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The print lines are pretty negligible. (Edit: actually they are quite obvious) But that is not the point. It is about having a model of your own RPG character.
You are not going to be able to commission a traditional 28mm model from a sculpter for anything close to that.
Let alone it come to your door painted. You can also keep the file and change clothing and pose as you like.
My experience in 3D printing, is small items like figs are quick and easy to print, dont buy one of those liquid printers, get the spools version,
Why do you prefer FDM over resin?
Myself, I have an old resin printer which gives me just acceptable prints for rank and file models and terrain in 10mm.If you look at something like the new Anycubic Mono 5S, whilst it is a 12k printer, the quality can be surpassed by the better older 8k printers, but the speed that the Mono 5S prints at is bonkers.
This took under 2 hours to print:
Now this image is of older printers, but both types have improved since then:
If I did 25mm I would be tempted to use FDM for terrain and so on, but not so much for figures.
I don’t really see how it could be done cheaper at home that through a 3D printing service.
Depends what they charge, resin figures are bonkers cheap in terms of material.
Take this 18mm tall dude:
Now that cost does not include his shield, but even with that factored, it is still mad cheap.
we are thinking of 3D printing as we know it, but if we get a method so cheap! you can print as many figs as you want, and then print more after a while, then it would be good. I just bought a milk tray box of chocks, and it had plastic shells inside that could be painted and used as sci fi buildings, so it got me thinking that we dont need solid figs, if you can 3D print coloured shells of figs, it would be cheap and fast and you could print as many as you want over and over. just an idea thinking outside the box.
3D figs are kinda hollow now, but if you dont want a solid fig it may be good to just have a shell,
the quality may not need to be as good either, just a quick army represention shell in colour would be ok, if your just wanting to recreate a battle, if you want a model rather than a game then then get more detailed models as usual
Gets a messy full comparison though:
- Your time to set the printer and print up vs the ‘simpler’ web order time
- Spoilt / lost resin during wash
- Electricity costs
- Depreciation of printer / cleaner / curing stations
Gut feel – PYO is cheaper but more fussy (esp if you do not have the space).
Once the files are done and sliced and the USB stick is inserted, you can print the same stuff over and over and over with no additional time spent.
Agreed, the noise and smell is annoying.
I think even aggregated the lost resin during cleaning is negligible, maybe a fiver over a year of printing?
Another pro is that it is quick, typical wait times for a load of figures?
Dunno, 5 days ish?
Print time, a few hours depending.Hanging around in various 10mm fantasy places as I do, it is clear that people who have had a printer a while, have printed enough models that they have more than paid for the printer in terms of what it would have cost to buy them.
I have not printed that much, but I have covered my costs, terrain helps of course. As gamegonegood noted above, hollow printing of 10mm and or 6mm terrain means that printing a building is pennies rather than the pounds to buy a commercial resin one.Plus you can print meeples for boardgames, dice holders, dice towers, hooks, decorations, movement trays, dice even. If you only print figures you can make your money back, if you print other stuff….
For me, my printer is old and the quality just short of what I demand for hero models and characters.
But for rank and file, and terrain it is great, but then it is 5 years old..Still printed this in 10mm though for 50p.
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