3d printer for minis

[bovinelightfoot]

Hey guys looking for a good 3d printer to makr my own army of minis. Not looking for something to pricey but want a decent mini. Anyone have or tried any 3d printers have any suggestions. Something that can make giants as well so not a terribly small printer

[Brawnspear]

I picked up the Monoprice select Mini for about 200, the new one is 20 bucks more but has Wifi connectivity which may save on trips to and from it carrying an SD card. On the whole I've been very pleased. It's not the best of printers, but it's great for it's price point. I've printed everything from goblins to balors to centaurs. All in all, with filament and tools, I've probably spent around 300. I have hundreds of minis now, and it's been a lot of fun bodging things together in Blendr to make custom monsters. That being said, it takes about 45 minutes to print a goblin, so it will not be a fast mass fabrication device. This guy has made models for a bunch of the monster manual and some other custom builds (https://www.shapeways.com/designer/mz4250) the models are all available for free with a shapeways account.

Cons of a 3d printer: Can be a little smelly (make sure to use PLA or something similar instead of ABS if it's not going to have it's own venting system, you don't want to get yourself all cancerified. It can also be rather loud, depending on placement and hard surfaces of your place, so make sure to clear this with your SO/Roommate.

I chose the MP select mini because it had good reviews on other sites, but mostly because it was already put together and didn't have DRM based printing materials, which many other similarly priced printers do. It has a 4 inch cube's worth of build area so it can make just about anything you;d be using on your table, and for things like dragons, you will probably want to be printing in separate pieces anyway.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Brawnspear, have your mini's held up well to play? Also is there anything more we need to know about matetials and resolution or durability?

I ask because the 1:1800 boats I have bought from Shapeways in White Strong and Flexible have held up well. Whatever Heroforge uses through them is a bit more brittle.

[bovinelightfoot]

Can you make out what the creature is like if you mane adwarf and a goblin can you see the diffrence? Is it capable of making cloud giants, dragons and other huge creatures?

[N810]

Perhaps a formlabs printer ?
https://forum.formlabs.com/t/is-the-form-2-suitable-for-printing-32mm-game-miniatures/7535/15
https://forum.formlabs.com/t/warhammer-40k-imperial-knight-paladin/10993
https://forum.formlabs.com/t/impressed/13106

scroll downs to the bottom.
https://forum.formlabs.com/t/for-tabletop-miniatures/71/17

[GlenSmash!]

I picked up the Monoprice select Mini for about 200, the new one is 20 bucks more but has Wifi connectivity which may save on trips to and from it carrying an SD card. On the whole I've been very pleased. It's not the best of printers, but it's great for it's price point. I've printed everything from goblins to balors to centaurs. All in all, with filament and tools, I've probably spent around 300. I have hundreds of minis now, and it's been a lot of fun bodging things together in Blendr to make custom monsters. That being said, it takes about 45 minutes to print a goblin, so it will not be a fast mass fabrication device. This guy has made models for a bunch of the monster manual and some other custom builds (https://www.shapeways.com/designer/mz4250) the models are all available for free with a shapeways account.

Cons of a 3d printer: Can be a little smelly (make sure to use PLA or something similar instead of ABS if it's not going to have it's own venting system, you don't want to get yourself all cancerified. It can also be rather loud, depending on placement and hard surfaces of your place, so make sure to clear this with your SO/Roommate.

I chose the MP select mini because it had good reviews on other sites, but mostly because it was already put together and didn't have DRM based printing materials, which many other similarly priced printers do. It has a 4 inch cube's worth of build area so it can make just about anything you;d be using on your table, and for things like dragons, you will probably want to be printing in separate pieces anyway.

I'm not the OP but I've been thinking about this for a while. Thanks for the info.

[latebloomer]

If you want fine detail on scale miniatures, ideally, you want an SLA printer. That's next for us. We have 6 filament 3d printers (FDM). If we add a .2 nozzle to the Trynus, we could get an imperfect mini in about 10 hours.

If you want a bigger scale or want to do bigger set pieces, you can do it with a filament printer.

[Brawnspear]

Brawnspear, have your mini's held up well to play? Also is there anything more we need to know about matetials and resolution or durability?

I ask because the 1:1800 boats I have bought from Shapeways in White Strong and Flexible have held up well. Whatever Heroforge uses through them is a bit more brittle.

As far as durability goes, they tend to hold up pretty well depending on the position you print them in. Small bits can become rather flimsy. I've noticed if I'm printing upright I tend to get better resolution, but the ankles are generally weak. You also have to worry about some stringiness from the transfers between unconnected by similar height portions of the print (like the sword and the head). Part of the fun is in the experimentation. About half the time I print things on their back, and the other half I print them upright. Upright is cleaner all around but a little less reliable, on the back it's generally stronger but the back side of the piece is rougher.
For resolution, I don't think they stand up as well as Heroforge, but you can definitely tell what you're looking at. Fine detail may get lost, or print out too rough, but for a horde of minions it works out pretty nice. I have an account with the desktophero3d beta and I've print out some personal mini's using that for my players, they are thoroughly enjoyed.

As far as size goes, I've printed trolls and centaurs and glabrezus, I printed an upright Balor that was rather ambitious (his arm got mangled about 3/4 of the way up). It prints up to 4 inches high and 4 inches wide, so as long as you scale within that you should be fine. I'll see if I can't find some pictures and upload the results.

Edit: Here we go! http://imgur.com/a/QH5jg

[bovinelightfoot]

Edit: Here we go! http://imgur.com/a/QH5jg

Dude this is perfect for what I'm looking for. Paintable for lost detail. I know unless i drop a grand im losing the detail. But you can see what they are and can paint whatever you want so perfect. What type of material are u using. I will be beans new to this

Also correct me if im wrong but cant you slow down the machine and instead of 10 mins take 20 to get more detail

[Brawnspear]

Dude this is perfect for what I'm looking for. Paintable for lost detail. I know unless i drop a grand im losing the detail. But you can see what they are and can paint whatever you want so perfect. What type of material are u using. I will be beans new to this

Glad it works out for you! I'm using various types of PLA 1.75mm I think the red was printed with eSun, and the gray was something my friend got from microcenter. Costs about 20-25 depending on color from amazon and you get a kilogram per roll. I printed the bulk of my army in translucent first, I don't suggest this as you lose a lot of detail. PLA is safe to use in doors without ventilation, so I'd say it's a solid choice. You can't smooth it out with chemicals like ABS, but I'd say the tradeoff is worth it. I also went to a craft shop and got a Jewelers kit for some little files and snips as well as an angled pallet knife to help with removal from the build plate. Covered the build plate with blue painter's tape and it works out pretty nice, but you'll want a wide roll and you'll need to replace it every now and again.
If you're not sure what color works best for you, you can buy a multipack that has a bunch of different colors with about 20 feet of each. Should be enough to print a couple medium size characters in each color. I am currently just using red for the baddies and grey for the pcs/good guys, and then I have little colored numbers that I put on the base pegs so the players can differentiate between like models.

You can slow down the machine, I generally print at about 70% speed. It helps with adhesion and detail, but there's only so much it can do at that size. Also most of the gray figures were made using desktop hero, the dwarf with the staff and the big guy with the spear especially, and it doesn't have great facial definition. The reds were all from the shapeways I linked earlier, and they had a lot better defined features most of the time.

[bovinelightfoot]

I am saving now and when it happens ill show you my first print good or bad lol thanks for the info it helped alot

[Brawnspear]

No prob! Happy gaming :D

[MrMcBobb]

Excellent thread guys and thanks to Brawnspear for the info. I too am looking to 3D print some minis and this is all golden information.

[Mutazoia]

This short article breaks down the difference in types of 3D printers and resolutions thereof pretty nicely. (https://all3dp.com/3d-printer-resolution/)

Keep in mind that ultimately, how your mini looks is going to depend on how good your 3d modeling skills are..

EDIT:

You could also forego the cost of buying a printer and use these guys (https://www.heroforge.com/)instead.

[Brawnspear]

You could also forego the cost of buying a printer and use these guys (https://www.heroforge.com/)instead.

Oh yar heroforge is great for customizing your own minis and they get some great definition. If the goal is your personal PC, there's nothing better. I hear they are planning on selling the STLs at some point here so you can print at home too. But if you're looking to make a goblin army or a horde of orcs, heroforge will get kinda pricey.

[Mutazoia]

Oh yar heroforge is great for customizing your own minis and they get some great definition. If the goal is your personal PC, there's nothing better. I hear they are planning on selling the STLs at some point here so you can print at home too. But if you're looking to make a goblin army or a horde of orcs, heroforge will get kinda pricey.

You buy one from them, and use it as a master mold to make more at home.....

[Jophiel]

Heroforge announced a day or two ago that they were selling the 3D printer files now. Costs $10

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Heroforge announced a day or two ago that they were selling the 3D printer files now. Costs $10

Not bad. I bet in 10 years that cost comes down and for $10 you can get 10 files and print an army. Right now we have to pay for the technology.

Is there a WSF option on Heroforge? Or just the super detail kinda brittle? It has been awhile and I am on the phone which I don't think they support yet.

[N810]

Their new strong grey plastic looks promising,
I looks similar to GW's grey plastic.

[Jophiel]

I have one of their "new" grey plastic minis -- the $30 type. The detail came out well (http://imgur.com/a/PfbTn) in my opinion, aside from her foot sort of melding into the floor. It doesn't feel especially brittle and I gave it a few test drops from a few inches up but obviously I'm not looking to stress test it to breaking.

[Zanthy1]

I have 3 of the Grey plastic minis form Hero Forge. Very durable, easy painting (though I did not paint it myself). Excellent for a Hero PC, but can be costly for hordes.