Hey there!

I hope you’re well. I’m writing this story at an important point in my development as a creator and designer and wanted to take a moment to share my story with the community to share a few pointers and hopefully inspire some folks to perserver and reach for the goals!

My name’s Andrew Pawley and I’m the geezer behind Dice Heads models. I’ve been sculpting for about three years and have run five successful STL Kickstarters and currently maintain a monthly Patreon bundle and I'm super excited to now be running a Tribe here on My Mini Factory!

It’s been a slog at times but great fun too! But I’m not quite there yet! Let me explain…..

Before all this modelling business I used to draw comics and had great fun creating a comic called GalaXafreaks! I Kickstarted a good few of these comics! Great fun!

However my first love had always been D&D and Fantasy and I wanted to get into modelling and 3D printing. But it’s an expensive set up right? Zbrush licence, online training, expensive of setting up a 3D printer.

So I decided I needed a way to finance this project. Using my illustration skills I created a Kickstarter selling bundles of fantasy themed Kickstarter of characters with D20 Dice Heads (Origin of the name!) Check some of them out!

Awesome! I had made enough to get myself started! I bought the equipment, did the training and got started! My first venture was to make all these stickers in 3D models!

I loved making these models and they are a great testament to being determined and taking a ‘have a go’ attitude. It’s also amazing to see how my sculpting has come on since then!

I was off! I set up my Patreon and started offering four of these Dice Heads a month. Small fair by a lot of Patreon standards but I offered a fair price and some folks were kind enough to join in the fun!

Then Covid hit.

Wow. Talk about a world turned upside down. I still feel blessed today that my family and loved ones have so far made it though these crazy times unharmed and also, I am incredibly lucky to have been able to remain secure in my IRL job (I’m a secondary school art teacher). But in chaos comes opportunity and being stuck at home meant I’ve had the opportunity to put in a portion of my 10,000 hours! I’ve since moved away from the Dice Heads Holders to a more dynamic modelling style and have had fun with a whole bunch of themes.

I’m now working on Animal Adventurers in a world of my own setting called Heroes Of Zoontalis.

This has been great fun to work on and the theme is brought to life with a 5e rules module to go with the models.

Creating these models is a real creative treat. I always start with my sketch book and start modelling after. Here’s some pages from my book:

And here are a few of the models

And here are a few of the model painted by awesome members of my community

Now that I’m a couple years into this adventure what do I love the most? So many things!

Of course the creative model making is the core of it all but I’m also incredibly fortunate to have so many great folks printing and painting my models, giving me feedback about how their kids love them. And it’s this that is a real buzz!

I’ve also made some great friends along the way. The folks here on MMF are super helpful and professional. I’ve teamed up with the guys at Cast n Play and even appeared in one of the podcast interviews!

What’s next?

I mentioned at the beginning of this story that I’m writing this at an important point in my journey as a creator. This month I have been lucky enough to find myself financially stable enough to go part time with my IRL job (which I still love BTW!) and devote even more time to Dice Heads. This has all been possible thanks to the many great supporters who enjoy my models! I’ve even been able to employ my teenage daughter to help with social media and graphic design (check out these game cards she designed!)

And, yes! She gets a very good wage!

So I’m pretty stoked right now! And I’m about to embark on the next Dice Heads phase which is to develop the Heroes Of Zoontalis brand into a simple Skirmish game aimed at youth orientated TTRPG. Essentially a great way for parents to introduce their kids to this world with Zoontalis: Battle Royale

I’m really excited about the future and sharing these projects with as many people as possible. You can get the latest Zoontalis bundle by joining my TRIBE!!

Through the power of motivation and drive it is possible for someone to pick up a dream and run with it!

I really hope if you’re reading this and thinking about having a go that feel it is possible!

Thanks for taking the time in ready this! Stay frosty!

Shine On!

Andrew

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