One of the best things about having a 3D printer is being able to print as much tabletop terrain as you want. All you have to do is find some good 3D models online. You might think that the only good 3D models of tabletop buildings and terrain are the ones that you have to pay for, but that’s not exactly true. While there are some amazing models out there available for purchase, there are also many good models that are completely free to download and print.
If you try and search for free 3D tabletop buildings online, you’ll find that there are a lot of models to sift through. Sometimes good models have titles that make them hard to find with basic searches. There’s also a lot of variation in quality. To save you the time of going through each and every model, I’ve compiled this list of the best buildings that I’ve found in all of my time searching online. These are 20 tabletop gaming buildings that are of excellent quality that are completely free to download and print.
I’ve divided the list into categories, so if you’re looking for a specific type of building you can just go to that section. The categories are Houses, Towers, Castle, Tombs, and Other.
Also, as a disclaimer, I am not the designer of any of these models, and I have not modified or altered them in any way. The links I provide will take you to the Thingiverse page of every item.
Houses
1. Wizard Domocile by MikeT71
This is a wonderfully detailed tower house that, like the title says, would be perfect as the home of a wizard or mage. The model itself is over sized, so if you intend to use it for tabletop gaming, the designer suggests that you scale it down by 30% for 28mm based miniatures. At 70% of it’s full height the house still stands about 230mm tall.
If your printer can’t print that high then you could scale it down even more, or divide the model into separate chunks. There are multiple ways to do that, but I prefer to use the free software Meshmixer.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution license.
2. Medieval house by 3Dlayeredscenery
This is a classic medieval style timber framed house. What makes this model so nice is the detail that the designer put into it. The roof shingles are irregular, there are slight cracks in the walls, and the timbers show some wood grain. These are details that you don’t always see on free 3D models.
The model does need to be scaled up significantly to work with 1/28th scale models. Just follow the designer’s instructions in the description. Also, check out their other models for even more buildings.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution license.
3. Village Terrain-Cottage by LeoMinorIndustries
This is, in my opinion, one of the best house models available for free online. It has 2 stories, a stone ground floor, a timber framed upper floor, a wood shingled roof, and diamond pane windows. It’s the quintessential half timber fantasy medieval building. Every outer surface is nicely textured, and the roof shingles are nice and irregular. All in all one of the best free 3D printable medieval buildings, and it will look amazing on your game table.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution license.
4. Tudor Style 2-Storey Wargaming House by kitch72
If you like timber frame style houses, here’s another one for you. On this model the timbers are a bit smaller than usual and there are a lot of them. This gives the model a distinct pattern that can help to set it apart from similar styled houses.
The model is already scaled for 28mm minis, so you won’t need to adjust it at all. There are also separate files for the first and second floors, and the roof. This lets you open up the house and place furniture or other models inside.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution license.
5. Small Shed by Warlock3dmodels
Here’s another model with a ton of detail that probably shouldn’t be free, but lucky for us it is. This small wooden shed has wood grain detail on every board, and even the foundation stones are sculpted. It’s fairly small, but it is meant to be a somewhat ramshackle shed.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution license.
6. Trollskull Manor by Hsus
Here is an entire manor house that can be taken apart, so that players can explore every level and room. While the exterior lacks some details, this model makes up for it with the interior details. A lot of 3D printable houses a just hollow on the inside, but this model shows every room, window, staircase, and interior wall.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution license.
7. Tree stump house by kijai
This whimsical little house is perfect as a forest home for smaller creatures like gnomes, or you can scale it up to suit much bigger people. The roof is removable and the interior is nicely sculpted. You might be able to fit one very small mini inside, but a 28mm base mini definitely won’t fit without scaling up the house.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution – Share Alike license.
8. Lumberjack Cottage miniature by Ilhadiel
Here is another nicely detailed little cottage model. The wooden timbers are textured and the roof shingles have a nice irregular pattern. Unfortunately this model isn’t hollow, and the roof doesn’t come off, but that can be fixed if you know how to use Meshmixer. Without scaling, it stands at just about 116mm tall, which is perfect for 28mm scale gaming.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution license.
9. Wood and Stucco House by donald_stouffer
Another small house option, this model by donald_stouffer has a more utilitarian feel. It has a lot of square angles, but all of the outer surfaces are sculpted, including the roof shingles. It’s quite small, but a normal height mini with a 28mm base will fit inside. There is a solid and hollow version of the roof, so if you need to fit a taller mini inside then the hollow roof is probably a better choice.
My favorite thing about this model is that the window has a slit at the top for you to place a piece of parchment paper or plastic to act as window glass. Then if you put an LED candle inside, it looks like warm firelight through glass.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution – No Derivatives license.
Towers
10. Gothic Tower by Akoffeman
This is a set of walls, pillars, and roof sections that you can combine in different ways to make your own gothic castle, cathedral, or tower. The pieces are highly detailed with gothic designs. The set is also compatible with the openLOCK system, which is good if you already use that tile system and have some of the clips.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution license.
11. ship wreck tower by jimjimjimmyjim
This is a huge model at just over 55cm tall. It consists of a tower, a ruined bridge, a ship wreck, and a giant horn. Unless you have a huge 3D printer you’ll have to split this model into separate pieces to print, and even then there will probably be a lot of pieces. I would recommend first splitting the island into 2 pieces, so that the tower and the ship wreck are separated. Then split those halves into even more pieces.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution license.
12. Fantasy Tower by Akoffeman
The Fantasy Tower by Akoffeman is a simple but well-designed tower that prints in sections. You can mix and match the sections to create different looking towers of various heights. It comes with a base section, a middle section, and two roof designs. With a set like this you could make anything from wizard towers to watch towers.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution license.
13. wizards observatorium tower by jimjimjimmyjim
Speaking of wizard towers, here’s another design by jimjimjimmyjim. Like the ship wreck tower, this model is also huge, but this one comes in at almost 1 meter in height. Although this model would need to be split into many parts to fit most printers, the detailed and interesting design of the tower made it too cool to not put on this list.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution license.
Tombs
14. Tomb (Ruined and Intact) by ecaroth
These mausoleum type tombs are essential pieces for any graveyard game board. Every inch of these models is covered in detail. The designer even modeled 2 versions, one ruined and one intact, for you to choose from. The models are hollow so you can put things inside them too if you want.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution license.
15. Tomb by Herrigold
In case you don’t have enough tombs yet, here’s another one by Herrigold. This one is a tall and elegant type tomb, with metal fence pieces on each of the four sides. The walls, roof, base, and fence pieces all print separately, so some assembly is required afterwards.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution license.
16. Openforge 2.0 Mausoleum by devonjones
For the final tomb on this list, we have this large mausoleum by devonjones. It’s an octagonal building with 4 doors, and a large domed roof. The roof can be lifted from the building to see inside, or all of the walls can be lifted off as one piece so that players can see the floor plan. The whole floor is tiled with the OpenForge style floor tiles, which makes this a perfect piece for a battle or encounter.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution – Share Alike license.
Other
17. Victorian Office Building by Herrigold
While it might not be strictly medieval, a building like this might make sense in certain high-fantasy settings. Even if it won’t work for every game setting, I had to include it because of how large and ornate it is. The different levels stack on top of each other and can be lifted off, but there are no floor pieces, so it’s basically an empty box. Also, you can add as many middle levels as you want, so you can make the building any height you want.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution – Share Alike license.
18. Tabletop – Church buildings by Fanaatti
Church or temple buildings are very useful for city settings, and these models are perfect for that. There are 2 bases and 2 roofs, which gives you 4 possible unique combinations. The buildings are fairly small, but they’re nicely detailed all around. The roof tiles are staggered, the walls are all brick textured, and the doors and windows are open.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution license.
19. Modular Castle, Town, House, Tower, Church, Gates, Cathedral and Dm Screen by hugolours
If you’ve ever searched for 3D printable castles, then you’ve probably come across this amazing set of models by hugolours. As of the date that this article was written, there are 42 files available on this page. It’s still a work-in-progress, so there might be even more if you’re reading this later. The files include diferent levels of buildings, castle walls, roofs, and even scaffolding. The pieces are modular so you can stack them however you want to create your own buildings.
The designer also has quite a few models of miniatures on his page if you’re looking to print some good quality minis.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution license.
20. Stone Gazebo by Herrigold
You might not think of a gazebo as a building, but this 3D model by Herrigold is designed as a stone gazebo with a lot of gothic elements, so I think it fits on this list. You can use it in a graveyard or a garden setting and it will add a lot of detail and visual interest. It really looks good from every angle.
This model is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution – Share Alike license.
Afterword
There are some other 3D models of buildings that I liked, but that didn’t make it on to this list because they had non-commercial licenses. Those licenses state that nobody can use the designs for commercial purposes. I don’t want this article to get taken down just because of that, so just to be on the safe side I didn’t include them. Just be aware that there are even more awesome 3D models of buildings out there that are pretty easy to find.