From Fan Fiction to Reality: Building a 3D Printing Startup ft. Matthew Stansfield
What does it look like when a decade-old idea finally meets the right technology, the right community, and the right support system?
We sit down with Matthew, founder of Noblebright Miniatures and participant in the Ignition program. What began as a passion for tabletop gaming and fan fiction has evolved into a startup grounded in 3D printing, storytelling, and community engagement. His journey offers powerful insights into validation, niche innovation, and the discipline required to bring imagination into reality.
From Passion Project to Startup Vision
Matthew’s interest in miniature worlds didn’t begin as a business idea. It began as a hobby.
I've always loved sort of the worlds of Warhammer in particular around tabletop wargaming… It’s a space to come together with friends and whatnot
What started as a creative outlet evolved into a long-standing idea:
I had this idea more than a decade ago… wanting to just bring to life the sort of background imagery and things that never got moved into existence on the tabletop.
When Technology Catches Up to Vision
What changed wasn’t the passion. It was access.
The barriers to entry for 3D printing are much lower nowadays… I realised that I do actually have the potential at my hands to sort of start bringing stuff to life. It just has a lot of very fine detail that offers especially at the very miniature scale that we're printing at.
Suddenly, what once required industrial resources could happen at home. A printer. A file. An idea. Something physical in his hands.
“And it’s like always special when you see something physically printed in your hands from originally nothing.”
That moment — from digital file to tangible object — is where imagination becomes product.
Building With the Community
But Matthew didn’t rush straight to sales. Instead, he returned to the community. By creating a Reddit page for the Dawning Heresy, he tested whether anyone else still cared.
It sort of shown that there's a space and a time now where all of those things, the vision, the production capacity and the audience is all sort of coming together
More than 4,000 members later, the answer was clear.
“For me there, it was clearly a case that this community exists. It’s still there. They have just as much passion for it as I do.”
This wasn’t just market research. It was reconnection. The same fans who once built the universe through stories were now ready to hold pieces of it in their hands.
The Shift From Dream to Startup
The Ignition program marked another turning point.
I think the one thing… that Ignition gave me… was that it gave me that confidence to go forward with it as an actual… business start up idea that could find reality. It gives you that grounding… to make sure that what you think you want to sell to them is what they want.
The shift wasn’t about chasing profit. It was about taking responsibility for the idea.
“If you want to see something brought into the world, like no one else is going to do it for you.”
That mindset — ownership over outcome — is what separates a hobby from a venture.
A World Still Expanding
Noblebright Miniatures is still in its early chapters. The initial focus remains on expanding within the Dawning Heresy universe. But Matthew’s imagination stretches further — aliens, fantasy, entire new worlds “just begging to be brought into life.”
For students and founders, this story is a reminder that innovation does not always begin with disruption. Sometimes it begins with a lingering idea, a niche community, and the patience to wait until the timing is right.