3D Printer for HQ miniatures

[Thantos]

On the store, I'm actually going to be selling 3D printers for making your own miniatures, next month
The time has come! To teach folks how to get good resin miniature prints themselves - the technology has moved on a lot in the last year. You need a resin based printer for good miniatures without layer lines.

Will post a topic when we get everything in stock Aiming to retail a starter pack of printer and resin and supplies for around £250.

[Anderas]

Wow, great news! Which printer will you offer?

Do you provide readily supported STL or even sliced files?

[Thantos]

We are teaming up with the Phrozen range. I compared them to the Elegoo Mars and Photon and they seem to be the best option, if less well known, for now Plus there is the option of water soluble, which means folks dont need to store liters of highly flammable iso alcohol in their spare rooms.. next to the radiator... or something. And can clean prints in water. It's consumer friendly and prints with great results in part with some of our printers here worth £20000

You could buy a printer direct from them. But I'm aiming to do a price point which is better than buying direct from Taiwan and paying Taiwan shipping and import taxes. Plus including some pre-supported models to get folks started and not having to wait a month for the Asia to West shipping.

We will do a few pre supported models, ready to print But we have to keep the casting goblins employed, so I dont think we will be converting much of the existing range over to selling the STLs. But there will be a specific new range of HQ themed dungeon scenery for 3D printing your own

I'll have a 3D printing miniatures guide out too, which is all the methods and tricks I have learned over the last 11 years of 3D printing miniatures, on more types of printer than I have fingers

Well, there are all my secret plans revealed xD I come to the inn, have a mead and then blurt everything, pfft

[Anderas]

It's messy. How do you address the toxic remark on the resin? If it is water washable, there will be people washing it under the tap.

Not your problem, I know. But this problem had me thinking since I have my resin printer.

[lestodante]

@Anderas resins usually spread toxic fumes during the process of printing or vulcanizing, but not after they have become solid.
@Thantos I am curious to know about the print resolution in micron and realize if it is better than Anycubic or Elegoo. I want to buy a 3D printer and yours could be a good solution.

[Anderas]

The resolution is mainly a function of light exposure in these types of printers.
My Anycubic Photon S theoretically has a resolution of 0.05mm in x and y, 0.01mm in z direction. However, anything that's closer than 0.2mm comes out melted together.
I still have to play with the settings to avoid this.


My remark about the toxicity is about the uncured resin you have to wash off after the print. It needs to be washed away, otherwise it will cure in place. And if you did this in the kitchen under the tap, you're introducing it into the water system. The water of the Thames goes through a human household an average of seven times before it flows into the North Sea. That's where the uncured resin will be.


If any of you find someone who sells a resin without toxins, I'd like to know: It's possible that I'd switch immediately to the new one.

[lestodante]

If any of you find someone who sells a resin without toxins, I'd like to know: It's possible that I'd switch immediately to the new one.

I guess this was exactly what Thantos was talking about. but I'll wait for his answer to be sure I understood good.

[Malcadon]

I wanted a 3D printer for some time now, but I was turned off by the high price and the quality of the prints -- at the time, I only seen prints with thick extrusion layers. Then I recently discovered good quality budget models at my price-range, so after much research (and hype), I settled on the Creality Ender 3X. Its basically the base Ender 3 model, but with some improvements based on a lot of user feedback. I go to Thingiverse.com and Cults.com to find free 3D models. I use Blender to make alterations to the models, and then I use Ultimaker Cura to adjust and "slice" it for printing. For two weeks I was held-up by a bad batch of PLA (polylactic acid) filament sold on the cheep. I end up going with the Hatchbox brand due to hearing a lot of great recommendations.

Damn, its a thing of beauty! Siting there, watching that machine extrude a model layer-by-layer. What was once a wire of polylactic acid, slowly becomes a detailed white figurine. I wish we had something like this years ago!

So far with HeroQuest props, I printed the four evil wizards from Wizards of Morcar (but not the Men-at-Arms), and (so far) one of each figures (save for the Ogre) from Mage of the Mirror. At an extrusion of 0.4mm, a normal-size HQ figure only takes about 45 minutes to complete, and looks great from casual inspection — the extrusion lines are not that noticeable. With some of them — namely the fan-sculpted Mage of the Mirror figures — I had to replace the HQ base with a blank base on Blender, as their bases (in contrast to the actual figures) looked rough and ugly. Blender is not easy to work with and unintuitive as hell, but it the best in the non-commercial market (by that, I mean free). On Thingiverse, someone modified pieces of the base models to make crazy and inventive custom HQ figures. Namely, the guy that made a winged Chaos Warlock (using the gargoyle wings), a two-headed Goblin, and a goblin archer riding piggy-back on a Goblin with hand weapon. All the years of seeing other people's cool customs, now I can print (and alter) them at my own leisure!

On a non-HQ note, I also printed out a miniature of AD&D's old '80s badass action figure mascot Warduke the Evil Fighter.

I have so many more things to printout — not just HeroQuest props, and not just for myself.

[Mortanius]

...With some of them — namely the fan-sculpted Mage of the Mirror figures — I had to replace the HQ base with a blank base on Blender, as their bases (in contrast to the actual figures) looked rough and ugly. Blender is not easy to work with and unintuitive as hell, but it the best in the non-commercial market (by that, I mean free). On Thingiverse, someone modified pieces of the base models to make crazy and inventive custom HQ figures. Namely, the guy that made a winged Chaos Warlock (using the gargoyle wings), a two-headed Goblin, and a goblin archer riding piggy-back on a Goblin with hand weapon. All the years of seeing other people's cool customs, now I can print (and alter) them at my own leisure!...

Blender can do a lot, but I agree, it's not a very intuitive design.
Have you tried Meshmixer. It's also free and, for quick things like removing or swapping bases, it's faster and a bit more intuitive. At least, in my humble opinion.

[Maldeev1911]

I have used a Ender 3 pro with PLA+ filament to print a lot of
Hero Quest mini’s and furniture from thingiverse.

Some of the prints are great, some not so much...
I agree with Cornixt that the quality of model you start off with makes a lot of difference.