3d printers for minis and terrain.

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I got my printer back in September but finally found the time to get it assembled. I have to say Prusa's instructions are some of the best I've ever run across. Good pictures, they actually give instructions to cover the options where there may be different parts supplied, and the directions are very clearly written. They even include post steps telling you to check for common goofs you may have made during assembly.

They also include gummy bears with detailed instructions on how to divide them up as rewards during the assembly process. I failed before I started because I let my son steal the gummy bears months ago. They had even provided a warning about that, saying to open the bag quietly so as not to alert predators. :grin:
 
I've just started using Prusa Slicer instead of Cura. It gives a better (IMHO) finish to epic scale miniatures. The fact I'm printing epic scale miniatures on an Ender 3 is mind blowing.

Plus it makes up for the fact I'm still not ready to start using my Elegoo Mars.
 
Prusa supports the ender 3 now? Excellent
 
started mine up again after a year down. printed off a charger holder for my car, and doing another one for a friend, but will take a look here. excited!
 
Guys, if I wanted to get into 3D printing, dip my toes in so to speak, what kind of printer would you recommend? I don't mind tinkering, but I also hate frustration, if that makes sense? I guess I don't want to spend too much money in case I never end up using it beyond the first one or two prints.
 
Guys, if I wanted to get into 3D printing, dip my toes in so to speak, what kind of printer would you recommend? I don't mind tinkering, but I also hate frustration, if that makes sense? I guess I don't want to spend too much money in case I never end up using it beyond the first one or two prints.
What do you want to print? Terrain and medium quality miniatures I'd go for an Ender3 series.

High res minis a resin printer. Not sure what model.
 
What do you want to print? Terrain and medium quality miniatures I'd go for an Ender3 series.

High res minis a resin printer. Not sure what model.

I guess terrain and medium quality minis. High end stuff I'm happy to buy.
 
I guess terrain and medium quality minis. High end stuff I'm happy to buy.
I mean you can print some pretty nice minis on I believe a $150 resin printer. I don't because I don't want to deal with the various chemicals. I just print in PLA in the garage
 
I ended up giving mine to a relative who was interested. I ended up not having a lot of time to tinker with it.

I’d go with an ender 3. It’ll comfortably do terrain without work and with some investment, it does good minis. I have some snake men that were as good as my friends resin printed version in some ways - his chemicals at the end smoothed out some parts that really worked better rougher.
 
Ender 3. Loads of support out there. You can get eighties era Citadel miniature quality with a stock nozzle and there's none of the cleaning or chemical faff you'll have with a resin printer.

I've an Ender 3 and a Mars pro so if you've any questions, just ask
 
I have a Mars Pro right now, and I'm considering getting myself a filament printer, likely some variation of an Ender 3, for myself for Xmas. Specifically, I want the Ender to print larger stuff (like vehicles and terrain) that won't fit on the tiny resin print plate.

What sort of extras / work would I be looking at to minimize those damned striations on the filament prints?
 
I have a Mars Pro right now, and I'm considering getting myself a filament printer, likely some variation of an Ender 3, for myself for Xmas. Specifically, I want the Ender to print larger stuff (like vehicles and terrain) that won't fit on the tiny resin print plate.

What sort of extras / work would I be looking at to minimize those damned striations on the filament prints?
Not sure how easy it is to make them go away completely. My next attempt will be with a .2mm? Nozzle instead of the default .4mm. but I'm having other issues and little time to debug so it's not happening for a while.


If I just wanted to pump out terrain and I had money to blow I would look at the infinite print bed ender 3. Basically a print bed on a conveyer belt. You have height a d width limits but no length so that's cool.
 
I have a Mars Pro right now, and I'm considering getting myself a filament printer, likely some variation of an Ender 3, for myself for Xmas. Specifically, I want the Ender to print larger stuff (like vehicles and terrain) that won't fit on the tiny resin print plate.

What sort of extras / work would I be looking at to minimize those damned striations on the filament prints?
Print in Dynamic/0.16 and you'll be hard pressed to see the striations.
Print in (whatever super high quality is called)/0.12 and you'll really struggle to see them.

Thats using Cura and a stock 0.4mm nozzle.

 
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In my experience, the Ender 3 and similar clones are like buying an MG: it's fun and cheap, but you'd better enjoy constant maintenance and tinkering because you'll be doing at least as much of that as printing.

Virtually all FDM printers are Prusa knockoffs anyway but the reason Prusas are so damn expensive is they Just Work. The QA is phenomenal and you don't need to pfaff around with printing improvements and constantly adjusting and calibrating.

There's very much a direct relationship between how much an FDM printer costs you and your tolerance for doing things with your printer that aren't printing. Ender 3s make a good entry point to FDM because they're cheap and so there's a ton of people out there who can provide advice and support, but you will eventually get rid of it or upgrade to a better printer.

(I just bought an AnyCubic Vyper cheap and am starting to wish I'd just gritted my teeth and got a Prusa Mini)
 
In my experience, the Ender 3 and similar clones are like buying an MG: it's fun and cheap, but you'd better enjoy constant maintenance and tinkering because you'll be doing at least as much of that as printing.

Virtually all FDM printers are Prusa knockoffs anyway but the reason Prusas are so damn expensive is they Just Work. The QA is phenomenal and you don't need to pfaff around with printing improvements and constantly adjusting and calibrating.

There's very much a direct relationship between how much an FDM printer costs you and your tolerance for doing things with your printer that aren't printing. Ender 3s make a good entry point to FDM because they're cheap and so there's a ton of people out there who can provide advice and support, but you will eventually get rid of it or upgrade to a better printer.

(I just bought an AnyCubic Vyper cheap and am starting to wish I'd just gritted my teeth and got a Prusa Mini)
I keep hearing people say that about enders but I used mine fairly regularly without much tinkering other than leveling. My neighbor bought a Prusa first and when it started having issues purchased an Ender to just get something working. I suspect the the ender has higher variability of components so some folks get no issues and others have to tinker a lot more.
 
Just poking this thread to see if anyone has additional comments? I am looking to get into this area of the hobby space.
 
I still swear by my Ender 3 with a glass bed. The only add-ons I've got are yellow springs and an aluminium extruder. Resin printers seem to going through a rapid evolution cycle with increasing resolution, longer lasting screens and bigger vats/build plates.

Resin is so much better for miniatures but the clean up is a faff.
The marketplace for files is going more Patreon and less wild west.

For wargaming i still think its the best investment anyone could make - I really struggle to justify buying miniatures/terrain when I know I could print them.
 
Just poking this thread to see if anyone has additional comments? I am looking to get into this area of the hobby space.
Do you want to make minis or terrain?

If minis I think I would buy a resin printer and use the eco resin.

If terrain then I'd get the ender 3.

I have the ender 3 and while I used if firly frequently for a year lately due to some calibration issues I haven't touched it in a long while.
 
Just getting better / cheaper every day. You can pick up an Elegoo Mars 2 resin 3d printer for less than $200 on clearance and the new Mars 3 Pro is on pre-order for $300. For filament printers the Ender 3 is easy to find under $200 if you want to DIY and the Prusa 3 is still running about $800 if you just want to assemble and start playing.

I'm waffling on getting into resin, go cheap and get an Elegoo Mars or go bigger and grab one of the new Saturns at around 2x the price but also 50% larger capacity.
 
Just getting better / cheaper every day. You can pick up an Elegoo Mars 2 resin 3d printer for less than $200 on clearance and the new Mars 3 Pro is on pre-order for $300. For filament printers the Ender 3 is easy to find under $200 if you want to DIY and the Prusa 3 is still running about $800 if you just want to assemble and start playing.

I'm waffling on getting into resin, go cheap and get an Elegoo Mars or go bigger and grab one of the new Saturns at around 2x the price but also 50% larger capacity.
For me the big game changer is the eco resins for the resin printers. I knew the old chemicals were a no go in my house but now for the better detail and faster times I'm tempted by resin.
 
I've only ever used water-washable resin 'cause I can't be arsed to have my hobby space stinking of meths.
 
I've only ever used water-washable resin 'cause I can't be arsed to have my hobby space stinking of meths.
Are the water washable resins less odorous? It would have to go into my spare bedroom I. My 3 bedroom ranch house. Would rather not stink the place up.

Mainly looking for miniatures, eventually maybe terrain.
 
Are the water washable resins less odorous? It would have to go into my spare bedroom I. My 3 bedroom ranch house. Would rather not stink the place up.

Mainly looking for miniatures, eventually maybe terrain.

Most of the new Elegoo resin printers have air filter built in. I haven't dived into resin yet so I don't know how effective these filters are, but they are trying.
 
For me the big game changer is the eco resins for the resin printers. I knew the old chemicals were a no go in my house but now for the better detail and faster times I'm tempted by resin.

Understand, I've done resin casting for years. I don't think casting resin is as stinky as the printing resin, but it smells so location matters. The reported smell and added complexity are what has kept me from jumping into resin printing so far. The fact I've only dabbled a bit with my current printer is another factor.
 
I've only ever used water washable but the elegoo mars sits right next to me in my hobby space and I've never noticed anything more than a faint chemical odour - usually strongest when new resins been poured in.
 
As someone who knows nothing about 3-D printers but would like one for mini printing on the cheap, any ideas?
 
As someone who knows nothing about 3-D printers but would like one for mini printing on the cheap, any ideas?
Are you looking for ok to good detail or good to great detail level? If you want great details then you're probably stuck with resin for now. That has more chemicals required which may not matter to you.
 
As someone who knows nothing about 3-D printers but would like one for mini printing on the cheap, any ideas?
scroll back a couple pages and you can see mine, and ones from my friend's resin. mine was $130 or so.
 
scroll back a couple pages and you can see mine, and ones from my friend's resin. mine was $130 or so.
Around that same area it a page earlier you can see the quality of an Ender 3 with minor upgrades.
 
Looks like resin, as I want to do mini figures, I know how to make terrain from the many crafts I was required to do in school. I'm not very crafty but you can do a lot with paper, glue and tech styrofoam. (Maybe not walls, but I'm mostly doing this for figures.) So printer name? And the least "add stuff to it" mechanically the better.
 
A few 4-5 years ago I got a diy knockoff prusa for about... 250-300? Use it for minis, quality is definitely in the "good enough" range.

Nicest thing is you can set it to 20% fill & thinner walls to knock out a bunch a bit faster, hand them out with fine point permanent markers, and let folks color their own.

Tried to find a pic for some of my earlier prints to see. Found one of my painting place with a couple metals aling side.
 

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A few 4-5 years ago I got a diy knockoff prusa for about... 250-300? Use it for minis, quality is definitely in the "good enough" range.

Nicest thing is you can set it to 20% fill & thinner walls to knock out a bunch a bit faster, hand them out with fine point permanent markers, and let folks color their own.

Tried to find a pic for some of my earlier prints to see. Found one of my painting place with a couple metals aling side.
Ender 3 is under 200 I believe these days.
 
Looks like resin, as I want to do mini figures, I know how to make terrain from the many crafts I was required to do in school. I'm not very crafty but you can do a lot with paper, glue and tech styrofoam. (Maybe not walls, but I'm mostly doing this for figures.) So printer name? And the least "add stuff to it" mechanically the better.

Elegoo Mars gets a lot of recommendations as a good starter resin printer,. affordable and compact. The Mars 2 (older model) is currently on clearance for less than $200, and the new Mars 3 replacement is on sale for about $300 but it is still a pre-order so you wouldn't get it right away.

Elegoo

Anycubic's Photon M3 or the Mono would be pretty direct competitors to the Mars series, and also gets recommended by many for starting out with resin.

Anycubic
 
I've got an Elegoo Mars Pro. The Elegoo Mars Pro 2 (which is a faster pritner) ranges from £180-220 on Amazon. Most entry level resin printers look to hover around the £200 mark.

EDIT. What Toady says.
 
Ender 3 is under 200 I believe these days.
It looks about the same specs and why replace what's working for no major upgrade? Nice that the prices have come down so much though.
 
Elegoo Mars gets a lot of recommendations as a good starter resin printer,. affordable and compact. The Mars 2 (older model) is currently on clearance for less than $200, and the new Mars 3 replacement is on sale for about $300 but it is still a pre-order so you wouldn't get it right away.

I've got an Elegoo Mars Pro. The Elegoo Mars Pro 2 (which is a faster pritner) ranges from £180-220 on Amazon. Most entry level resin printers look to hover around the £200 mark.

EDIT. What Toady says.

the mars 2 for $200 is a hell of a deal. I have quite a few minis printed by a friend of mine with a mars and they are really quite excellent. More chemicals than a Ender 3, but also less finicky
 
Sadly it isn't happening, all the money I'd saved and scrimped for a car repair went to the car and more. I was hoping to have a tiny bit left. But nope.
 
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