3D Printer recommendations
 

Hi all, I've been slowly trying to build my collection by buying official miniatures but as prices skyrocket, I've been eyeing the 3D printing projects for completing my collection. I see that people are getting better and better at 3D printing and I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for 3D printers that they use or have used in the past.

I've seen a lot of sites recommending the creality ender 3 and elegoo mars as good ones, but was wondering if you all had used either of these before or any other great printers that you would recommend. Thank you for your help!

Re: 3D Printer recommendations
 

For minis I think most will suggest a resin printer.
Ender is great for terrain.

Re: 3D Printer recommendations
 

Fdm for terrain and resin for minis.
I would say for resin that elegoo mars and the photon have a pretty decent price range along with a huge backing and online support groups to help with any issues that come up. I have a longer orange 10 that prints beautiful models when I can actually get it to work. Im not sure if its because I am quite demanding with my workload when running it. Ive made hundreds of models on it but it has went down about 20 times or so. It has paid for itself in star wars legion models Ive printed on it though. As far as fdm printing goes, there are a bunch out there that are pretty good nowadays. Enders are the most popular. Those enders would be great compared to my little snapmaker just because of the build plate parameters. The big workspace means bigger files without having to chop up models so much. There is also a large community support backing for them for any surprises that come up. I love my snapmaker but at regular retail its too expensive for what it does. I rarely use the cnc and laser engraver heads that came with mine. It is a solid machine though.

Re: 3D Printer recommendations
 

I recently bought an Ender 3 V2 after wringing my hands about which one to get for some time. Ultimately it was the cost of the printer and the cost/mini that drove me in that direction.

Things to consider:

1) The Ender 3 has an enormous community to support whatever issue you are having. There's a Youtube Video to guide you through EVERYTHING you could even need or want to do to it.

2) FDM gives you the ability to print terrain AND minis, which was an attractive proposition. The Ender 3 buildplate is not big enough for the 24 hex Heroscape tiles, though. In the event that you need a specific miniature that only resin can provide (water or fire elemental?) you can probably arrange a terrain for mini exchange with someone who has a resin printer.

3) The quality of the mini is actually pretty good. These shades are one of my first prints and I only did a little cleanup. Once I'm done printing my terrain I'm going to switch to a 0.2 nozzle and see if I can get better results.
https://i.imgur.com/wnDQ47I.jpg