Inside Our Cape Town Studio: Meet the Printer Fleet
Every order that comes through Forge & Figures — from a single miniature to a batch of functional brackets — passes through one of six printers in our Cape Town studio: five CFS-equipped production machines and one small unit we keep for test prints. Here's what's actually running back there. (You can see the full lineup, specs included, on our printer fleet page.)
Three Creality Hi Combo units
These three printers form the backbone of our day-to-day production. Each is paired with a CFS (Creality Filament System) unit, which means they can switch between up to four filament colours or materials mid-print without anyone touching the machine. For multi-colour or multi-material miniatures and branded pieces, that used to mean manual filament swaps and paused prints — now it just happens automatically, mid-job.
One Creality K1 Max
When a commission is too large, too detailed, or needs a controlled thermal environment, it goes to the K1 Max. Its enclosed chamber holds a stable temperature throughout the print — essential for ABS and ASA runs, which warp badly if the chamber cools unevenly. At up to 600mm/s and a 300×300×300mm build volume, it's also our answer to oversized single-piece prints that would otherwise need to be split and glued.
One Creality K2 Plus
The K2 Plus is the biggest machine in the studio and the one we reach for when a commission won't fit anywhere else. It's another enclosed CoreXY, but with a 350×350×350mm chamber and full CFS support, so a large piece doesn't have to give up multi-colour or multi-material work to get the build volume it needs.
One Bambu Lab A1 Mini
The sixth printer isn't a production machine at all. The A1 Mini runs fast, low-cost test prints so we can check fit, scale and slicing before a job ever touches a production bed — which keeps the five CFS machines printing real orders instead of experiments.
Why multi-colour and multi-material matter more than it sounds
Multi-colour and multi-material printing isn't just a visual upgrade — it changes what's practical to make at all. A miniature with four filament colours used to mean four separate prints and careful assembly, or hours of hand-painting. With CFS across the whole production fleet, colour and material become part of the print itself, which is a big part of why our turnaround on detailed pieces has stayed fast even as the work has gotten more ambitious.
Curious what your piece would look like?
If you've got a design in mind and you're wondering which machine it would run on — or whether multi-colour or multi-material makes sense for it — send us a WhatsApp. We're happy to talk through the practical side before you commit to anything.