Who owns a 3d printer for makong mini's or whatever?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

I'm considering getting one and would like to learn a bit about them first. Who has one they are happy or unhappy with?

My primary uze would be printing miniatures for War At Sea or D&D, if I can get files. My 3D design skills are a bit limited. Heck, my Photoshop skills are limited lol.

Can one get enough files to make ot worth the trouble?

Do I need a $300 printer, $800?

What else do I need to know?

[Ken Murikumo]

i have a Zortrax m200 ($1800 USD)

I'm very happy with it. It's easy to use, easy to load, and requires very little know how in terms of maintenance. But that was just me. With the right know-how a $500 rep-rap could do the same thing.

I've actually made a few custom minis as gifts for people at my table. I'll link to my Deviantart page when i get home (don't want to expose my work computer to that place).

I'll give some pointers on 3d models when i get home, as well

[Knaight]

I don't own one, but I've spent enough time in the university 3D printer lab to have picked up some expertise - and while I never printed any minis (I was focused more on usable parts for an engineering thing) other people did on the same printers, and they worked out fine. The baseline printers were the Taz Lulzbot line, with the Taz Lulzbot mini being more than enough to make pretty nice miniatures, several of which I've seen. It's also $1250 new (though there are ways to lower that, starting with how it's open source and designed so that you can print parts for it with other printers).

Consider that an absolute upper margin - there's no reason to go higher, and you can make very nice minis with that. Somewhat rougher minis can likely be produced on basically anything.

[JNAProductions]

I too am quite interested.

[Ken Murikumo]

So Knaight made a good point, you don't have to spend over a grand to get a printer that could make minis (i did because i'm also a hobbyist in many ways other than table top games)

Really any printer could churn out minis, but some will look leagues better than others. My Zortrax has a print layer resolution of 90 microns (good for consumer level) while i met a guy at a convention that printed his costume props using an industrial printer at his work that had a resolution of 20 microns. I'm not gonna go into detail on what layer resolution is, but here's a google image to show what i mean. For reference, 100 microns is 0.1 mm
https://tobuya3dprinter.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/layer-resolution-strength.jpg

On my printer, the minis were printed on a small round base (like store bought ones) with a 7/8 in. diameter (2.2 cm). The characters were designed to fit onto this base. At that size, you could see the folds on the clothing, and basic shapes of the face, but wouldn't be able to make out fine detail, like say gems on a crown. The 20 micron printer may have been able to show close to that level of detail.

Here is one of the models i made (unfortunately i don't have a camera that isn't junk, so no final pictures im afraid; but it printed to my satisfaction; it did gloss over detail on the face and crown as mentioned, though):
https://orig00.deviantart.net/b90f/f/2018/031/b/9/princess_mini__done_and_ready_to_be_printed_by_ken murikumo-dc1rkjd.png


Things to note

You asked if it would be worth it, well that's up to you and how enthusiastic you are about making minis. Thingiverse & turbosquid are a good place to start looking for free to use models.


You don't need to texture/skin your projects to print them (you wont be printing in color unless you can find a color printer that doesn't cost your soul).


You don't even need to rig them if they are already posed


Over-exaggerate details for things on tiny prints. The clothing folds, hair strands, and breasts may look thicker/bigger and more exaggerated or cartoon-y, but this was intentional. Otherwise the mini would have been nearly featureless.


Models can have no interpenetrating geometry. This you have to look out for as it will create voids and weak spots INSIDE the print.


Parts that are too fine will be skipped when printing (look at the fingers and ears of my model; i had to fatten the ears and fuse the fingers together into a "fin" to get them to print).


On my model above, the arms were very delicate and i almost broke them when removing the support material. I would recommend not having thin extremities protruding.


Plan your model around support material to reduce stress (as noted with my model above)


Look into acetone treating your finished prints to make them look glossy and nice.


If the model is broken into seperate parts, if 2 parts are REALLY close together, they get fused when printing. This can be annoying for printing moving parts like wheels and axles but can also be exploited to combine 2 objects that JUST! WILL! NOT! BOOLEAN! (looking at you 3ds max).


Failed prints are a normal thing. Expect them and research ways to build models with lower failure chances.





TLDR: If you're passionate about it, go for it. It will take practice. Expect failed prints!

[Telok]

It took me a couple weeks to get all the wrinkles worked out on my printer but at this point I can set up a 4 mini group, hit print, and come back 6 hours (roughly, time variables are interesting) later to a little tableau. I'll pic and post more when I get home from work.

Edit: Ok, home. I'm running a Prusa i3 that cost me $300 USD, it's one of the knockoff brands but it works quite well and they included extra parts(!) and an actually good quality video on putting it together. Between Blender and Cura 3D Print I'm getting better at modifying minis from Thingverse.

One thing I did do was to pull apart a fidget spinner for the bearings and make a roller bed for the filament spool to run on. It feeds much more nicely now.

Early on you will have issues. The Cure program has options to auto build scaffolding, which is a mixed blessing. If you're willing to do a bit of hand work with a model knife and some small jewellers files it's ok. If you don't want to fool with sharp things you'll need to get good with your modelling program to build your own scaffolds.

They take paint quite well and you can hand them around with a bag of fine tip permanent markers of different colors for your group to color too.


https://preview.ibb.co/b0BJPx/IMAG0202.jpg (https://ibb.co/kcApWc)
https://preview.ibb.co/dqkOrc/IMAG0206.jpg (https://ibb.co/i67sjx)
https://preview.ibb.co/cwWwBc/IMAG0217.jpg (https://ibb.co/ijjGBc)
https://preview.ibb.co/jafpWc/IMAG0221.jpg (https://ibb.co/kspSHH)

[Mutazoia]

I'm considering getting one and would like to learn a bit about them first. Who has one they are happy or unhappy with?

My primary uze would be printing miniatures for War At Sea or D&D, if I can get files. My 3D design skills are a bit limited. Heck, my Photoshop skills are limited lol.

Can one get enough files to make ot worth the trouble?

Do I need a $300 printer, $800?

What else do I need to know?

There are 2 types of 3D printer: the FDM and the SLA

The form 1 SLA printers have a much higher resolution than the FDM, but tend to be more expensive.

https://all3dp.com/app/uploads/2015/05/Formlabs-Resolution1.jpg

The left image is printed on a form 1 + SLA printer, and the right, on an FDM printer. Both at 0.1 mm layer thickness

If you are not going to be making master molds for products to sell, or machine parts that have to move together, I would say just pay what you are comfortable with paying for the machine, and not worry too much about getting the best resolution machine.

As for your modeling skills, you can always make use of Hero Forge (https://www.heroforge.com/)

[JNAProductions]

Pictures were not there, Mutazoia. And I'm curious about this, so I really want to see! :P

[Mutazoia]

Pictures were not there, Mutazoia. And I'm curious about this, so I really want to see! :P

I got the picture from this page (https://all3dp.com/3d-printer-resolution/), which has some pretty decent, basic information.

[LordCdrMilitant]

I've tried to use 3d printed parts for my Warhammer 40k miniatures [specifically gun carriages for my lascannons], but I was generally unsatisfied with the performance. Beyond a unsatisfactory level of detail, the support structure just made a mess. I could hypothetically break it down into enough pieces to get around that, though.

However, I have used a 3d printer for things where I'm not trying to print the tread on artillery carriage wheels, and it has worked fine.

[Mutazoia]

I've tried to use 3d printed parts for my Warhammer 40k miniatures [specifically gun carriages for my lascannons], but I was generally unsatisfied with the performance. Beyond a unsatisfactory level of detail, the support structure just made a mess. I could hypothetically break it down into enough pieces to get around that, though.

However, I have used a 3d printer for things where I'm not trying to print the tread on artillery carriage wheels, and it has worked fine.

Again, that's going to depend on the type and resolution of your printer. Form 1 and 2 SLA printers will have a much higher level of detail and durability (especially with the form 2 printers) but they are usually a bit pricier than most people are willing to pay, just to print out minis for a game.

[GungHo]

You get what you pay for. There are bargains to be had, but there are also classes of printers and capabilities, and the capabilities listed are the maximum capability of the printer.

For things you want with a lot of detail or small parts, if you can get "the hook up" and/or go in with someone to purchase a quality printer, you're better off doing it right the first time rather than buying a POS bargain printer and quality materials and then finding out that you wasted your money and ruined good resin. I lucked out in that one of my buddies does CNC manufacturing, so getting a professional grade resin printer is a business expense for him.

I'd also suggest only buying one if you actually plan on using it a lot. It's a lot of money to buy a machine and just print out one or two minis for giggles and then let it sit there. You might consider looking at the prices of places like Hero Forge and Reaper Minis and figure out what your actual break even point might be.

[Blackhawk748]

Again, that's going to depend on the type and resolution of your printer. Form 1 and 2 SLA printers will have a much higher level of detail and durability (especially with the form 2 printers) but they are usually a bit pricier than most people are willing to pay, just to print out minis for a game.

Unless of course you print out a lot of minis. I've been toying with the idea as I like having minis, but I want rather specific types that aren't common. Such and Gnolls, Goblins, Orcs and Bugbears with modern guns