Tips For 3D Printing FDM Miniatures

Printing miniatures on an FDM 3D printer is a pain. Here are some useful tips to reduce layer lines and get better overall prints without resorting to a resin printer.

New episodes of Table For Two will be released every other Wednesday. In the off week, we'll be putting out a separate video, usually about crafting something from the last episode of Table For Two.

Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

#crafting #terrain

[dimanarinull]

I would add that you can 3d print disassembled models and get amazing results of prints that would otherwise be impossible.
This is the main part I like about 3D printing, where there are multiple routes for the same solution.
You can even print molds.

[quincanpang]

Support-free miniatures are super nice but I feel fdm printers are more capable than what most people give them credit for. Depending on how much you want a model pretty much anything can be printed, as long as you accept there is no such thing as a perfect print.

[docpepperclassic]

More support-free miniature designers:
- Rocket Pig
- Print and Paint
- Evan Carothers (EC3D)

[LordZele]

Thank you so much for this video. I bought an FDM Printer about 6 months ago and I'm barely about to use it. Needed some tips and some sort of guide for mini printing.
Thank you!

[MrStratofish]

I'm not having too much issue with supports, I'm having issues with dry-brushing where it just highlights layer lines and making it look worse than it is. I can't sand/fill most of it because it would destroy the other fine details which are there

Supports can rough up some of the fine detail in spots which is annoying but a very acceptable tradeoff to be able to print most things and some can be cleaned up with a knife/sandpaper afterwards. Also the model can be rotated to minimise the effect. But, due to the layer line issue, this can then look even stranger

[Weird_Quests]

Where can you get a 0.2mm nozzle that's compatible with an Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro?

[Candyapplebone]

What paints do you use?
I looked at army painter and Vallejo and it all seems expensive

[miteruno]

what if my miniatures aren't THAT small, lets say like an action figure. would that get better results with these settings?

[StarBoundFables]

That treant looks awesome! I’m totally new to D&D, BG3’s my only experience thus far. But I can see it’s influenced so many of my favourite games, films, & stories of all kinds 🙏🏽

Btw, what kind of filament did you use? PLA?

[oxoxInnocntoxox]

Which type of PLA would you reccomend to print minis there are so many types of PLA

[nicosasupreme]

Thanks for the video my fdm miniature printing brother

[SaHaRaSquad]

What would be the best orientation for super thin sections like staffs, spears etc? Whether horizontal or vertical, it always feels like a worst case scenario for FDM. I assume below a certain thickness you might as well just cut it off the model and add it by hand with some wire?

[octogames]

I have a confession to make, I never played D&D. I play a lot of FFXIV and Sky Rim but no table top games outside of organ trail when I was a kid. Due to current world events I have been prepping and part of my prepping is making sure I have entertainment when the internet goes down. I can only read so many books so I chose to invest in RPG table top games like DND and warhammer 40k. I purchased The DND players guide, DM manual and the monster guide with a couple campaigns. I also have Loki battle maps and been printing terrain and buildings on my FDM, I actually just purchased a resin printer just for miniatures. The price of non painted miniatures is crazy so I opted for a resin printer. I did find you can print clean FDM miniatures if its a friendly print of course. I used a .01 nozzle and print at .01 layer height. I can do it on a .04 nozzle but its not as clean.

[rubmyducky]

You Could Reach out to the 3D printing community and see if anyone in your Area has a Resin Printer I myself have 2 resin printers I have an 8K Halot Mage and a older Halot One that is a 2K resin Printer I also have 2 FDM printers and I print for Others and myself I have been 3D printing since 2013 I built my first printer I make all my own Christmas Ornaments every year and I make dollhouse miniatures for my Mother inlaw

[Schyzofrenic]

thinking about using it for tanks for my, ,, un-specified tabletop wargame, , seeing as with resin the tanks will eat up half a bottle, ,

[BloodSteyn]

1:03 Oooh.... shots fired. But yeah, the amount of money spent on upgrades and filament... I can agree. Fortunately I scored a Creality Halot One for a massive bargain with 3L of resin, brand new.

[sierraecho]

1. You can get a Core XY machine like the Bambu Lab P1P (650 bucks), Flashforge Adventurer 5m (400 bucks) or Creality K1 (400 bucks). To print way faster.
2. You can use a smaller nozzle opening, so a 0.2mm or 0.25mm or 0.3mm nozzle for better details.
3. Adjust print settings for faster printing but with the same quality --> print infill every "n" layer, extrusion width for infill with 0, 25mm nozzle for example 0.4mm.

[joelg]

I’m really confused. Was this supposed to be sarcastic? I have a FDM printer, have almost no skills with settings, and it prints great minis

[charon]

I will do imposible and print Miniatures on FDM, dont hawe place for resin printer. I buy resin printer later wen i hawe proper space for this and my buissnes will start.

[Slurgical_D_Terrain_Channel]

I have free terrain if you are interested in my cult channel. Currently I have sc-fi, but soon I will release stuff for mordheim for free as part of Roll 4 Terrain challenge.