HUGE project…what would you recommend?

[teddymademedoitParticipant 5159xp 1]

Hello

It looks like the willpower to resist purchasing a 3D printer has all but run out for me, partly because a couple of years back it was clear that 3D printing was the future and I said I’ll give it a couple of years to get reliable for even the most unreliable of people like me to use but also because this incredible kickstarter has launched with 2 of my favorite armies and my biggest collections… Chaos Dwarfs and Lizardmen

 

So my question is, given the scale of this project and some of the terrain and miniatures, is there a printer out there you guys could recommend?

I was originally thinking about a resin printer however I understand that may not be best for scenery and such but has that changed now? Or is the a happy medium somewhere?

I’m very much wanting a good quality print at the end of this but at the same time I’m a family man so looking to spend between 200-300, I thought he best place to ask would be this community

Many thanks

 

[limburger 21711xp 1]

Looking at the project it appears that they have done the research for you already as they have recommended printers for both FMD and SLA.

I’d say pick one of the recommended 3D printers, because the files are most likely optimized and tested for these (or will be during development).

It also reads like a project that is designed to be (relatively) easy to use for beginners to 3D printing and everything is modular so size shouldn’t be much of an issue.

The only ‘problem’ is that not all of the designs in the kickstarter are optimized for both variants.
So you either pick one that has the most designs that you like … or accept that there may be more work/loss in quality if you want to print everything.

 

[blinky465 17028xp 3]

Support free terrain is a joy to print. Support free miniatures – well, they all tend to be a bit arms-down-mono-pose. Looking at that kickstarter, the minis are not support free.

(TLDR: you’ll need to choose between minis or terrain: For minis, Phrozen Sonic Mini or AnyCubic Photon. For terrain, any Prusa-based FDM machine since an Ultimaker would be far too spendy.)

 

I got a cheapo Tronxy X3 a few years ago just to have a go at printing terrain. For just over a hundred quid, I wasn’t expecting much, but the quality was surprisingly good. Sure, it helps if you know what you’re doing and you’re not afraid to fiddle around experimenting (most 3d printers are just a frame, three stepper motors and a hot block though I can understand if you’ve just dropped £2k on an Ultimaker, you’re less likely to risk “breaking” the machine than if you’d put it together yourself).

I’m still quite happy with my Tronxy for structural work – I’ve produced terrain on an Ultimaker 2+ and it did look incredibly good – *almost* zero layer lines, but they still showed up after a coat of paint and especially after some dry brushing.

My AnyCubic Photon has been amazing for churning out minis, terrain, scatter terrain etc. I’ve had two failures in all the print runs I’ve done (one was expected, as it was only just above zero in the workshop when I left it printing overnight and forgot to leave the heating on). But I do spend a lot of time fully preparing my minis before printing.

@warzan has both AnyCubic Photon and Elegoo Mars and says they’re pretty comparable (after all, they’re essentially the same device – a screen, a tank and a stepper motor). From the reviews I’ve seen, if I was buying today, I’d go for a Phrozen Sonic Mini – it has a dedicated mono screen, which means much faster curing times (typically from 8-9 sec per layer on the Photon to 2-3 sec per layer on the Sonic Mini). The details are also just that little bit crisper on the Sonic Mini too (Greg the 3dprintingpro put a review up on his site a few weeks ago).

So there you go – if it’s the terrain mostly that excites you, a decent FDM printer would require quite a bit of setting up at the start (to get your settings “dialled in” for your choice of filament) but if you get one with an auto-bed levelling sensor, after that you should just press print; any Prusa-based machine (or clone) should be good enough. FDM printing produces very good tolerances, which means your inter-connected pieces should fit together perfectly.

If it’s the minis you’re more interested in, I’d go resin all the way. If you can find one at a decent price, a Phrozen Sonic Mini. Otherwise I can only recommend AnyCubic Photon (not the S- model, the original).

Don’t even bother trying to print such detailed minis on FDM! Although you *can* print terrain on a resin machine, because of suction forces during printing, and because they generally has large, flat areas (something resin printers don’t handle well) pieces can come out a little distorted – certainly enough to make pegs no longer fit into holes and things. Resin also shrinks slightly during curing; I’ve only printed a couple of multi-part minis and almost always end up filing down the little pegs as they never fit (I now assemble multi-part minis in MeshMixer and print them as one piece). I imagine that multi-part terrain pieces might be a challenge on a resin printer?

For your budget I guess you need to decide between terrain or minis, and buy accordingly.

Especially for this Kickstarter, I’d go for a prusa-based FDM for terrain.I’d expect to pick up a decent clone with bed levelling sensor for £150-£200. That leaves you a few quid to buy decent quality filament (seriously, filament makes a massive difference to how easy your printing becomes – don’t skimp on cheap filament!) and some pritt sticks (they just make your first layer sticking soooo much easier!)

If it’s the minis that got you excited, and you can wait for the terrain, you can still get AnyCubic Photon for about £230 (UK seller) and with the additional bits and bobs (resin, IPA, UV lamp etc) you’ll be pushing close to £300. If I could find one at the much-fabled $200 mark, I’d get a Phrozen Sonic Mini, but to date the best price I’ve seen in Europe worked out at about £350 which is probably just outside your budget, once you account for the extras.

 

 

[teddymademedoitParticipant 5159xp 0]

Thanks both

@limburger I do like the fact they recommended some printers at the end of their campaign section, I just wanted to look for another opinion and to be honest I was secretly hoping someone may get day here’s one that’ll do everything ??

As @blinky465 and yourself have mentioned it’s looks like a choice to be made. From the great advice given I may be better off with a resin printer, as I’m definitely look to print a lot of minis (including what I’m wanted outside of the KS) it sounds like I can use that for great minis and put up with some extra hobbying for the scenery rather than getting great scenery and and no go for detailed minis

 

I’ll have to think in with this ? thanks again for the input both ????

[blinky465 17028xp 0]

it sounds like I can use that for great minis and put up with some extra hobbying for the scenery rather than getting great scenery and and no go for detailed minis

That’s what I’d go for. You can always do crafting to rough out the basic shapes then resin-print some nice details (hinges and knockers for doors, window frames etc). I’m building a sci-fi/cyberpunk game and making buildings out of mdf – they looked a bit flat and boring till I glued some 3d-printed greebles on – now they look great! I’m over fdm printing terrain – I much prefer the hand-crafted look 😉

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