The Magic Hour

How Two Dads Use 3D Printing to Build Better Wargaming Gear

They say creativity strikes when you least expect it—for us, it usually happens sometime after our kids bedtime stories, after chores but before falling asleep on couch.

As two full-time-working dads, one and engineer and the other a photogrpher we like to escape our daily grind into the world or wargaming. Be it drawn out 4hr long Warhamemr matchs or 20min skirmish games of Arean rex, X-Wing or Tanks we love it to all and are passionate hobbyists. Years of broken models or not knowing whats horded waway in our table top tyrant cases we decided we needed a better way to maxamise our hooby time. Less raking throigh layers of foam and more time gaming. After a quick look online it was easy to see the options were limted, expensive or just not what we were after. We wanted to have out models on display looking cool, easy to see whats in beach case and also be able to grab what we need of the shelf and take it with us. Thats when we decided to bring our ideas to life.

Without breaking the bank Paul tunred up at Iains one night with some cardboard boxes, cardboard trays and a mock up of V1 Futurecase. It instantly ignited the next chapter of our hobbytime in the "BRO SHOP". Ove the next few months we sat most nights chatting about what we wanted from it, what we could hope to achieve and the best bit....... pikcing names of cases and the business name. It was like being in highschool naming your crappy band again.

ENTER : 3D printing!

What started as a gun hobby tool quickly became our secret weapon in designing the ultimate magnetic miniature display and transport cases.

The process? It’s part science, part caffeine, and part chaos.

We started with a sketch, thens some CAD then eventually ended up with a printed model we thought was the Sh*t — sometimes looking back we cringe how crude it was compared to where we are now. More paper, more redesign, MORE COFFEE!

Then comes the CAD modeling, to tweek the designs, hours are spent tweaking slots, curves, and tolerances while one of us has a baby monitor to our ear or a txt from our wife to get home ASAP as its stupid O'Clock. The we have the printing between rushing on the school runs, work runs or fixing a jammed printer nozzle at 1 a.m the list goes on.

Once the design is prepped, it’s off to the printer. Watching it layer up a prototype is oddly satisfying—until you realise it’s 2 a.m. and you have to be up in 4 hours.

Prototype after prototype don’t work the first time. Or the second. Sometimes, the case looks amazing but won’t close. Or the scale’s off and suddenly it’s not so easy to snap together. But we refine, reprint, and retry—because every test gets us closer to a product that we’re proud to use and sell.

3D printing gives us the freedom to experiment, pivot, and perfect our designs without needing a full production line. And that means more innovation, faster turnaround, and a product that 's actually made by hobbyists—for hobbyists.

So the next time you pick up one of our products, know it was born not in a factory, but in a Messy 3D spagetthi garage or a chaotic photogrpahers studio somewhere between dinner dishes and a late-night game, bsuiness meeting oe just us stariing blakly at the wall trying to remmember what the important thing was.

We’re not just designing products—we’re designing a better experience for the tabletop community, one layer at a time.