claimed using a reward ticket. You get one reward ticket when you sign up, and then you get another every time you purchase a model with a price tag in dollars. For example, some models of real-world planes can be redeemed only with a reward ticket, which you can get by purchasing the model of the stand for that plane. Regardless, Fab365 really is a fab site in our book.

Toymakr3D is a site based in Indonesia that hosts high-quality models made by skilled artists focused on toys in particular. Unlike Gambody, the goal here isn’t to make the most premium, high-detail models possible, but to aim for good quality while still keeping ease of printing in mind. Like Fab365, the print-in-place models are the linchpins here, which don’t require any supports and can be printed as-is.

All the models on the site are colored, so if you own a multicolor printer (one of the coolest 3D printing gadgets), then you don’t need to do anything extra to get the right colors applied to your model. All the models are pre-oriented to maximize success in common FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) plastic 3D printers. When assembly is necessary, the site has a rule that no screws or bolts can be required.

Like Fab365, Toymakr3D has a reward system, but instead of having models that you can only purchase with loyalty points, the points you earn from buying models and uploading photos of your prints can be used for a discount at checkout.

Thangs is as hip and funky as its name suggests. The site seems to attract some truly creative sculptors and designers, and that’s partly because it offers them an easy way to earn an income from their creations. Not only can you buy model files and print them yourself as usual, but you can also order prints to be delivered, which is perfect for those without 3D printers. The print-on-demand service is limited in its offerings, though, so it seems not everything is up for a physical order.

The other notable feature of Thangs is the Bundle subscription service. For a single monthly or annual fee, you get access to a catalog of 3D models from numerous artists. However, it doesn’t give you full access to the entire site’s models. Designers have to opt in and contribute models. Also, you can’t download more than 15 models a week, but that still works out to about 25 cents a model if you take the $15 monthly subscription into account.

Ultimately, we do like how Thangs makes it easy to follow and support artists through individual memberships, which almost makes it a hybrid of a 3D printing site and Patreon. If you’re a maker, it seems like a good place to ply your wares, and if you’ve never considered it, there are many 3D printing projects that can actually be profitable.

Redpah was established in 2014 and is about as bare-bones in the design department as you can get. The site is based in Texas, and makes a particular point of being a marketplace, rather than just a repository of model files.

In other words, the focus is on letting buyers and sellers exchange money for files with confidence. Redpah has rules, and chief among these is their oath of file originality that every seller has to take. It’s not as fancy as it sounds, but basically just a declaration that anything someone uploads to the site must be their own original work. If someone makes a claim against a design, Redpah will err on the side of caution and remove the model unless the uploader can prove they have the legal right to share it.

Perusing the site, we get the feeling that Redpah’s community leans more towards useful items, rather than 3D printer projects that are actually a waste of time. You’ll see replacement parts, practical gadgets, and some really innovative items, like a printable wind turbine, that make Redpah well worth a visit.

That’s right, none other than NASA hosts an absolute treasure trove of 3D models that touch pretty much every area that this venerable institution has within its purview. Not all of these 3D models are suitable for printing, at least not without modification, but you can filter the models by file type, and if you set it to STL files, most should be OK to print.

There are the sort of models that you’d expect, with ground vehicles like rovers and satellites, and rockets like the Saturn V, all present and correct. However, there are also models of things you might not have thought of printing, like the Pillars of Creation or Hurricane Katrina. Models of asteroids, weather patterns, lunar landing sites, and so much more can be found on the NASA site. They even provide tutorials on using Blender if you want to try your hand at creating digital 3D models yourself.

Patreon needs no introduction. The site is famous for allowing people to turn any form of art into a paying gig. Whether you’re in a band, making cosplay costumes, or a YouTuber who built a real-life stillsuit from Dune, you can start a Patreon and have people support you with one-time donations or ongoing subscriptions.

While it might not be the very first website you think of when looking for 3D printing models, there is a wealth of amazing artists on the site who will let you have their creations for a reasonable fee. They’ll often even have a reseller tier, in case you want to make some money selling prints of their creations. Patreon also gives you great access to these creators, allowing you to chat with them and give input on future work.

Getting 3D models through Patreon is a very different experience from just hopping on a site and swiping your credit card for some models, but there are some true gems to be found here. Best of all, many of the top 3D-model sculptors have exclusive content available only to patrons, so if you like being the 3D-printer equivalent of an indie music snob, this is the place you want to be.