"What’s the cost of 3D home printing?" Topic

I'm just curious.
What's the initial cost of a GOOD 3D printer?
How steep is the learning curve to make good figures?
How much does the material cost? How does that relate to the cost to print a 28mm figure?
How much does an STL File cost?
Is it worthwhile to purchase a file for a one-off terrain piece?

And any other questions I'm not familiar with, but should be asking.

I was "fluent" with AutoCAD 2005, but haven't touched it since. How easy is it to develop your own files?
Or is that a dumb question?

Two main types of 3D printing are predominant with regard to our hobby. PLA (not the army) which uses a solid filament and MSLA which uses liquid resin. PLA is easier and cleaner. 1kg of filament costs about $10 USD to $30 USD a roll. A Bambu A1 regular or mini models are excellent printers. The Mini is only $200. USD You can be up and printing for $220 USD plus shipping / tax. There are a lot of aspects to MSLA printing. But if you want to go low volume and labor intensive, there are several beginner printers for under $200. USD They may break after a few dozen prints though. A kg of liquid resin costs about $20 USD – $30 USD for average stuff. Get water washable resin and cure in the sun and you can be up and going for $220 USD or less. This setup is not ideal but a cheap entry option. You can get good prints but it will take more time to process the steps. I didn't mention the MSLA options that can quickly raise the price but improve your quality of life. There are plenty of good free STL free files on Thingaverse. Plenty of great paid models on myminifactory and wargamer3d. I've also bought some impressive sets of of Kickstarter. Plenty of free slicing software. I've bought some individual decent terrain pieces STL files for under $2. USD The prices are all over the place.

PLA is considerably less of a hassle than MSLA. PLA is great for terrain pieces such as buildings. MSLA is superior for smaller objects such as infantry and vehicles. There is some overlap between the types. I primarily print 28mm mimiatires and terrain myself.

As it's a hobby, expect to put a good amount of time into it to learn the inns and outs. Expect failures in printing too until you figure it out.

I posted some related info in this thread….

TMP link

there are SO many free Wargame 3D printing assets. a few hundred dollars for a PLA printer and you can be printing in a few days. there will be errors, it will take longer than you think at first. But you quickly will have LOTS of buildings or tanks. I find it, for me, works best when I need 2-3 'one off' vehicles in 15mm that I can print overnight. Things like Landing craft become practical to have.

My son tells me about $500 USD for a good starter resin set-up, but thereafter cost per figure is in pennies. He concurs that filament is better for terrain, and he hasn't paid for a file yet. Lots of free stuff out there.

He felt it was easy to pick up, but he was a Microsoft Certified Software Engineer before he got out of high school, so I consider the source.

My son was given a free filament printer (Ender 3, pro?). What a crock. Needed some parts and work to bring up to good condition, still doesn't work worth a hoot. What with all the time he's put in trying to get it working, he would have been better off with a fancier new printer.

Resin would be preferred, and one that self-levels, but we really don't have a climate controlled area that has ventilation that we can set it up in.

The learning curve is very steep, and a lack of real directions or support isn't helping.

I have opted to not have the hobby of figuring out and maintaining a printer. I have opted in to buying stacks of spools of PLA for a friend who does have that hobby and is willing to print for me.
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Prices for files range from Free to Oh Heck No. I have paid for a number that are in the Worth It To Me price range.

My file searches always begin with [keyword] STL Thingiverse for freebies and then expand from there. Google image search always works better than the search function in Thingiverse. But once I'm in Thingiverse, clicking on other keyword links from one file followed by lots of scrolling sometimes leads to good finds that didn't pop-up in Google. Printables has also yielded good results.

John, there is another option not being discussed: reach out to a 3D Printer on Etsy, asking if they do special orders.

This avoids the investment, time, learning, toxic fumes, etc. Many will do custom orders -- you just have to reach out and ask. You will likely need to get the STL files you are interested in having printed.

As far as the difference between FDM (layers of molten plastic extruded and applied one atop the previous), which is low-toxicity, and Resin Printers (very toxic fumes from the resin; resin is a sensitizer to skin -- always wear gloves; cleaning the printed figures with >90% isopropyl alcohol also produces flammable vapors, and it can be an irritant to skin and likely lungs, as well), is narrowing.

In other words, for printing 28mm figures, FDM printers are approaching such thin layer lines, that you can use them, instead of a resin printer.

Bottom line: do your YouTube homework, learn as much as you can, then pull the trigger. Fat Dragon Games' channel on YouTube is a fantastic resource: he dials in the STL files and settings, for the STL figure files he sells, for most FDM printers out there, to get the best results possible. He goes into the whole of the subject on his channel. FDG is only fantasy, but you can learn a lot from his channel. Cheers!

Another thing to file away…

Resin figures break, easily -- usually at the ankles! Get yourself a resin repair kit from Amazon, or elsewhere: they include a bottle of resin, and a UV Penlight, to cure it with. This is the one I bought, and I love it! These are amazing tools to have in your kit -- curing the resin, to make a repair, takes, literally, five seconds; the UV Pen is USB rechargeable. Cheers!

I recently bought an Elegy Mars 5 Ultra resin printer and despite the fact that many people on YouTube are saying it's the ideal resin printer for beginners it actually is a really good resin printer for beginners. With the curing station and other accessories I spent over $500. USD Once I've painted a hundred minis it will have paid for itself. It is very, very messy. You need a garage or shed, you can't use it in the house. It's messy, but not at all hard. Amazing results just pop out after a couple hours. The Mars 5 Ultra will print six or seven 32mm minis, but you're going to have trouble with the larger dragons – it has a small print bed.

I do think you need to *want* to do it.

Creating your own STLs for spaceships, ironclads, buildings, etc, is very easy, look at TinkerCAD, a free, online, and very easy to use 3D designer. You'll be effective in under an hour (it's sort of meant for kids). If you want to do horses and people and dragons you're going to need Blender. It's also free and there are a *lot* of instructive YouTube videos. You will spend many, many hours of watching, practicing, etc, before you are effective.

There are a *lot* of free STLs for wargames, and there are a lot that you can buy relatively inexpensively. A *lot*.

FDM printers are easy and fun, no mess, you can use them in the house, you can get a good one under $200. USD The layer lines never go away, though. When you paint things they always show up. You could do many terrain features, but not all. I have printed many, many tanks and they look fine. But things always look "3D-printed".

I have a pair of Ender 3 Pros. They do need attention, but I have gotten a *lot* of use out of them. They are certainly more fun than resin printing.

A brief aside about UV curing resins:

Get yourself a resin repair kit from Amazon, or elsewhere: they include a bottle of resin, and a UV Penlight, to cure it with.

I still don't have a 3D printer, but I've been using UV curing resins for years (since Bondic was the only one on the market) and they are extremely useful for special types of gluing projects.

Leaving aside my own failed experiments, the only real problem I've had is matching the right frequency of UV light to the resin. The resins come in two main categories (395nm and 365nm), and will only cure _ v e r y _ s l o w l y _ under the wrong frequency. You can buy cheap tubes of UV resin for personal use, but only get ones that tell you what frequency of light they need. Some are silent, and it's a PITA to figure out by experimentation that you need to go buy another UV pen light.

I do think you need to *want* to do it.

From reading this thread, and elsewhere, I think that's the key.
For the record, in the past I've thought that plastic figures were a really dumb idea. This was mainly because of the cost of milling out the molds, the cost of injection molding machinery, and so on. Obviously I was wrong about that.

So now, there's all this fuss about 3D printing. I'm initially dubious, so I thought I'd ask. I see it's relatively "easy and affordable".
But here's the thing. I've purchased tanks that look their are made from corrugated steel. I read above that will never go away.
As for resin, well, I spent a good deal of my career as a Safety Manager in a small company and at a Kmart. I also was on committees in larger ones.
I've found that you need a real hardass approach to things like MSDS sheets, and that hobbyists are more laissez fair. TMP is where I read about grad students washing their hands with toluene. 🙄😱

Obviously, 3D printing is a different hobby in itself. Thanks for the insights here, but I don't think I need another hobby. But I will check out other printers out there for obscure minis that I might "need". Like Jubilation T Cornpone.

Obviously, 3D printing is a different hobby in itself. Thanks for the insights here, but I don't think I need another hobby.

This is exactly why I don't have a 3D printer.

It would be extremely useful for getting all those niche items I can't find in production, and might even be a more efficient use of money for hobby purposes. But it would also eat up a great deal of my already limited hobby time, become yet another source of toxic materials in the homestead, and fill up my remaining storage space with miniatures I haven't quite gotten around to painting.

If, at some point in the future, it looks like the only way to continue building collections of miniatures is to 3D print them at home, I'll relent and start that hobby. While I can still buy what I want from others who do all the production work, I'm going to keep doing that.

- Ix

PS: I also worry about the durability of the materials used in 3D printing. The various resins and polymers haven't been around long enough to know how they age through temperature changes, UV exposure, moisture cycles, etc. I will be upset if my old painted miniature collection self-destructs when I pull it out of the box a few decades after I set it aside and forgot about it. The old guys will say "I won't be around long enough to worry about that", and many 3D printing enthusiasts are too young to think on such a long time horizon, but pulling out old collections gathering dust in a forgotten corner is something that happens all the time in this hobby, and jump-starts a lot of games. Not every game was painted up recently.

White metal miniatures have many downsides, but they will still be around to play with for generations. The miniatures will last longer than the paint applied to them.

I love working with styrene, but it yellows and grows brittle over time. Old models eventually become unbuildable.

Old polyethylene figures (e.g. 1/72 plastic figures, like Airfix) seem to be very durable, though they are a PITA to paint. There have been a lot of developments and experiments in that corner of materials technology, and I don't know how they all hold up.

I now have a lot of ships in various UV resins that I worked pretty hard to build. I don't want to play with them constantly, but I do want them to be around for a long time.

I'm waiting for full colour printers.

There seems to be some wild disagreements here. Somebody asked us which models were FDM printed and which were Resin. We and they picked them up and could not tell. Tipping them upside down was the only place you could tell.

I can only talk form my experience with FDM prints.

My printer is a Prusa I3+. I did build it and it worked fine with no remedial work required, but I did take a couple of days. Probably better to buy it ready assembled. Setting up – put in filament, works every time, run test program and twiddle one knob to get the pattern shown in the picture, took a few minutes. Much the same as you do when you change colour cartridges on a paper printer.

Load STL file in slicer select resolution (normally 0.1mm) and press go.

Again I can only life stuff I have had. The most heavily used item so far is some bed frame supports for the caravan one of my first 3D printing jobs. I do admit I printed them a bit thin. The manufactures part it replaced was 2 year old. But my bits are showing some issues 12 years on. However some new parts are expected to outlast me as they have been printed more robustly in better material. Even PLA has improved over the 10 years I have been making stuff.
Not sure I would call that a hobby in itself. But then perhaps loading a microwave oven is a hobby for some.

If somebody gives you a printer free suspect it might be duff. Same as somebody gives you a bike it may need lots of new bits or even be worthless.

NOTE – I will admit even if you are an engineer getting to grips with drawing 3D objects to turn into STL files IS A HOBBY. Look at it as a far better way to scratch build. It does take the same time and effort, but having done it once you can make lots of copy's with no effort.

Cost my equivalent printer £1,054.80 GBP, note this a significant upgrade on my printer which they still support but do not make new. My printer is still working great after about 5 years.

Filament the stuff I use is PLA+ £20.99 GBP per kg. About 100 1/144 vehicles per kg.

"Old polyethylene figures (e.g. 1/72 plastic figures, like Airfix"

Old polyethylene figures can go brittle, I have lost thousands of Airfix, MPC, and Esci figures over the years that were supposed to last forever. I think some use an additive that others don't use as I have had 10 year old figures go bad and 40 year old figures that are fine.

The newest PLA printers used by a person of great skill can create wonderful models these days, I have seen them myself. Smooth-On also makes a paint-on resin that is self leveling and will fill in the striations on PLA models, it works well but there is a brief learning period.

I have been told that the cheap resins break easily but the expensive resins are very strong. PLA is very strong.

I don't have a printer but Fidelis Models, owned by a good friend, is coming out with both resin and PLA printed models and so he his learning a lot about it. He owns some files and he is licensed some others for sale. He is having the work done by contractors so he does not have to do the printing.

It is an interesting technology and I suspect in a few more years after a few more bugs are out of it we will all have a 3D printer.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek

I use Sunlu resin now, the ABSlike, its about 22 dollars a liter, cheaper then the stuff I used to use, mixing in tenacious, ect. I like it better. Sunlu has a more flexable resin, I have some, and I have not even used it yet, as I am satified with sunlu abs. havent looked at recent costs of printer lately, they should be quite good, more detail then you need.

The problem with 3d printers is this. if you have a pile of shame, ya, all those miniatures you have not painted yet, hold on to your hat, because it will grow exponentially!

Lets say you print a build plate of miniatures a day for a week, and you have 10 to 15 man sized miniatures on it, at 28-32mm, in a week you now have 70-100 miniature you need to paint, and the next week you have 100 more, so you print a few "big" miniatures ( dragons, tanks whatever your into) and you painted 3 miniatures that week… You get the picture… now you see some other game that looks like it would be fun, lets print 100 miniatures up for it! Some sailing ships for age of sails, a week later you have a nice fleet, and you may went thru 2 or maybe 3 bottle of resin, depending on what you printed, spent 40-69 dollars, and you are looking at 200 plus miniatures you need to paint, but …. you decide you need more orcs, like maybe 30 more. this is just printing one build plate full a day, depending on how tall your miniatures are, you could get 2 or 3 buildplates printed in a day

I see that you can't just throw the waste back in the pot, like I did when trying to cast my own metal figures. 😄 I wasn't very good.