28mm STL Miniatures

28mm STL Miniatures for 3D Printing: The Scale Everyone Actually Plays

28mm is the default. It’s what most rulesets assume, what most terrain is built for, and what most people picture when they hear the word miniature. If you’ve ever painted a face and been able to see the eyes, you were probably working at 28mm.

Our 28mm STL files cover WW2, the ancient world, the American Revolution and fantasy, with the level of detail that makes this scale worth the printing time. Files are prepared for resin machines like the Elegoo Mars and Anycubic Photon, and they hold up on FDM with the right settings.

Why 28mm dominates

28mm corresponds to roughly 1:56, though that number comes with a caveat worth knowing. The millimetre figure measures foot to eye level, not total height, so a 28mm model usually stands 32 to 35mm from base to head. It also explains why two ranges both labelled 28mm can look wrong together: sculpting conventions vary, and what started as 25mm drifted upwards over the decades.

The reason it won isn’t complicated. At 28mm you can see what you’re painting. Faces, equipment, insignia and weathering all read at arm’s length, which makes painting rewarding rather than a chore of block colours. Individual models become characters rather than markers, and for skirmish games where every soldier matters, that’s the whole point.

What we make in 28mm

Join or Die WW2. Our largest 28mm range. American infantry and US Airborne, British Army and British Airborne, German Army and Fallschirmjäger, Soviet Red Army, Italian Folgore paratroopers and the Imperial Japanese Army. Infantry, command models, weapon teams and specialists across the European and Pacific theatres.

Join or Die Ancient World. Roman Empire legions against Germanic tribal warriors, with the detail level that makes lorica segmentata and tribal shield patterns actually visible.

Join or Die Wanted. Wild West gunslingers, outlaws and frontier characters, plus printable terrain for building saloons, settlements and dusty streets.

1775 Join or Die. The American War of Independence, with Continental troops, Loyalists, mercenaries and historical characters.

March to Hell Sengoku. Feudal Japan and the age of the samurai, with the Oda and Takeda clans available as distinct forces.

The March to Hell historical ranges covering WW2, Rome, the ancient world, the Napoleonic Wars and the medieval period are sculpted for both 15mm and 28mm, so most of that catalogue is available at this scale too.

Printing 28mm at home

This is the scale resin printers were made for. Around 0.03mm layer height captures everything, and finer settings are worth it if you’re printing a character piece for display rather than a rank-and-file trooper. Tilt models 30 to 45 degrees so resin drains and you don’t trap suction on flat surfaces.

FDM is genuinely viable at 28mm if you set it up properly. Use a 0.2mm nozzle at 0.06mm layers for command models and characters, or a 0.4mm nozzle at 0.08mm for rank-and-file troops. PLA or PLA+, slow perimeters around 30 to 40mm per second, cooling fan on from the third layer, and tree supports rather than standard ones. A coat of filler primer covers most of what’s left, and at arm’s length on a table the difference stops mattering.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between true 28mm and heroic 28mm?
True scale keeps human proportions accurate to the ratio. Heroic scale exaggerates hands, heads and weapons so details read better at tabletop distance. Both get labelled 28mm, which is why two ranges can look mismatched side by side even when the numbers agree. Check a test print against something you already own before committing to a full army.

Should I use resin or FDM for 28mm miniatures?
Resin wins on detail. Machines cure at pixel sizes around 18 to 24 microns, which captures faces, chainmail and equipment that filament can’t quite match. FDM has closed the gap enough to be viable for troops, and it’s the better choice for terrain and vehicles where flat surfaces and structural strength matter more than fine detail. Plenty of people run both.

Are these compatible with commercial 28mm rulesets?
They’re sculpted to standard 28mm wargaming proportions, so they work with any ruleset written for the scale. They aren’t official products of any game publisher and aren’t endorsed by one. Compatibility here is a question of size and basing, not licensing.

Can I use 28mm miniatures for roleplaying games?
Yes. 28mm and 32mm are the standard for tabletop RPGs, where each figure represents a single character rather than a unit. The character models, command figures and Wild West personalities from our ranges work particularly well for this.

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