A Bit About Everything (Patreon)

Hey friends!

Des here. I've been preparing this post for several weeks and now is finally time to talk about all the (not so) little things that have been going on behind the scenes at Bulkamancer Sculpts, so I'll try to squeeze them in a single large post. If you don't care for details, just read the highlights to get the gist of it. I'll start with the most important things.

This month's model will be released over the weekend. Pre-supporting has been completed for both models, and they are currently being printed. We'll release them as soon as we know there are no hidden issues.

We'll keep providing guest models each month. Apart from us, there are a lot of talented artists and studios our there, and we would like to keep introducing you to them by doing regular model swaps. While some may find it counter-productive and question the entire idea of promoting your own competition, we've always strived to keep warm relationships with other artists and let everyone promote their work on our Discord. The thing I keep hearing every so often is how hard it is for people to find 3D sculpting Patreons and how many of our patrons either stumbled upon us by pure chance or were referred to us by others. So we believe the right way for the resin printing community to grow is to expose people to other creators instead of locking your subs away and banning any mention of other artists. And if some people choose to leave us in favor of another creator after seeing their work firsthand, so be it – we want everyone to find the models they love!

We are going to raise the price of new subscriptions to $10. Our Patreon keeps growing and so does the quality of our work, as I'm sure you'll agree. We've originally started a year ago with a $6 tier and one model a month and have since grown quite a bit, constantly striving to improve the quantity and quality of our work. Sadly, this also raises the underlying expenses and right now we are at the point where we would like to grow one step further, which is why the price adjustment is needed. Please note the current patrons will not be affected, only the price of new subscriptions will be increased. And to make up for it, we have the next point you might love!

Starting June, we'll be sculpting three models a month. For quite some time, our long-term plan has been to reach the point where we would be able to create three figures monthly: a poll winner, an artist's choice, and a commission. While we are not quite there on the commission part (more about it further on), I believe we have reached the point of being able to pump out three models. I'll keep the "how" to myself for now to avoid spoiling the surprise. However, that brings us to the topic of model selection!

We'll continue releasing models with different styles. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but ever since September 2022 we have kept delivering models with two different face styles each month: an anime face and a semi-realistic one. We know that, as our community grows, the people's tastes will continue to diverge quite a bit. Since we started this Patreon with Pathfinder models, we want to keep true to our origin and not perform a complete switch towards anime. Which is how we've been picking our artist's choice models to keep things in balance. There is also a matter of personal preference for each artist, as we want to let each of them work in a style they enjoy the most. On that point, the last few months helped us figure out that Milana favors anime faces, while Elena prefers semi-realism. So, ultimately, this is what each of them will stick to in the future.

However, there won't be an anime-face model in June. I know, it's ironic to say that right after going on about how we have kept things in balance for 9 months and will continue to do so. However, circumstances prevent us from doing it next month, for there will be no artist's choice. You'll understand further on.

We are working on bringing the commission tier back. While the majority of our community missed those times, some of our long-time patrons may remember how we used to have a Jim Gordon subscription tier on Patreon. The idea was to allow someone to commission a model that they feel would never win in a poll, but pay less that what a private commission would cost. Then we make up for the difference by sharing the model with all patrons that month. While many people welcomed the  idea, it quickly became unsustainable at our continued Patreon growth, so we put it on hold until we found a better approach and resolved all internal nuances around it.

We have two commissions currently in the works. To test the feasibility and opportunity of bringing back commissions, we have accepted two such requests since April. One of them is quite a complex model that we've been working on in our spare time for the past few weeks and even had to outsource one of its parts (obviously, because none of our artists have any experience in sculpting donuts, and it's a crucial part of the upcoming figure). I won't reveal it just yet, so you'll have to wait for Monday and see our official reveal. Suffice to say, this is the reason why there won't be an artist's choice model next month. As for the other one...

July commission will have a NSFW version. While I won't reveal June commission yet, I can talk a bit about the July one. A while ago, 3D Printers Guild approached us and asked if Milana would be willing to sculpt Mordred from Fate series. However, their request included lingerie and nude versions, and, as you well know, Bulkamancer Sculpts is a SFW Patreon. So, after a bit of negotiation, we agreed to take the job, but only if it included a SFW option in her usual attire, which would be delivered as usual to all our July patrons. The two NSFW options will remain exclusive to their public commission participants and will not be available through our Patreon and stores. The work on that model won't begin until the end of June, but I'm letting you know in advance in case anyone would be interested to participate in the pledge on 3D Printers Guild Discord server. If you want more details, ask us on our own Discord.

Well, at this point I've realized the post has already become too large for most people to bother reading it, so I should probably stop and leave the remaining topics for a later date. And if you've read all the way through, thank you for caring!

Cheers!
Des