Victoria Miniatures Grimdark Empire STLs give Guard players modular Infantry, Heavy Weapons, and Command files for $69, while GW’s Cadian Battleforce sits around $255.
GW’s older Cadian Battleforce costs about $255 for a detachment’s worth of plastic. Victoria Miniatures just launched a Kickstarter that gives you STL files for a larger, more flexible Guard-style force for roughly forty percent of that price.
Grimdark Empire is live now at $69 for the Digital Core Set, and honestly, when a campaign clears its funding goal 19 times over on day one, that’s the market showing how much they want alternative, cheaper options.
If you’ve been missing the old-school look of the Imperial Guard regiments that Games Workshop sometimes seems happy to leave in the past, Victoria Miniatures has the perfect answer. Her new Kickstarter is all about getting classic troops like the Mordians and Praetorian Guard back onto the tabletop, and for a lot of hobbyists, that hits the sweet spot.
Article Summary:
- Price: AU$99 / ~$69 USD (Digital Core Set pledge tier)
- Status: Live Kickstarter through July 30, 2026 (All-or-Nothing funding, delivery estimated September 2026)
- Retailer: Kickstarter (fulfillment via My Mini Factory and Only Games)
- Contents: STL files for Infantry Squads, Heavy Weapons Squad, and Command Squad across the Tannenburg Fusiliers and Victorian Guard regiments. Bonus additions revealed as the campaign advances. Files come supported and unsupported for resin printing
- Designed for: 28mm-scale grimdark tabletop games, scale-matched to contemporary plastic Guard (works alongside Astra Militarum)
- Benefits: Fully modular plug-together push-fit system with dry-assembly-no-glue capability, male and female troops in every squad by default
Grimdark Empire Keeps Growing With Free New Sculpts and Physical Kits
Updated on July 14th 2026, by Rob Baer with the latest from the live campaign.
Victoria Miniatures’ Grimdark Empire Kickstarter is charging ahead, earning Kickstarter’s coveted “Projects We Love” badge while unlocking even more models for backers.
The latest free additions include female versions of the Tannenburg and Victorian regiments, kneeling (firing) troops designed to fit alongside the firing line, a missile launcher team for the STL pledge, and full parade troop kits for both regiments. Those parade sets also include male and female miniatures marching, saluting, presenting arms, and generally looking ready for inspection.
Male Crew Cut Heads have also been unlocked and will be added free to every Digital Core Set pledge.
The campaign’s success has also allowed Victoria Miniatures to fast-track the first wave of physical Grimdark Empire kits. The initial release includes Tannenburg Fusiliers, Victorian Guard, Caine, missile launcher teams, and Sister Medicus, all produced as high-quality 3D-printed resin kits.
While the Kickstarter is still live, the new physical kits are now available in the store with a 10% discount!
Grimdark Empire STL Kickstarter
The Core Set gives backers modular Infantry, Heavy Weapons, and Command STL files across two full regiments, with parts that swap between them without glue. If you’ve followed Victoria Miniatures for any amount of time, this bit-swapping setup should look familiar. This time around, though, it’s even more dialed in.
Fulfillment runs through My Mini Factory and Only Games after payments clear, which is pretty normal for an STL Kickstarter setup at this point.
The Value Math Undercuts A Cadian Battleforce
This is where the comparison gets rough for GW. A Cadian Combat Battleforce was about $255 MSRP, enough plastic to build toward a detachment but not enough minis to play a decent-sized game.
Grimdark Empire’s Core Set is $69 for STL files that you can print as many times as your resin, printer time, and patience allow. The files are also modular in a way Cadian sprues aren’t, so you’re not building the same handful of poses over and over across a whole army.
A printer and resin aren’t free, and neither is the paint you’ll burn through on a pile of Guardsmen. Still, once you have a printer, each extra squad costs resin rather than another box off the shelf.
That’s the value with most alt-Guard STL Kickstarters, and it hits even harder when it comes from a known 3rd-party sculptor with a real track record.
Modular Squads Swap Between Two Regiments
The Core Set includes four Infantry kits split between the Tannenburg Fusiliers and the Victorian Guard. It also includes the Firing Lines tactical formation, with four modular push-together squads, special weapons, and unique Sgt. options. The useful part is that the bits swap between both regiments, so you can dry-fit different builds before committing to anything.
Every squad also includes male and female troops by default. They’re not locked behind some separate add-on sprue or weird side kit. Victoria Lamb has been making Guard-style troops that way since her first Kickstarter, so if you liked the kitbash options in the Border World Rangers STLs, this follows the same idea on a larger scale.
Heavy Weapons And Command Fill The Detachment
The Heavy Weapons Squads include interchangeable bolters, auto-cannons, and lasers for both the Tannenburg and Victorian Male teams. That covers the kind of anti-infantry and anti-tank tools a Guard list actually wants.
Command Squads fill out the roster with named personalities handling command, comms, standard bearer, medic, and specialist roles.
Physical Kits Are Live For Anyone Who Doesn’t Print
No printer, no problem. The first six Grimdark Empire physical kits are already live at Victoria Miniatures with a 10% Kickstarter discount. US physical production runs through Trenchworx, the same partner Victoria has used for the last several kits. That gives the non-printing crowd an easy way into the same release cycle as the STL backers as well!
Victoria’s Sixth Kickstarter Backs The September Delivery
Grimdark Empire is Victoria Miniatures’ sixth Kickstarter campaign, so the September 2026 delivery window isn’t coming from a first-time creator trying to figure it out on the fly. Victoria Lamb won the Golden Demon Slayer Sword in 2001, becoming the first woman to do so, and she has been sculpting boutique Guard alternatives ever since.
Most of the sculpting for this project is already completed and test-printed, according to Victoria’s own risks-and-challenges write-up, which is exactly the kind of proof STL crowdfunding needs more often.
Plus other sculptors on Grimdark Empire are Patrick Keith, Jake Schneider, and Dimitris Kampourides, all known names in the miniatures space. Every model is also hand-sculpted, not AI-generated. Which, honestly, matters more now than it used to, and Victoria calls it out directly on the campaign page.
Final Thoughts on the Victoria Miniatures Grimdark Empire STL Kickstarter
The campaign has 27 days left at the time of writing, and it’s already 19 times over its funding goal, so funding isn’t the question anymore. Now it’s about which bonus sculpts unlock before July 30, whether the physical-kit range at Victoria Miniatures expands during the campaign, and how the Merchant License tiers affect limited printer access for EU and UK hobbyists once fulfillment begins in September.
With GW pushing older regiments further out of the spotlight, this kind of Imperial Guard STL project gives hobbyists another lane to keep those classic looks alive. For players who want Mordians STL files or Praetorian Guard STL files, this feels like one of the best ways to get those armies on the table without waiting for a miracle.
Back The Grimdark Empire Kickstarter Here!
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What do you think of the Victoria Miniatures Grimdark Empire STL Kickstarter?
