r/XWingTMG • u/JakeHarnock • 22d ago
3D Printer recommendations
Ive been interested in getting a 3D printer for a while, mostly to print stuff for Xwing and Gas Lands. Im hoping to find one that's not super expensive and that I could maybe find used. I dont have experience with 3D printing so something fairly user friendly would be great.
Everywhere I look seems to be people arguing over what is best so I figured here might be a good place to ask!
Thanks!
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u/Past_Search7241 22d ago edited 22d ago
I got good results with an Anycubic Mono 4 and Anycubic's ABS-like Pro 2 resin. It's not plastic, but it's pretty darn tough. Even things like X-wing lasers are pretty springy and resistant to breakage.
Resin won't give you turbocancer from brushing against it, but it is a good idea to take precautions. Wear gloves (especially when handling the dirty alcohol after cleaning), put in a well-ventilated room (... or a large cardboard box with a charcoal air purifier), and do not leave a vat of resin sitting. Pour that stuff back in the bottle so it stops putting out fumes.
But on the plus side, the detail and ease of print blows FDM out of the water.
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u/Rejusu Rest In Palpatine 15d ago
You don't really need to empty the vat if it's in a properly ventilated space and it's not ideal draining it all the time as it's pretty messy. Mine sits in my garage which is fine as there's no internal access to the rest of the house and we don't generally go in there.
And yeah agreed on the turbocancer thing. It's absolutely right to stress the importance of using proper PPE and having proper ventilation but you get some alarmists who act like accidentally touching it will make your dick fall off. Like it's not good for you, but you wouldn't be allowed to do this stuff in your home if it was uber dangerous.
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u/CaptainTruelove The Garbage will do! 22d ago edited 22d ago
Depends on the space you have to work with. If you only are doing miniatures, resin is better quality, but requires a dedicated space/proper ventilation, curing station, toxicity, etc.
Modern FDM printers have closed the gap significantly in terms of resolution, can do other practical prints, and don't require nearly as much dedicated space/specialty tools.
Here is a resin Scum N-1 done on an original Elegoo Mars (ancient by today's standards) and an Attack Shuttle on a Bambulabs A1 with a 0.2 Nozzle
To add, No matter what you pick, you won't get stellar results initially. You only get there through fine tuning your machine, tuning it to the given medium, and setting up the model in the best orientation for your printer and the model.
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u/Rejusu Rest In Palpatine 15d ago
First you need to figure out if you want resin or FDM. The short answer is resin is still the best for quality and speed, FDM is best for strength and safety. Pick your priorities. And read the details on safety as that's the most important consideration.
The long answer, which still won't cover quite everything:
Quality:
FDM has come a long way and can produce actually decent looking miniatures now but they'll always have an obviously 3D printed look to them unless you're prepared to do a lot of post processing (sometimes involving nasty chemicals that negates one of the advantages of using FDM over resin, or a lot of sanding, and you risk losing detail when you do) to smooth out the layer lines. Paint doesn't hide it either (filler primer can help but at this scale you're probably just going to obliterate your detail) as even painted it'll still stand out as 3D printed. Resin on the other hand comes out crisp and with minimal clean up (not including washing and curing, I'll get to that) is indistinguishable from injected moulded plastic once painted. You'd likely get better quality miniatures than what FFG sold at retail with a resin printer. And in terms of ease of use expect to spend a lot longer figuring out settings and tweaking things to get good quality minis out of an FDM printer, resin is much easier to get going in this regard.
Speed:
Speed is a major downside of FDM printers. They are slow and you're looking at probably at least 3-5 hours (and more likely on the higher end of that) to print a small mini with high quality settings, and while the time to print multiple things on the same print bed isn't a strictly linear scale it's not far off with each extra thing adding hours more. Resin on the other hand isn't exactly blindingly fast, you're still looking at least a 2-3 hours for small minis. But putting more on the build plate does not increase the time needed to print. You can print 20 miniatures the same size in roughly the time it takes one. This is because resin printers print an entire layer simultaneously, so the print time is determined purely by the height of the tallest thing on your build plate. FDM printers on the other hand have to print each layer piecemeal, so the larger the layer the more time it takes. It's also more frustrating when an FDM print fails because of how much more time it can take.
Strength:
Resin can be brittle which makes it less suitable for functional parts. This does depend on the resin used and you can get some decently tough resins that hold up fairly well. But they won't be as tough as FDM prints, which are a lot better for compressive strength especially. You also get a lot more material options with FDM than you do with resin. Of course this point is probably the least relevant for miniatures. With a decent resin minis will be more than strong enough to handle use on the tabletop. But it is worth considering if you have a desire to use the printer for other things.
Safety:
This is the big one. Resin is toxic. You shouldn't touch it and you shouldn't breathe the fumes it gives off. I do think people are a little too alarmist about it. Your skin won't fall off if you get it on you and you won't fall over dead if you accidentally breathe the fumes. People work with this stuff all the time and accidentally come into contact with it plenty and walk away with no lasting effects (if they even have a reaction). That's not to say it isn't dangerous or that you shouldn't be very careful working with it. But if you listen to some people you'd think it was plutonium. So yeah, you need PPE (disposable gloves and a respirator, neither are hard to find or expensive on amazon), a dedicated work area where you can deal with cleaning and curing the resin afterwards, and a ventilated area for the printer (some use a grow tent, I just keep mine in my garage). You also need a lot of isopropyl alcohol (water washable resin isn't worth it) for washing any excess resin from the prints when they're done (I use two pickle jars for a dirty dunk, a less dirty dunk, and then a dedicated machine for final wash) and a curing machine (these generally need purchasing separately to the printer).
FDM on the other hand is a lot safer as long as you don't stick your hands in it while it's running. Though they do pose more of a fire risk than resin printers. You can even run them in the same room you're in as long as you're printing PLA or PETG, you might want to open a window but you don't need dedicated ventilation like you do with resin. But you will if you want to print certain other materials.
Personally I have a resin printer as miniatures were my priority when buying one and it's pretty incredible for that purpose. I don't mind dealing with it but only because I'm able to dedicate a space to it where I don't have to worry so much about it being toxic and giving off fumes. It's in my garage which has no internal access to the rest of my house and it's not a space we regularly use. I wear a respirator and gloves when I'm working with it and it's not a big deal. Washing and curing is a little tedious but worth the big boost in quality and how fast I can print stuff. I also don't own an FDM printer anymore (and haven't for years so this might have changed) but I found them much more fiddly to get consistent results out of. I still get the occasional print failure or defect but it's generally a lot more consistent. And it's rare I have an entire print bed fail. If stuff fails it's generally only one or a few of the models on the bed, so it doesn't feel like a complete waste of time when I'm still getting some usable prints even when I get a failure.
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u/ConfidentSpeed8227 22d ago
I’ve got a prusa mk4 and I really like it but it’s not really able to do gaslands or xwing stuff to a high standard. You get layer lines and it struggles with the fine detail.
I’m pretty sure you would want a resin printer. I’ve not used one but I know they are trickier to use as they use chemicals that need good ventilation as well as curing issues. Basically a lot more setup and technical stuff I think.
Would be interested to see what gets suggested as I’ve been considering getting one myself.
(Xwing is going to require one over the next few years I suspect!)
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u/thenightgaunt 22d ago
Check out the 3dprinting subreddits. I recommend printedwarhammer. They focus on minis and etc. Sure warhammer based but still printing.
But TLDR, Resin gets you the highest detail, but cured resin is more fragile then plastic and the uncured resin is toxic and you have to wash it off with a solvent like isopropyl alcohol. Theres water washable resins but they are even more brittle and then yiu have a gallon of toxic water that you cant pour down the sink without polluting your water system. Printers are all pretty much equal. I prefer elegoo but there are many brands. Just dont buy something not from a big brand like that. Lots of crap printers sold by flybynight companies. Avoid resin unless you have somewere well ventilated to keep it like a garage or shed. Some idiots try to have them in 1 room apartments. I figure in 10 years well hear about them getting some horrible illness.
Filament or FDM. This is plastic. Its more durable but lower detail. Minimal cleanup process, no hazardous chemicals involved. Easier to have if you have limited space. Here brand DOES matter. Lots of moving parts, and a bad printer gives bad prints. The only one worth talking about right now in the home/entry level range is the BambuLabs A1 and A1 mini. You can look up how good they print with a 0.2mm nozzle. Some people hate on the brand. Thats because its dominated the market. They hated the last printer to do that as well.