How tagging works, and why
This page is for anyone who wants to know how we tag miniatures and why the rules are the way they are.
What tags do
A tag describes something you can actually see on the sculpt, and everything you can filter or browse on this site is built on tags.
Each tag belongs to a category, and each category answers one question. Setting: what world is this piece from? Species: who or what is shown? Style: how is it sculpted? Maturity: does it need an age restriction?
The five main settings
Five tags matter most: fantasy, sci-fi, historical, modern, and nature. Every published miniature carries at least one of them. Together with the miniature type (bust, figure, diorama - a core property of every miniature, not a tag), they form the main categorisation of the catalog.
Why these five? Painting competitions usually sort entries into fantasy, sci-fi and historical, so some of us know this split already. We added two more to cover what it often misses: nature, for real animals and plants, and modern, for the real world after 1945 - elsewhere this setting is sometimes called contemporary, but here we use modern.
One main setting is the normal case, but a miniature can carry two for a true mix: a WWII soldier facing a dragon is historical and fantasy at the same time.
How to pick the setting
We keep these rules simple and unambiguous to help different people tag the same piece the same way. Apply the first one that fits:
Magic, monsters or invented races anywhere? Fantasy. A knight fighting a dragon is fantasy, not historical, no matter how accurate the armor is.
Technology from the future, or technology that doesn't belong to its time (steampunk, for example)? Sci-fi.
Real world after 1945? Modern. This is also the answer for realistic people whose period you can't tell, like a portrait bust with no era clues.
Real world, 1945 or earlier? Historical.
Only real animals or plants, no people? Nature.
The smaller tags
Inside Setting there are more precise groups: sub-settings like dark fantasy or cyberpunk, eras like medieval or napoleonic, environments like swamp or arctic, themes and cultures. The main setting gives the broad direction, the smaller tags narrow it down. Two or three precise tags help search more than ten loose ones.
The other categories are simpler. Species tags name who or what is shown: human, elf, dragon, horse, robot. Style tags describe how it's sculpted (more on that below). Maturity tags get their own section further down, because they work differently.
Only the main setting is mandatory on every published miniature. The smaller tags are added as we go - many pieces don't have them all yet, and this is where community suggestions help the most.
We tag the sculpt, not the paint
The miniatures here are unpainted, and you can paint yours any way you like. So style tags describe what is sculpted: proportions (realistic, heroic), design (chibi, anime, pinup). Painting styles are never tags. Grimdark, for example, means the sculpt itself is grim in its design, not a paint scheme.
Maturity tags
Three tags deal with mature content: nudity, gore, and sexual. They are different from every other tag, because they set the age restriction of a miniature.
First, how age works here. We operate from Germany and follow German youth protection rules. The catalog is meant for visitors aged 14 and older, so anyone browsing without an account is treated as 14+. A Maturity tag raises the required age for a piece: its images are shown blurred, and they become visible after you log in and confirm your age. The miniature itself always stays in the catalog - we restrict the images, never the discovery.
Because these tags hide images from part of the audience, their definitions are narrow on purpose:
Nudity
Restricted to ages 16 and olderThe sculpt clearly shows genitalia or fully exposed breasts. Nothing softer counts: bare torsos, backsides, implied nudity, minimal clothing. Display miniatures carry a long classical tradition of soft, non-sexual nudity, and that is fine for a 14+ audience without any tag.
Gore
Restricted to ages 16 and olderGraphic violence sculpted in detail: exposed organs, dismemberment, body horror. Skulls, blood on a blade or battle damage are normal miniature vocabulary and need no tag.
Sexual
Restricted to ages 18 and olderSexual acts or clearly sexual poses. Nudity alone is not sexual.
If you think a maturity tag is missing on a piece, please suggest it.
Where new tags come from
Marketplaces that let anyone invent tags end up with thousands of one-off labels nobody searches. We keep a curated list instead, so every tag in the filters means something.
The list still grows. If no existing tag fits, propose a new one. It starts out uncategorised: visible on its miniatures, but not yet in the filters. Once enough miniatures carry it, we add it to the right category and it becomes searchable. A niche tag isn't rejected for being niche - it just needs some real usage first.
Tags also have synonyms. Type "viking" in the suggest-edit form and it will offer norse; hover over any tag to see its synonyms. So before proposing a new tag, it's worth checking whether it already exists under another name.