We featured this one back in Loot Drop #6, but it has added a lot since then, and with paint ranges getting renamed and reshuffled this year, it has earned a second look. Plus a fresh STL find for anyone with a 3D printer.
Miniature Painting Forge: Free Paint Converter, Matcher, and Color Toolkit
Miniature Painting Forge is a free browser-based toolkit built around one problem: a tutorial calls for a paint you do not own (or one that has been discontinued), and you need the closest match from a brand you do have. It covers more than 1,000 paints across Citadel, Vallejo, Army Painter, Scale75, Pro Acryl, Reaper, AK Interactive, and more. Beyond the converter, there is now an image color picker (upload a photo and find the nearest paints to any spot), a highlight and shadow generator, a color mixer that works from paints you already own, and a “hoard” tracker for your collection.
For D&D painters, the image picker is the standout. Found a piece of art or a photo of a finished mini you love? Click a color and get real, buyable paint suggestions instead of guessing. No account is needed for any of it, and signing in with Google is optional and only adds cloud backup for your paint collection.
One honest caveat: the site itself notes that its hex values are approximate, because hobby paints have no official color standard. Treat every match as a strong starting point and compare swatches side by side before you buy. It also does not list the new Warhammer Tone Pro range in its brand list, so check before relying on it for that one.
Once you know what you are missing, a Vallejo Game Color set is an easy way to fill gaps with a lot of colors at once.
Use it free at Miniature Painting Forge →
AssetsFree.com: Free Fantasy Creature STLs for D&D
AssetsFree hosts a “Dungeon Classics” collection of free downloadable fantasy creature STLs: horned, clawed, and tentacled monsters with round bases, built for 3D printing. It is a general free-asset site rather than a D&D-only shop, so browse around and you will also find scenery and other fan-art pieces mixed in.
Two things worth checking before you download: the site describes the files as free, but we were not able to independently confirm on our end whether a sign-up is required, so check that yourself first. And separately, the same “Dungeon Classics” name is attached to a paid Patreon and MyMiniFactory library with its own terms restricting redistribution of the files, so treat these as personal-use prints until you can confirm otherwise.
Note: 3D printer required.
Browse the free STLs at AssetsFree →
Once you have something printed, a resin-safe primer will get it ready to paint.
Two finds this week: a tool you will actually keep open in a tab, and something new to print with it. If you are wondering what all the fuss is about with the new Warhammer paints, our Warhammer Tone Pro explainer for D&D painters covers it (live Monday).
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