I think its really important to consider 3D files the same way you'd think of physical minis. If you don't get around to printing and painting them, they're worthless. Buy 1 set of files, print them, paint them repeat. Don't get caught up in fomo or big sales, you'll likely save more money in the long run, even if you miss out on a few deals.

For those who do not wish to 3D print. One Page Rules can be used with whatever miniatures you have available. You can also use standees, paper tokens, or anything else to play their games. The rules are free. The Army books are free.

Here is my trick, I won't let myself buy any more models until the ones I have are all printed AND painted. It really slows down on the impulse purchases lol

My mars 3 pro was 2nd hand from ebay, £120, I use SUNLU ABS like resin £15, I use a dust mask, £2, uv curing torch, £6 box of gloves, £5 for 100, 5l bottle of alcahol, £10, lasted over a year already, just used free files, as loads are around, my first prints was 3 Wraithknights and some guardians, warp spiders and a Farseer from the first bottle of resin, enought to do a 2000 point army, which would have cost over £500, so already saved around £350, I have since printed out a 2000 point ork and imperial guard army, varying cost of resin used betweed £15 and £30 per 2000 point army, and still using the same alcahol,gloves and mask.

Also consider that the printer itself has a huge up front cost, but then it serves you for years. I also started doing prints for fiends into DnD or Warhammer and the printer has paid for itself many times now and also I can cover the upkeep costs from there.

The cost of buying a warhammer army from GW is your self respect.

Saving 80-90% on getting a massive grey pile of shame is definitely not nothing. You'll never run out of models to buy paint and base decorations for.

Decent breakdown, missing some of the PPE and cleaning costs. People really underestimate some of the up front and ongoing costs to 3d printing every time they parrot "Just print your minis". Also the time and space investment

Not to mention you can make unlimited amounts of each of those prints.

He looks like half of That High Couple.

I started printing recently, using FDM because I didn't have a good place to setup a resin printer, and all in it cost me a bit under $900. Printer, worktable, enclosure, tools, PPE, a ventilation solution, several spools of PLA, dehydrator, extra nozzles and bits, a lot of great STLs, and the electric bill to run it all With that I am in the process of printing 6 different armies, maybe 7, and several entire tables of terrain in different styles. I can print a bloodthirster to put GW to shame for about $8-$12 between materials and electric usage (which is more than half that cost). It doesn't take long to make the money back, and now I have a new facet to my hobby and no worries about the minis selling out or getting massive price hikes all the time. The pile of shame also doesn't grow. I can't say the same about the Files of Shame though

The Saturn 3 is a solid choice. We have a Saturn 2, and have been quite happy with it.

I've been 3d printing for about 5 years now. I started just so I can make my own "model kits and toys"! I've also been a patreon of OPR for just under 3 years now. I still have never played a wargame. I signed up because of their Mummified Undead. Another plus is you can make the models any size you want. Large display pieces and such. I just like to paint. I started off with apple barrel paint but moved on to the "Slap Chop" technique with speed paints. While I'm the last person to tell someone they spent too much... I would say if you keep spending that much per month, (which i doubt you will) then yes! However, it does sound like you have enough different armies to last for a while.

Put a note in your diary to do a follow up to this when you've been printing for a year. Assuming you don't buy another printer and you slow down a little with the file purchases, you might have a monthly cost that you don't feel like you need to hide from your -fiancé- wife. BTW, congratulations. 💐💐💐

This really illustrates the real danger of printing, which is becoming a whale for STLs! If you have an addictive personality (and many gamers do) before you know it you'll be swimming in thousands of files for things you have no intention on printing and would never have bought in a store, because your printer brain was telling you "it doesn't matter wjat it is, if you get it as a file its a bargain!" Definitely set a fixed monthly budget before you get going or you'll be in the same danger as anyone who blows their life savings on in game loot boxes. The purchase dopamine makes humans reeeeaaaallly dumb.

But that $200 a month will actually decrease. The cost of the printer starts to spread over more and more months. Plus you now have enough models to keep you busy for a while especially if you just stick with the patreon prints moving forward.

The good thing about a 3d printer is once youre done printing armies you can print anything else unlike spending $300 to maybe make it to 1500pts

There are a lot of cheaper and more niche, smaller studios that create wonderful STLs too. Basicly - everyone can find something for himself. Tbh I don't like OPR minis so I only use their rules and go with different models from different companies.

A fairer comparison would be to consider the GW price for models you have actually printed. Not all the models you COULD print. The comparison still strongly favors 3D printing. After two years subscribing to OPR, I will never print everything in my hard drive of shame 😋

It's definitely the way to go, the only thing left is for regular tournaments or local game stores being okay with the figures you are using. It sounds like you most likely have the space and other friends with the area to play with printed models. I've been printing since 2019, I have slightly more regular models than printed models, but it's definitely saved me a lot, and it's also allowed me to print things for my friends. Like you said you can print as many as you want. It's definitely worth it and you will most likely make back the cost of the printer and materials in value off of one bottle of resin, maybe two. And if you play multiple game systems that are miniatures agnostic then 3d printing kicks in the door and prints everything that you need with a little bit of searching. I've printed off D&D figures for my friends, and fan art statues, it's fun.

the printers are a 1 time purchase, unless you feel the need to turn it into a hobby and constantly upgrade your equipment. but i have found my 3d printers make more than game stuff now. but i also print my table my own terrain.

I guess the biggest issue to consider is money vs time. The time to print all the STLs you bought is immense. Days and days if not months off your life. And that’s if they all print perfectly first time. That doesn’t even include cleaning time or the potential health effects of resin. Now I’m not disagreeing with your assessment as GW prices are robbery but….but… if you value time with your kids more than sitting in a toxic room for hours printing models - then I still end up buying GW because of speed. Then use those with OPR. After all an uprinted stl is just a file. Not a mini.

Keep in mind - OPR will keep sending you new armies.... So your investment of $10 a month will keep you busy even after you finish your current armies. My wife and I spend *mumble* on Patreons each month, there is a lot of value for small increments.

The easy problem that I could see would be a "digital pile of shame." I for one don't want to pay for things I'm never going to use. So when I see amazing kickstarters out there and I think. Oh I'd love to have that entire army. But then I already look at what I have that isn't painted I think to myself that I shouldn't buy that army. But that's just my though.I enjoyed the video. Have a great day.

Hey, remember when people said that 3D printing was never going to be a viable alternative to buying GW plastic because of cost, details and time..? Yeah I think that prediction is now effectively dead in the water. I'm completely flabbergasted at GW's arrogance and lack of foresight. One thing is that they didn't predict how easy and quick 3D printing would become for miniatures, fair enough, but the fact is that they already do all their sculpting via 3D modeling now anyway, so there is literally no excuse for them not to do alternative poses, chapter/subfaction specific models and then sell them as STL's. They can't control the spread and they can't limit the amount of prints, they might as well bite that bullet, because the amount of money that people will GLADLY hand over for files is evident, people are just fine paying for digital things and either they participate and get a ton of revenue for comparatively very little work (only modeling needed, don't need to make molds, print cardboard and ship the product) or they don't, they get nothing, people flock everywhere else and they just... lose. Make it make sense to me. Nice video, I think you clearly illustrate how GW is not worth it anymore. The bonus aspect is that I can go to someone like you, who'd be willing to sell their time to print for me, so I don't have to and it'd still be cheaper and in many cases better. That's not to speak of all the non-regular files with more accurate depictions that are available and traded between people.

I agree with your video don't get me wrong, but these files only start to become comparatively cheaper if you actually printed and used them all. It'd be interesting to know how much of those hundreds of paid model files you have as physical models, and how many you actually printed multiple of. Otherwise it's a kind of digital pile of shame if you will, which is IMO another consideration if someone is thinking about 3D printing.

3D printing has a Fixed upfront cost and a consumable cost. If you own and assemble plastic miniatures, you already have tools that have a fixed cost and consumables such as replacement X-acto blades. No one throws away an x-acto knife and a pair of nippers on one use, that cost is spread across the many dozens if not hundreds of miniatures you assemble using those tools. A 3D printer is a tool and the cost ends up being spread out across the hundreds if not thousands of miniatures you print with it.

You did not add in the cost of the respirators, filters, air cleaner, VOC meter, ventilation, gloves, IPA, etc., etc., etc. Time is also a HUGE factor. Is STL slicing, supporting, etc., plus printing and cleaning time more or less than assembling the minis?

Looking over your costs... You don't have a washing and final curing station? How much in IPA for washing? What was the cost of the respirator masks (and replacement filters) and gloves? Even if you don't have a washing and curing station, you still need some sort of station for washing. Going DIY, you can probably use dollar store basins and put the models outside in the sun for the final cure after washing. Also throw in the cost of electricity to run the 3D printers. Granted, all these costs don't add up to much, but they are real (and reoccurring for the consumables) costs. Even with those extra costs that you didn't cover for this video, you are still way below the cost from GW.

This is just a fucking advertisement.

buying the files for the included supports are great. but you can really save by finding all the free ones out there and just supporting yourself. takes some extra time but moneys money. now if its something like i know im gonna need 30 of these guys at the very least, ill buy the supported ones cause then you know they work and you wont bee dropping 10$ on failed prints.

You're missing the second "A" in Acceptably in your intro.

Good video! Would have been nice to know how many minis you actually did print in those five months. It's a simple calculation: $1007/x minis = cost per mini. I'm curious why you didn't add a washing and a curing station and omitted the costs for tools, masks and gloves? I think 3D printing is great when you have the ventilated space and want to print an army. If you only need a few models for a skirmish game it's still less expensive to buy, even from Games Workshop. ;-) Last question: Did you print all the files you bought at least once?

I went through this exact thing when I first started. My mortgage increased so I had to look at my budgets and realised I had spent £4000 on print files in a year. I deleted my patreon account shortly after because I was fighting the FOMO but have found a new love of looking through my mmf library to see what crazy proxys I can find for things. Turns out I have enough crazy tentacle monsters to make a full Mind flayer army for example which I found in the OPR community lists.

A couple critiques: -You didn't add in costs for power and safety equipment -Your math assumes no bad prints -Your math assumes you will print every stl you have -You bought all the 3D printing on discount but took all GW prices without looking for retailers with discount Not saying it would be higher that GW with this, but it would be more accurate

You kinda went overboard spending US$1k in 5 months. I bought a printer and curing station together for about $400, I buy 1 bottle of resin a month for about $40, and I spend maybe $25/month on Patreons and buying STLs. So I've spent less than US$1.2k in a whole year, and my hobby room is literally overflowing with printed minis of all kinds.

Fumes from Resin is heavily overblown, if you use normal resin, yes the fumes are pretty bad, but Elegoo does have rechargeable activated carbon filters that sit at the back of the machine. The main point is WATER WASHABLE resin has far fewer fumes (aka it's not as smelly). I have printed for 4 years with resin as well as FDM, and while resin wasn't my most favorite of printing due to the extra post processing, what came out is amazing. There is "8k" water washable resin, that is designed for the high def "12k and 16k" printers as the polymers are smaller and allow for crisper details. Again water washable resin is the way to go, far less to worry about, and you don't need IPA to clean your models, saving you big money in the long run. Currently there is the Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra on the market (just came out and are shipping now), its got a lot of great modern features that new resin printers that have advanced in recent years. The bundle with the Wash and Cure station is $580, so you get the printer and the ability to wash the models and cure them for a damn good price.

What is with the strange flickering in this video?

Hey bud :-) good video. IMO the true cost of 3D printing is saving more money :-P I got my printer in 2020 Mars 3 got it on pre order was little over 250 Euro then another 100 for wash and cure station, the resin I get on deals at the time 500ml bottles of ABS like Resin cost me 15 euro or less cant rememebr at the time. Took me a couple of hours to get my settings done (still use the same settings to this day) I print at .03 layer level takes a little longer but the quality jump is worth it. I spend 50 something Euro a month on Patreon stuff (not just mini stuff) I have the same methylated spirits (easy to clean it just put it in a container and put in the cure machine and filter it out perfect to go again. My last big army was a Korps army from The Makers Cult (they are one of my favourite creators) lots of guys 3 artilary pieces, 3 tanks and one of them being very big and one flamer unit on top of those 3 tanks. Each tank print cost including supports was between 4-8 euro because size ha If you want some good creators I can point you towards some badass creators bigger and smaller who do amazing work, if not no worries :-) (several of them I like also do alot of kits as well as big units and vehices patreons as well all very good priced like OPR or cheaper)

Its automatically cheaper to print vs buying from GW. Only way its more expensive is if you make poor decisions on resin - printer - and your designs unless you buy designs and most dont check to see if other peoples files have good compatibility.

Costs of paints and painting supplies or are all your armies naked? I assume this would be more expensive for 3D prints because you have more minis. Any cost in venting and furniture for setting up the garage space?

I don't own a printer. So my comparisons focus what I can buy. I find GW pretty competitive when it comes to troups kits (cheaper than buying printed miniatures off of etsy, or smaller miniatures companies) but that completely goes out the window when it comes to characters.

Nah no such thing if you enjoy the printing. I still buy the major pieces from GW but proxy the rest

Nah, forget resin. There's no need for resin, FDM is good enough for it all.

As an old guy coming back to the hobby I am leaning more and more to adding 3d printing to my repertoire. At 200 per month at the age I estimate you to be you'd have about 400,000 in your retirement nest egg. Now if you have to feed your hobby and your retirement, half of that would net you about 175,000 at retirement and you have 1000's of models. HAHA!

lose a shit ton of money buying a broken 3d printer from a crooked hobby shop with no refund policy. You might as well spend the $300+ on a Official GW army.

Soooo... no ABS or tough resin able to handle tabletop manipulation without breaking like that brittle low cost standard resin ? No Isopropyl alcohol for cleaning your prints ? No UV curing station or equipment ? No ultrasonic cleaner either ? No cost for filter cartridges for that mask and disposable gloves ? Because that's the real cost of 3D printing, not Patreon supplementary subscriptions and MMF impulse buys.

Yes but most of that is not every month most was I one time buy

Okay, I have notes. This is going to be long, brace yourself. I appreciate your effort to be inclusive on the dollar costs incurred. I do think you're putting an overly positive spin on certain aspects, however. First, you continually refer to your *files* as *miniatures.* But they're not. Until you have spent the time and the resin, they're just files. So it is, on one level, deceptive to say "I've spent 355$ to get all these miniatures." Granted that you could, now that you have the files, increase the total number of literal miniatures to whatever you wanted, this phrasing still implies a level of instantaneous production that isn't true. Second: you gloss over the way the subscriptions lose value if one isn't interested in all or part of that months offerings. To be sure, this is very personal and you made it clear that this video is about your own spending and value received, but it would have been nice if you'd acknowledged the weakness of the subscription model as you went past. Third: your final cost comparison is completely invalid. You ruined it by including a comparison of the cost of GW's games to that of OPR's games in the numbers, and that has absolutely nothing to do with the cost of acquiring the minis. I can spend the time and effort to print minis and then play using 40K's rules (with my friends, of course, the entire scenario collapses if the goal is to play in official GW events) or I can spend the money to buy GW minis and then play using OPR rules. The cost of the rulebooks has NOTHING to do with this discussion and the inclusion of it is a major contributor to why this video seems, to me, less like information and more like propaganda. There are other problems with the cost comparison. On the one hand, you are including real-world numbers by only listing the money you've actually spent over the last five months. On the other hand, you are using worst-case theoretical numbers by using the full retail price on GW's website. Very few people actually pay that price; most independent stores offer a discount of between 10 and 20% off nominal retail. Moreover, your "cost of resin" is misleading. You have listed the amount you actually spent on resin, but provided no information about how many actual physical miniatures that resin has produced. To legitimately compare the costs of printing and purchasing, you need to calculate how much you would spend on resin to produce the same number of physical miniatures. As it is, we viewers have received no useful information about how much we'd spend on materials to get a particular result. The result, then, is that your "price comparison" is absolutely meaningless and collapses into a pure emotional argument rather than a useful examination of the differences between printing and purchasing miniatures. And this is extremely frustrating, because you *could* have easily produced a meaningful comparison by gathering up all the minis you've *actually printed* and estimating the cost of the resin (and electricity and spare parts) needed to produce them, adding in the cost of the printer and the cost of the relevant STLs, and comparing *that* number to what it would take to buy the equivalent GW models. Even if you properly priced the GW models by including the 10 to15% discount most people will get via an independent gaming store, the dollar values would almost certainly land squarely in favour of printing. This could have been such a valuable video - and instead it's just a puff piece that boils down to "I like printing and I don't like GW." But I think the big problem is that you, explicitly, glossed over the time and learning/frustration costs. I'm active in the R2-D2 builder's club, and in the last few years 3D printing has become a very popular tool for building full-size replicas of Artoo. That's fine, but every couple of months we get a new builder who has decided they want to 3D print their droid and knows nothing about how it works. Some of those do listen to our advice, but some just dive in and then experience massive levels of frustration because instead of spending their time building their droid they're spending it learning how to use the 3D printer. And this is just as true of gaming miniatures. 3D printing your minis instead of buying them from GW is a textbook example of how one can save time by spending money or save money by spending time, and the fact they one is making this exchange is fundamental to the decision. Of course every individual has their own personal exchange rate on how much money their time is worth, so it would be difficult to reach a nice final number about the relative cost. But the fact remains: if one chooses to move to 3D printing their own miniatures, there is a major upfront investment in both money AND TIME that *must* be spent before one has anything at all. I am, of course, just like you neglecting the money cost of all the wasted material created as one learns to use the printer. I don't have the experience with SLA to accurately predict that; with FDM, I would pin it at one to two kg of filament for an easy-to-use machine like Bambu and three to five kg for a cheap machine like an Ender 3. This cost is not trivial, but is also hard to calculate. Still, it should have been mentioned. (I acknowledge that any resin you used learning to use the machine is included in the dollar amount you've used here, because that's the cost of *all* your resin; my point is that not all of that money was actually spent on miniatures because some of it was spent on learning how, and that distinction should not have been smoothed over.) In my opinion, then, you've both chosen to make an unequal comparison of the dollar costs whilst at the same time you've glossed over a key part of the set-up costs of 3D printing. By doing so, you have seriously reduced the value of this video as a tool for anyone trying to decide between buying commercially produced minis or printing their own. I feel that the stated goal of this video is to help the viewer make a decision about what method of getting minis is best for them - but the actual result is some enthusiastic cheerleading for "print-your-own" that's not all that useful for the neophyte. To end on a high note: I did very much enjoy the style of the video; your pieces to camera are well done, the narration is clear and the audio is good. There's reasonable production value in this video and that's not true of most people on KZfaq. Finally, you did make me laugh several times (though I expect the funniest part was unintentional, because "two thousand millilitres" is absolutely hilarious). Anyway, I hope this lengthy missive comes across as a genuine critique. It's not meant to be a personal attack or to accuse you of anything, but rather to convey my impressions of the video and my concerns over the content. I hope this allows you to compare what you hoped to accomplish with how the final result is perceived, and use that information to refine your future videos. Thanks!

I think the cost should include the gloves, filters, and everything. Because you had to buy that too. Pretty cool though. But, you've spent more in the last 5 months 3d printing than I have in the last 2 years buying from GW. Anyway, I support Games Workshop because I love Warhammer.

I'm sure you don't have all those printed. 3d printing is a hobby in itself and without a climate controlled space you will have failed prints

Time is more valuable than money. Therefore 3D printing looks more expensive to me.