3d printers for minis and terrain.

[Toadmaster]

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.

I know that one too well, it is like cars and appliances can smell disposable income and they want it all spent on them.

Sucks to have to put it off but 3d printers are just getting cheaper and better with time. In 2015 the "cheap" entry level printers ran $1000-1500. Todays $200 printers are exponentially better than even those that were in the $2000-4000 range 7-8 years ago.

 

[Monero]

I'm thinking about getting into 3d printing, primarily for D&D terrain. The cost for Warlock and Dwarven Forge is just obnoxious and it seems like going the 3D printing route would save tons of money in the long run.

However, I'm not sure of that since I've never owned or operated a 3D printer so I'm not sure what the true cost savings are.

So, what are the REAL costs of 3D printing terrain? I'm looking at the Ender style printers that use Fialment as opposed to Resin since from my understanding Resin = mins that need high detail and Filament = terrain or other prints that don't need as much fine detail. So first of all, is that a correct low resolution overview of the two types of 3d printers?

Second, what kind of time am I looking at for printing on the Ender series? Let's say I wanted to effectively print out of the Cragmaw Hideout for Lost Mines of Phandelver, how long would it take from start to finish to get everything printed and ready to paint? /Am I looking at day? Weeks? Is every 2x2 tile I print out going to take full days?

How cost effective the rolls of filament you buy on amazon? I'm seeing like $18 rolls of filament but I have no idea how much printing that gets me. Will that $18 roll get me multiple full dungeons? Or is a roll actually only going to get me maybe a few rooms at most?

How much fiddling around in 3d software do I have to do when getting stuff from like OpenForge? Do I also have to become a pro 3d modeler in order to print out a simple 2x2 tile?

And I guess overall, when you factor in the upfront cost of the printer, filaments, paints, plus potential stl plans I have to buy along with other materials I'm not even aware of, how cost effective if 3d printing actually versus something like just outright buying Dwarven Forge or Warlock?

I know that's a lot but I'm wanting to get a no BS answer to this before I buy into a 3d printing. Thanks for any tips or advice!

 

[Raleel]

So, what are the REAL costs of 3D printing terrain? I'm looking at the Ender style printers that use Fialment as opposed to Resin since from my understanding Resin = mins that need high detail and Filament = terrain or other prints that don't need as much fine detail. So first of all, is that a correct low resolution overview of the two types of 3d printers?

That is correct. There is another factor in there - filament can be more hollow, and I’ve never known resin to be hollow at all. This means it reduces costs, particularly for terrain.

there is another optional cost. I ended up building my best set with spherical magnets. This isn’t cheap, but it is OH SO NICE to be able to have the pieces just snap together and stay together. No janky clips. there might be new techniques now that are better. It took a while to figure out how. I ended up making a base that held the magnets and then a cover over the base for the actual tile. Glued a few dozen together.

Second, what kind of time am I looking at for printing on the Ender series? Let's say I wanted to effectively print out of the Cragmaw Hideout for Lost Mines of Phandelver, how long would it take from start to finish to get everything printed and ready to paint? /Am I looking at day? Weeks? Is every 2x2 tile I print out going to take full days?

Well, you can print multiple tiles at once. if I remember correctly, a full tray of walls for me was a full day operation. However, that’s probably 25 wall pieces. Floors are quicker, but also fewer per tray. 9 at a time normally. A floor of 9 is.. 2 hours I want to say

To get a “full dungeon” set took me the better part of a week. Most of that time was letting it do it’s thing, and I definitely did it while I slept. By no means “fast”, but also not slow.

There are quite a few optimizations that can be made too. Check out OpenForge on thingiverse to see what options there are.

How cost effective the rolls of filament you buy on amazon? I'm seeing like $18 rolls of filament but I have no idea how much printing that gets me. Will that $18 roll get me multiple full dungeons? Or is a roll actually only going to get me maybe a few rooms at most?

Very, even at $30. One roll is going to probably get you a many solid sized (30x30?) rooms, and probably more. I’m sorry, I didn’t keep my metrics handy, but I made a box of parts that was enough for the above, including walls and doors, and I waived off the $20 in filament for a friend.

How much fiddling around in 3d software do I have to do when getting stuff from like OpenForge? Do I also have to become a pro 3d modeler in order to print out a simple 2x2 tile?

Not a lot. You can do most of those out of the box. The optimization is where you become a pro, but even laying out a tray of them is a big help. Suddenly you are going from one and hour or two to waking up to a larger room

And I guess overall, when you factor in the upfront cost of the printer, filaments, paints, plus potential stl plans I have to buy along with other materials I'm not even aware of, how cost effective if 3d printing actually versus something like just outright buying Dwarven Forge or Warlock?

Ignoring painting time it’s cheaper. https://dwarvenforge.com/products/6-a139-u_stilt-pack-unpainted something like that entire pack would be an hour and a very small amount of filament. https://dwarvenforge.com/products/dungeon-floors-unpainted this isn’t anywhere near a full roll, and I’d be amazed if it was 1/4. That would be probably 3-4 runs on an ender 3, each a few hours.

bear in mind, my numbers are not super accurate. It’s been a bit and I’ve since sold my ender 3. If anything, my times are probably a little conservative, and I tended to print full beds because it is more time efficient. Also I had tweaked it a bit for a larger nozzle because I cared less about detail and more about speed.

I would made sure you have a SOLID space to put it. Like a floor on concrete. Nothing at all wobbly. I ran into a number of issues at higher speed where the printer itself was throwing itself off with inertia. Really helped to have it on the floor in the garage. I eventually rigged up a table and bolted it to the wall on 3 axes and in 5 locations. That worked.

 

[Monero]

That is correct. There is another factor in there - filament can be more hollow, and I’ve never known resin to be hollow at all. This means it reduces costs, particularly for terrain.

there is another optional cost. I ended up building my best set with spherical magnets. This isn’t cheap, but it is OH SO NICE to be able to have the pieces just snap together and stay together. No janky clips. there might be new techniques now that are better. It took a while to figure out how. I ended up making a base that held the magnets and then a cover over the base for the actual tile. Glued a few dozen together.

Well, you can print multiple tiles at once. if I remember correctly, a full tray of walls for me was a full day operation. However, that’s probably 25 wall pieces. Floors are quicker, but also fewer per tray. 9 at a time normally. A floor of 9 is.. 2 hours I want to say

To get a “full dungeon” set took me the better part of a week. Most of that time was letting it do it’s thing, and I definitely did it while I slept. By no means “fast”, but also not slow.

There are quite a few optimizations that can be made too. Check out OpenForge on thingiverse to see what options there are.

Very, even at $30. One roll is going to probably get you a many solid sized (30x30?) rooms, and probably more. I’m sorry, I didn’t keep my metrics handy, but I made a box of parts that was enough for the above, including walls and doors, and I waived off the $20 in filament for a friend.

Not a lot. You can do most of those out of the box. The optimization is where you become a pro, but even laying out a tray of them is a big help. Suddenly you are going from one and hour or two to waking up to a larger room

Ignoring painting time it’s cheaper. https://dwarvenforge.com/products/6-a139-u_stilt-pack-unpainted something like that entire pack would be an hour and a very small amount of filament. https://dwarvenforge.com/products/dungeon-floors-unpainted this isn’t anywhere near a full roll, and I’d be amazed if it was 1/4. That would be probably 3-4 runs on an ender 3, each a few hours.

bear in mind, my numbers are not super accurate. It’s been a bit and I’ve since sold my ender 3. If anything, my times are probably a little conservative, and I tended to print full beds because it is more time efficient. Also I had tweaked it a bit for a larger nozzle because I cared less about detail and more about speed.

I would made sure you have a SOLID space to put it. Like a floor on concrete. Nothing at all wobbly. I ran into a number of issues at higher speed where the printer itself was throwing itself off with inertia. Really helped to have it on the floor in the garage. I eventually rigged up a table and bolted it to the wall on 3 axes and in 5 locations. That worked.

Nice, thanks for all the info! It sounds like a 3D printer truly is the most efficient way to go about getting decent terrain. The times you listed don't sound bad, just didn't want to dedicated a full 8 hour job on a 2x2 square or something extreme like that. Sounds like you can get a decent amount made per job once the process is figured out a bit.

For just the price of a couple warlock or dungeon forge sets which don't seem to cover that much ground you can get a good setup with a 3d printer and be off to crafting.

Will the Ender V2 be sufficient for good looking terrain or is it truly worth to invest in some of the higher priced printers?

 

[Bunch]

You can print more flat tiles if you put them on their side and give them a brim.

 

[Toadmaster]

Resin is better detail, and has the advantage that multiple parts done at one time take very little additional time since the whole build plate is exposed to the light. Major downside is for similar money you get a much smaller print size, and of course the chemical concerns.

Filament is a little courser detail but you can get a fairly large print platform fairly cheap. Since the print head has to "draw" everything one by one 6 pieces will take 6x as long as doing one. Filament is less messy with fewer chemical concerns although it does smell to varying degrees based on what type of filament is used but I doubt that would be an issue with the PLA most would use for terrain or game pieces.

Raleels point about being able to print hollow is a good one for both material savings and weight. I would think this is more tied to the subject than printer type, but my resin knowledge is entirely hypothetical at this time.

 

[Stumpydave]

I swear by by my Ender 3 v1. The amount of filament you use is probably more than you'd expect but not massively so. There are also ways of minimising that - different infill patterns, lower infill density. My first roll seemed to last forever but subsequent rolls get used up quicker and quicker - proably cause I'm printing more ambitious projects. But with filament available from £12 a roll, who cares.

My problem is sticking with a single project so I've little bits of terrain from different sculptors, rather than a single unified set.

 

[Kashirigi]

I just recently purchased a 3D printer, a Prusa mini. I almost exclusively use 15mm miniatures now because I live in an apartment, and they're 8 times smaller than 30mm figures. I've used my printer to make figures. While they're not as nice as figures that would have come out of a resin printer, they're perfectly acceptable figures. There are figures that I've purchased that are (significantly) worse quality and would have cost a lot more per figure.

All of these were done with a stock 0.4mm nozzle; I have a 0.25mm nozzle, but so far I haven't tried it. Presumably the results would be better.

Of course in the pictures you can see striations. However, when I'm using the figures, I typically don't see them from 3 cm away, magnified. On the table the visible difference between cast figures and 3D printed ones is insignificant.

I've included a 28/30mm figure for reference, plus a ruler for scale. All the figures are on the same size base (with the exception of the big one, of course).

As for the amount of filament, I'm still working on my first 750g spool. Some of the filament is lost in supports, bad prints, etc, but filament is cheap.

I considered getting a resin printer, but having worked with resin inside an apartment, I couldn't face it. Not to mention that you probably won't need just the printer. You'll need an isopropanol bath and a UV curing station, plus room to store bucket loads of chemicals. My filament gets put into a ziploc bag and stuck in a corner.

I did buy a filament dryer, though.

 

[CRKrueger]

What is Eco Resin? It sounds safer than normal, but technically Sarin Gas is safer than VX Gas.

I don't want everyone in the house to die, but I also don't want to print potatoes.

 

[Bunch]

What is Eco Resin? It sounds safer than normal, but technically Sarin Gas is safer than VX Gas.

I don't want everyone in the house to die, but I also don't want to print potatoes.

Plant based resin made from soybeans.

ELEGOO Plant-based Photopolymer Resin Colored 1KG

【Low Shrinkage and High Precision】ELEGOO photopolymer resin is specially designed for reducing volume shrinkage during the Photocuring process, which ensures the high precision of the print model with a smooth finish. 【Fast Curing and Great Stability】ELEGOO 405nm Rapid Resin was designed to...

www.elegoo.com

 

[Raleel]

ELEGOO Mars 2 Pro 3D Printer, 2K Mono MSLA UV Photocuring Resin LCD 3D Printer Front USB Input 2K Monochrome LCD 5.1x3.1x6.3inch Printing Size
https://a.co/5opkzj0

$190 and it gave me an add for one for $180. It’s an older model but it checks out. This is what my friend used for resin. It’s good for minis.

 

[Imaginos]

I now find myself Patreon to multiple 3D file makers. Plan to order a printer coming up, but really like some of the models I"m seeing so going ahead and supporting now.

 

[Grelan]

I now find myself Patreon to multiple 3D file makers. Plan to order a printer coming up, but really like some of the models I"m seeing so going ahead and supporting now.

MyMiniFactory offers Tribes, which are essentially their version of Patreon. I believe MMF takes less of a haircut than Patreon does.

Support Creators | Join your Tribe

Tribes is empowering creatives and the 3D printing community. Choose your Tribe for monthly STL file rewards and exclusive content.

www.myminifactory.com

 

[Imaginos]

MyMiniFactory offers Tribes, which are essentially their version of Patreon. I believe MMF takes less of a haircut than Patreon does.

Support Creators | Join your Tribe

Tribes is empowering creatives and the 3D printing community. Choose your Tribe for monthly STL file rewards and exclusive content.

www.myminifactory.com

I will have to look into Tribes more. I did run into a creator who had both and found out they were the same.

 

[Toadmaster]

A couple weeks ago I went for the Elegoo Saturn 2, along with the Mercury wash / curing station it arrived a few days ago. Mildly amusing as I don't have the time to dig into it until November anyway, but still I'm waiting on the 8K resin I ordered with it to arrive...

I debated on the smaller and significantly cheaper Mars 3, but bit the bullet and went with the Saturn 2 because it has slightly better detail (although I'm guessing barely noticeable in real terms) and the larger build area. Probably more printer than I'll need for a long time, but it is tough to make a smaller space just a hair bigger if not quite big enough.

 

[Bunch]

My kid wanted a dragonborn sorcerer mini for his D&D games so I fired up my old Ender 3 that was not entirely working when I last used it. Tightened some belts and added a raft to my prints and now it's looking pretty good.

 

[Psychopomp]

I now find myself Patreon to multiple 3D file makers. Plan to order a printer coming up, but really like some of the models I"m seeing so going ahead and supporting now.

That's how I started. I subbed to Monstrous Encounters after seeing their skeleton horsemen, then ordered my Mars Pro two weeks later with the first stimulus check.

 

[Bunch]

Anyone here print models from HeroForge?

 

[Raleel]

Yep, I have a stack. They work great.

 

[Bunch]

Yep, I have a stack. They work great.

On your ender or on your friends resin printer?
I ask because I'm using my ender 3 and I feel like the minis are snapping apart at what would be the various mix and match joint lines.

 

[Raleel]

On your ender or on your friends resin printer?
I ask because I'm using my ender 3 and I feel like the minis are snapping apart at what would be the various mix and match joint lines.

Both. I don’t know that I will be helpful here as it was a bit ago, and I was printing hill giants and thus had increased the size and thus thickness.

 

[Bunch]

Both. I don’t know that I will be helpful here as it was a bit ago, and I was printing hill giants and thus had increased the size and thus thickness.

Yeah I'm not sure what is going on because I get some great prints off some models with equal detail but these seem to be failing/lower quality.

 

[Telok]

Yeah I'm not sure what is going on because I get some great prints off some models with equal detail but these seem to be failing/lower quality.

On occasion I've done sloppy hack jobs on 3d models in Blender that have issues like that. It's something to do with various mesh issues. Even if the Blender looks good and the slicing software preview is perfect it can happen on the plate. In the very beginning I was learning how to put bases on some models and those were practically popping off while just getting them off the plate. Once I did a quick hack of two goblins in a trenchcoat that looked good but the coat ended up with holes in it and I think an ear was just missing.

If it seems like they're popping at the joins of meshes then that's probably it.

 

[Bunch]

This is a guy I printed on my Ender 3 recently and painted with Army Painter Speedpaints just now.

Up close (photo)he looks much rougher than he does in my hand or on the table. I'm pretty happy with him.

 

[Toadmaster]

Elegoo is currently having an "early" Black Friday sale, they have the older Mars 2 resin printers (Mars 3 is the recent arrival) for less than $140.

Elegoo

 

[Bunch]

Elegoo is currently having an "early" Black Friday sale, they have the older Mars 2 resin printers (Mars 3 is the recent arrival) for less than $140.

Elegoo

What do I need to know/look out for regarding resin printers? I understand filament printers but I've not looked into resin much?

 

[Toadmaster]

What do I need to know/look out for regarding resin printers? I understand filament printers but I've not looked into resin much?

I'm just learning myself, but I think the major thing is resolution. The resin is cured with UV light so they use an LCD screen to control the light getting through to the resin. The best of the Elegoo printers are now up to 8K with the Saturn 2 series, the extra jumbo Jupiter is 6K, the Saturn, Saturn S and Mars 3 are all 4K, the Mars 2 printers are 2K.

8K resin is required to get the most of the printers beyond 4K resolution, but the 6K and 8K printers can use the standard 4K resolution. Honestly the photos showing the better quality of 8K vs 4K is lost on me, maybe slightly smoother, but if the photos were not labeled I would not be able to tell them apart. I imagine even 2K is still going to be a lot finer detail than a filament printer can produce.

Build volume is significantly smaller on resin printers. The Saturn 2 is Elegoo's second largest printer and it's build volume is still a bit smaller then a Prusa i3 or Ender 3 which are not considered large printers by the standards of filament printers.

Plus for resin is since they use light not a moving print head, the whole bed prints, so 1 orc or the bed filled with 15 orcs takes the same time to print. On a filament printer, 15 orcs takes 15x longer to print than just 1.

Although the older generation Mars 2 still seems to be a very capable printer, and now about as cheap as an Ender 3.


I did end up ordering the Saturn 2 in September, I was torn between it and a Mars 3 which was about half the price (and 1/2 the printer). Mars 3 would probably do all I need but in the end the much larger build volume and higher resolution won me over. My plans include a lot of small fine detail so while I'm not convinced 8K is really significant, some of the things I want to make may take full advantage of the difference. On the other side I do have a few larger things planned which could exceed the Mars' envelope.

Just now finally getting some time at home to get the printers set up, so still all theory.

While not required, a cleaning and curing station are desirable, but the same can be done using a bucket and the sun.

 

[Bunch]

I'm just learning myself, but I think the major thing is resolution. They use an LCD screen to control the light getting through to the resin. The best of the Elegoo printers are now up to 8K with the Saturn 2 series, the extra jumbo Jupiter is 6K, the Saturn, Saturn S and Mars 3 are all 4K, the Mars 2 printers are 2K.

8K resin is required to get the most of the printers beyond 4K resolution, but the 6K and 8K printers can use the standard 4K resolution. Honestly the photos showing the better quality of 8K vs 4K is lost on me, maybe slightly smoother, but if the photos were not labeled I would be able to tell them apart. I imagine even 2K is still going to be a lot finer detail than a filament printer can produce.

Build volume is significantly smaller on resin printers. The Saturn 2 is Elegoo's second largest printer and it's build volume is still a bit smaller then a Prusa i3 or Ender 3 which are not considered large printers by the standards of filament printers.

Plus for resin is since they use light not a moving print head, the whole bed prints, so 1 orc or the bed filled with 15 orcs takes the same time to print. On a filament printer, 15 orcs takes 15x longer to print than just 1.

Although the older generation Mars 2 still seems to be a very capable printer, and now about as cheap as an Ender 3.


I did end up ordering the Saturn 2 in September, I was torn between it and a Mars 3 which was about half the price (and 1/2 the printer). Mars 3 would probably do all I need but in the end the much larger build volume and higher resolution won me over. My plans include a lot of small fine detail so while I'm not convinced 8K is really significant, some of the things I want to make may take full advantage of the difference. On the other side I do have a few larger things planned which could exceed the Mars' envelope.

Just now finally getting some time at home to get the printers set up, so still all theory.

I see a non 4k printer I think for $119 which is amazingly cheap. I don't need a build build area so smaller is actually better for me. I need to see if I care about the difference between non 4k and 4k. I know I don't care about 8k.

 

[Toadmaster]

I see a non 4k printer I think for $119 which is amazingly cheap. I don't need a build build area so smaller is actually better for me. I need to see if I care about the difference between non 4k and 4k. I know I don't care about 8k.

Yeah Mars 2 is $119 and and the Mars 2 Pro is $135. I'm not sure of the differences that account for $24 other than the Pro has a slightly larger envelope.

 

[Bunch]

Yeah Mars 2 is $119 and and the Mars 2 Pro is $135. I'm not sure of the differences that account for $24 other than the Pro has a slightly larger envelope.

I'm watching a video where the reviewer is trying to make a clear case why the 4k is the obvious buy and I keep thinking the opposite. These people have much better eyes than me.

 

[Bunch]

This is a guy I printed on my Ender 3 recently and painted with Army Painter Speedpaints just now.

Up close (photo)he looks much rougher than he does in my hand or on the table. I'm pretty happy with him.
View attachment 50897View attachment 50898

I'm currently looking through some of my old 70s early 80s minis and comparing them to the ender 3 minis I'm printing. For the 70s minis the lack of detail is pretty amazing. Even a FDM printer like the ender 3 with it's layers looks better than the 70s for the most part. The 80s starts to see much better detail and the layering from the ender 3 doesn't compare as favorably to the better sculpts.

 

[Toadmaster]

I'm watching a video where the reviewer is trying to make a clear case why the 4k is the obvious buy and I keep thinking the opposite. These people have much better eyes than me.

As good as the 4K looks, I'm thinking 2K is probably fine for the average mini.

For me the 8K was just the last finger nudge for the Saturn 2, the volume was the main push. I've got some model parts I want to make and stuff runs from tiny and detailed to large enough that the Mars 3 might come up short without breaking the parts into smaller pieces.


Here is a review of the Mars 2 from last year

 

[Toadmaster]

One other feature on the latest generation Elegoo printers is an air filter to reduce odors, looks like the Mars 2 Pro has this as well, the base Mars 2 doesn't appear to.

If you were going to set up in the house this might be a consideration, but I think you have yours in a garage or basement? You've mentioned family being sensitive to chemical smells.



Also Anycubic's Black Friday sale, nothing as cheap as those Mars 2 printers, but still some good deals.

Anycubic

 

[Stumpydave]

The Mars Pro (v.1) has the air filter.

 

[K_Peterson]

Old thread... but 3D printing has been front-and-center in my life for the past 4 months, so I feel obliged to reply.

I bought a Phrozen Sonic Mini 8K around Labor Day and I have been a printing-fool since then. I've had a blast with it printing up a variety of miniatures and have gradually gotten more knowledgeable and competent in its use. It was a bit of cash, but I wanted to push the limits of quality to see what I could produce. The Phrozen hasn't disappointed.

 

[Acmegamer]

Old thread... but 3D printing has been front-and-center in my life for the past 4 months, so I feel obliged to reply.

I bought a Phrozen Sonic Mini 8K around Labor Day and I have been a printing-fool since then. I've had a blast with it printing up a variety of miniatures and have gradually gotten more knowledgeable and competent in its use. It was a bit of cash, but I wanted to push the limits of quality to see what I could produce. The Phrozen hasn't disappointed.

Honestly, seems like a decent price from what i've been able to find doing a search. Remember how much laser printers used to be or color laser printers for that matter. $500.00 seems a damn fine price if it works well, is sturdy and has a low breakdown maintenance requirements. How are those aspects?

Found this one listed on Amazon and Phrozen has a storefront there, so I feel comfortable that you'll actually get the item ordered.

Amazon product

 

[K_Peterson]

It's still relatively early days for mine, so I can't speak to maintenance requirements. It does work well and is very solidly constructed.

The only negative I've encountered so far is that the reverse side of the build plate has recessed screws, which means that you'll get resin accumulated in there. It has no impact on printer functionality or your prints; it's just an annoyance to clean thoroughly.

 

[Bunch]

How are people liking their resin printers?

 

[robertsconley]

How are people liking their resin printers?

I think they do an awesome job. I used Heroforge to craft minis of my wife and I in our LARP garb we were wearing 30 years ago. And had them printed on a friend's resin printer and painted them.

 

[Bunch]

Put this in the general deals thread but adding here for folks subscribed to this one.

Hayland/AlbinoRaven Fantasy 3D Printed Assets

Get 3D printable dungeons, creatures, and more for your tabletop RPG & other gaming sessions. Pay what you want & support charity!

www.humblebundle.com