OK, so, here's my take. I started 3D printing first. About ten years ago, I bought my first FDM printer (Anet A8). Had to build it from a kit completely. Used the hell out of that thing (and I still do, by the way, that thing is a BEAST!). I bought a 3D printer, because I was very interested in the technical aspects and I was very curious to see what you could do with them. Gruadually, I started getting more and more interested in printing minis for D&D and while my FDM printer could get some pretty good results on larger models, tiny models didn't really come out... Right. Then, a little over a year ago, I bought my first resin printer, an Anycubic Photon Mono, in a sale for 189 dollars. That thing blew me away. The stuff you can print at home with a printer even at that price point is, frankly, still kind of magical to me. In a little over a year, I ran through nearly thrity liters of resin and the printer has been running for about 4-6 days a week, with maybe a week or so off time here and there. There is one thing I've never seen on any mini on a sprue, though: Movable chains. Yeah. You can print that stuff with a 3D-printer. Nothing like having a model of Orcus, wielding his scepter with a chain attached to the bottom and a counterweight that actually dangles on a chain consisting of individual links. This month, Loot Studios took that up a notch and released two prop medaillions, both with fulle articulated chains attached. That stuff is AMAZING! Yes, the upfront cost can be (but does not have to be!) hefty. But there are also corners you can cut. You don't NEED a wash&cure station, a cheap, 10 dollar nail curing lamp and a cheap tub with some acohol works perfectly fine, for instance. A box with 200 nitrile gloves costs about €6 where I live, paper towel. I bought a metal baking tray and some silicone mats to help with transportation of models from printer to work area for cleaning and to prevent a mess. Something I did not realise, though, is that in the EU, isoproyl alcohol is stupidly expensive (like 15-35 euro per bottle) and can be pretty hard to find. So I use bio-ethanol. It's the stuf that's used for those fireplaces and at 2 euro a bottle, it's a good price, plus it cleans very, VERY well. Then there is resin. I pay about 28 euro for a liter of Anycubic Standard Grey and that's the cheapest stuff I can find where I live. It sounds like a lot, but I can print a LOT of models (50-60 human-sized models in 32mm scale, including bases) with that. Yeah, you lose some resin in support material, but the upside is, that stuff looks an awful lot like girders and can be used pretty creatively in basing or terrain pieces you might cobble up. And then the models. I realised pretty early on that you get the most out of a 3D printer if you learn how to make 3D models yourself. Luckily, there's some really good software available for free these days. However, while I can get away pretty well with modeling stuff to print for use around the house, I'm not good enough at it (yet) to model my own minis. So I'm subscribed to both Archvillain Games and Loot Studios, which runs me about 25 dollars a month. And for that money, I get a boatload of fresh models every month, so many that I really have to haul *ss to keep up with just the printing (I've given up on keeping up with painting months ago...) Finally, you should realise there are some parts of a printer that are considered a consumable. Sooner or later, they will wear out and have to be replaced. Main things are FEP-films for the vat and the screen itself. FEP film can be pretty cheap (although my printer has a vat that takes pre-tensioned frames, so they're bit more expensive), and most (all?) new printers come with a monochrome LCD that usually lasts for quite a while, but will, eventually, wear out. Blasting loads of UV radiation through an unprotected screen apparently is not so good for it... As for ease of use. I'll be honest: My FDM printer can be very finicky. Lots of moving parts where stuff can go wrong. But my resin printer is as close to plug&play as I think 3D printing will ever get. I got maybe three or four failed prints in all that time and all ut one were my fault (not properly supported, paused the print to fill resin and not have it at the same temperature as the stuff in the vat, stuff like that), and one happened because I failed to notice the FEP film in the vat was warped. I get an insanely high success rate with that printer and operating it really is a breeze. I still use my FDM printer, generally for terrain pieces, tools and stuff around the house, so i'ts not quietly wasting away, but using it can sometimes be a bit of a pain. It's an older model, that lacks some quality of life stuff that's standard on most new printers, like auto bed-levelling, filament sensors, stuff like that. I absolutely agree on your bit about freedom. You really can just print what you like, whenever you like. I like to print stuff for my D&D games and being able to do so on demand is absolutely fantastic. And for wargaming, I can easily see a very good way to customize models and use up more of the leftover bits bu just printing some other stuff you can use them with (although that's at least grey territoy and will probably make that those models are not tournament legal). So, I think it's pretty clear that yeah, I really do like 3D printing. Once you're over the upfront cost, recurring costs are actually pretty doable, the results I get are great and you can actually print some stuff you do'nt really see in most models you can buy. But keep in mind: It is, still, very much a hobby in and of its own.

I started with a filament printer, mainly for buildings for the table. I have printed 2 buildings for my table in 2 years, but i’m constantly printing other stuff. From household items to repairs to gifts, there is so much and it’s so worth it for me.

You hit the nail on the head with the “weird mini” thought process. Without a doubt the single biggest benefit of 3-d printing is getting that one mini that makes people say “what the hell is that thing?!” 😅👍👍

I got into 3D printing before tabletop wargaming. Two things I have noticed: 1 - Games Workshop and others really are good at making miniatures and there is reason to buy theirs even if you are capable of 3D printing others. 2 - The flexibility and artistic expression in the 3D model space is amazing... and it also produces analysis paralysis because you can literally do almost anything.

I’m glad to have friends with 3D printers for the occassional favor, because as you say there is a lot of interesting stuff out there. But the fumes, cost and storage still makes having one of my own too much of a hassle. They seem to be made for people with basements and hobby rooms, and I have neither.

My best use of my 3D printer so far: I have started digitally kitbashing, printing and the painting custom minatures for the entire party in all my tabletop RPG games.

I’ve fallen in love with 3D printing for precisely the reasons you mention, plus the fact that I’m a professional 3D artist and can thus generate my own stuff relatively easily. It’s not perfect - plastic miniatures are still generally more durable, and resin is gross, nasty stuff that’s a pain to work with. But just the ability to say “oh, look, a thing”, hit some buttons, and then a few hours later you have a fancy new physical model where there wasn’t one before…it still feels like magic.

Elegoo had their Mars 3 on sale recently and I jumped on the 3d printing train and feel liberated. Before I had to either buy bits or make molds and recast bits by hand, but now I can access an entire lilbrary of figures and bits and it feels great

I use 2 filament printers to make terrain. Rocks, buildings, dungeon tiles, trees, spaçeship interiors, etc, etc... Everything from fantasy, to sçifi, bolt action, to gi joe, there are tons of free files out there for every gaming situation. I also am a toy photographer, and will sometimes take 40k files and slice them to larger scales to fit with 4" action figures.

people underestimate the cost of storage of the 3D printing station, at 12k euros per square meter in my town, 3D printing gets pretty expensive

I love using my resin printer to print extra torsos, legs, backpacks and other bits so I can use all the extra heads, arms, weapons and other parts that come in these kits. I've been able to double or triple the minis I get from a normal kit. Plus, since these are smaller and simpler to print, less failures or poor prints to deal with. This has been the game changer for me and my resin printer.

I think "making something out of nothing" is what makes printing so enjoyable for me.

Sunk cost versus on-going materials, waste, disposal, as you go on down the road it will stretch out the average print cost. Then it depends what you want to play with. I want the GW models but am okay with bits, terrain, or cool things that add to the kits.

Couldn't agree more. While the long term savings are nice, I'm much more interested in the sheer variety and freedom afforded by 3D printing. I recently got my 3D printer, and after spending a fair bit of time with various exposure test models (cones of calibration was useless, 3DRS Starship worked perfectly) to dial in the settings, I'm printing like its second nature. Its incredibly satisfying. Good luck on your journey Adam.

Personally, the biggest cost is time. I find 3d printers fascinating and the quality of resin prints is getting truly impressive. The time to setup, print, etc is time I can spend painting or gaming. If time were not a factor I'd have a 3d printer for sure.

I might be an anomaly in our little hobby - I bought into resin printing just to later get out of it. You're correct in it becomes a second hobby. Once our family had our second child, I came to terms with the fact I didn't have the time nor energy for both miniatures wargaming AND 3D printing. I had to choose one, and since the only reason for me to get into 3D printing was the other, I settled on miniatures wargaming. Yes, I feel the pinch whenever I buy miniatures I could have simply 3D printed myself, but I see it as I'm paying someone else to do that work. Great video as always Adam!

For anyone getting into the 'creating' side of 3D models, I highly recommend the channel Artisans of Vaul. The entire channel is focused on making stuff in blender specifically for 3D printing miniatures. A LOT of blender tutorials you will see are entirely focused around making 'game ready assets' which...is fine BUT a lot of the fiddly nuance needed for that doesn't always apply for 3D printing miniatures (like doing stuff so the shading looks right in blender when textures are applied etc.). Also game ready assets require a Subdivision workflow because EVERYTHING has to be in Quads, whilst this is useful for 3D printing, STL files covert everything into triangles once exported, meaning having *some* Ngons isn't a problem as long as you make sure it's going to print ok (using the 3D print addon that comes with Blender now, enable in your preferences > addons menu) checks to make sure the big 2 are present, Non-manifold edges and Intersecting faces.

Totally agree!! Best part is the crazy designs and the huge creative potential it unlocks.

Honestly it feels like a lot of 3d-printerheads don't go over the safety aspects that are needed to use these without hurting yourself or others. I'm really glad you led with the fact that you had to cut a hole in your house for proper ventilation

I jumped into a Mono X resin printer a year ago. I have printed 15mm modern, 28mm Sci-fi, Modern, Post apocalyptic, "Grim Dark" full miniatures, terrain, bits, vehicles and accessories. You are spot on with the skill and it becoming an separate hobby. I appreciate the safety concerns but I think it is a little overstated. Painting a room with latex paint is quite the dose of VOC's not even talking rattle can exposure. Usually if you can smell it just a little it is 25 PPM give or take. But the ability to kit bash, flip a model, modify the size of a model is so cool. That said, don't take others hard work and use it for profit. Use someones cool art to make your models your very own and have a cool narrative and enhance the immersion. 3D printing gives you that very cool ability. I have made stuff for Zona Alfa, Stargrave, Force on Force, Gaslands, Sludge, Gamma Wolves, Space Station Zero and many other games and it really enhanced the gaming experience and the hobby opportunities.

That's the thing... What convinced me was the freedom and cost savings of digital kitbashing. As soon as you start putting multiple GW kits together to create something, the upfront cost of 3D printing evaporates REALLY quickly. And the freedom to be able to create EXACTLY what I want for a unit? Priceless.

I absolutely see it as initial cost and upkeep vs. Overall costs. Spend upfront (it's an army box from GW) but then you can literally make anything you want, beyond just table top stuff. Also, great videos sir. Appreciate ya!

I love 3D printing as a hobby. My office - which is actually a gaming club for my group - has tons of 3D printed filament terrain. Our group gets together a few times a year to paint this terrain. Then there's the resin printing - I have printed thousands of miniatures for myself and my friends. I've taken to assembling parts or kit bashing in 3D Builder or Blender and printing fully formed models. I can't even be bothered to deal with assembly of plastic models at this point - I just get right to the damn painting and its so good.

1:50 I agree, I totally setup my hobby area with a dual exhaust system to suck the air out of the room for both the Resin printers and Airbrushing

Oh boy. I gots lots to say. First that was a great video. A good primer for those thinking about taking the leap. That said, I'd stress more, that if you are not into tinkering, don't get into printing. You WILL have to tinker. Moreover, even when everything is right, the stars will align and you WILL have print failures. Do not be discouraged. Solder on, print it again. I got into 3d printing a year ago. I realized I hadn't had a hobby in over a decade. Then I discovered folks are printing Space Marines. I hadn't messed with 40K in well over 20 years. Printing led me back to minis. Because of 3d printing I've picked up a shameful amount of codex, for Warhammer. I've discovered games like Space Station 0. Now I have a crew for ST0, I've got Marines that have the head of Mike Ermahntrout (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul), I've even got a marine that's wielding a microwave oven as a weapon for smashing space elves. I love it. Printing itself is a great hobby, but again, I will warn you, if you don't like to tinker, it may not be for you. If it is however, it is one of the greatest hobbies there is. Thanks, Brother Atom.

I loved the freedom of 3d printing, also the range of models is phenomenal. But it's a steep learning curve. I never had less than 20-30% failure rate on prints. At 3-4 hours at a time printing, that sometimes becomes a real chore.

Maybe this is a 3d printing crime but I'm lazy as sin so once I finished putting mine together. I switched to a not so stinky resin, in my case water washable anycubic doesn't smell strong to me mileage may vary I found alcohol makes a bigger smell. It's about 30 bucks for 1Kg which gets me an insane amount of Orks for my army. I really didn't dial anything in I jumped in lychee slicer dropped a supported STL and used the settings that lychee had for my resin. I have no wish to get the sharpest prints or anything. I'm certain at some point I'll have issues but it's been pretty plug and play. I've done about 150-200 prints by now. All issues have been my fault since I like to scale up a bit and lychee files don't scale equally for some reason. the other issue was removing supports so now they come off before curing which is the better way to do it I've seen. The last issue would be cleaning the FEP but it's basically all down to a system and at most takes 15 active minutes out of my day. Usually I'll clean it while another machine is running. Really the hardest part was putting it together, Also I don't usually use the washer function on the curing station. It kept dinging models. So I soak them by hand and then dry and cure them. During the summer I just leave the models in the sun for a bit. NOW FOR FILAMENT. I bought a piece of junk ali-express printer I figured they all come from china anyway. Stupid mistake. It required a lot of finesseing and saving money has cost me more time. The machine lacks the creature comforts a nice resin or filament printer would have. You see it turns out, they are not comforts but basically mandatory features I ignored. Basically good soft and a company does help ease the learning curve. It's a huge upfront investment but if you got the space and cash lying around get one. Long term the resin printer has saved me money. I'm sure I'll get more serious about it when I want to up my skills but right now I'm focused on painting skills and not machining ones. Long winded but yeap I agree the variety of models is the big seller sometimes I want something aside from grimdark. Maybe I want a cute girl or some funky dog banana hybrid. The model variety encourages me to be a better painter. Portray different moods. I also get amazing little bits for my Greenskins.

Very nicely said. It is not really about saving money, it is about freedom and possibilities and if you go down the road even your own creativity in modelling.

When 3D printing with resin the #1 thing is figuring out your wash cycle. How do you wash and clean your miniatures without poisoning your yard? Very carefully is my experience. I love 3D printing and enjoy it so much because it encourages me to keep learning and figuring things out. It’s a hobby in itself, but that’s not a bad thing. Good things do have costs.

I got an elegoo mars 3 just a few months ago. The startup with everything was under $500 , but the machine and everything has already paid for itself in a few months. As you said too the freedom of finding odd stuff that is just COOL and Interesting is a huge factor. I don't even get to play Tabletop but I love to just spend time painting mini's and enjoying the work, which this has created a much more sustainable way to get More without making me feel broke all the time.

Give this man a 3D printed Oscar.

I think one of the big benefits of 3D printers is you can print just one or two models that you want to paint/use. You don’t need to buy an entire box for $300 or so just to get that ONE MODEL you might want in your army or that interests you to paint. I think that contributes to the “Freedom” to which you speak. There are so many very cool files out there for printing. I really want one, but can’t get one until next summer for practical and financial reasons. Though, I will probably still buy minis as well.

The absolute most important aspect is that you find it fun to 3D print miniatures. If it’s not fun then buy the minis

I got into 3D printing as I was moving away from Wargaming. I played mostly 40k, and often at the Games Workshop store, so there it was more or less required of me to play with official miniatures. Then I got into roleplaying games. I wasn't always fond of the miniatures you could buy off the shelf for those games, and you really don't know what and when you'd need something. Especially player characters. Not to mention it's a 40 minute drive to the closest hobby store that sells miniatures, and there was a pandemic going on. Is it cheaper? Not at all, but I totally agree with the freedom aspect. I'm also printing things outside of gaming. Sometimes I print larger sculpts to paint. It's broadened the hobby for me.

"What are you doing in my house?" sounded like the new version of "get off my lawn!"

100% this, I got into 3d printing a four years ago at the age of 46, and have cranked out everything from household items (kitchen towel holders) to little Baby Yoda sculpts for my wife, and so many gaming items. Recently I got into Fallout Wasteland Warfare, my wife bought me the starter box for Christmas which comes with a reasonable amount of stuff, since then I have 3d printed and painted ruined buildings, scatter terrain and so many more miniatures (including my personal favorites, the Radscorpion and the Super Mutant Behemoth). 3d Printing is not for everyone, but if you can find enough to 3d print (upgrading board games, or making props for tabletop games for example) then it becomes very much worth it. It can be a rabbit hole (I now have multiple 3d printers) but it really does give you a lot of freedom if you can find enough to print.

I think saying its a slope is a fair statement. It seems impossible the first failed print, but when you dial in things, it gets easier and easier and you will hit a point where you download the stl, slice it and just go. The models from the various creators are amazing, lots of people want to print GW stuff but I love having good proxys for gloomhaven etc

I'm getting back into the hobby for the first time since 2004. I bought a 3d printer with a good mate who had the same idea and now I'm creating my very own Dark Angels, Wutang-themed chapter, Knight of the 36th Chamber. Learning how to play the game/list build/3d print/edit STLs/paint and ALL of that at one time was a huuuuuge learning curve but I'm absolutely loving it now and the army is coming together great!

Freedom of scaling models is a big benefit too. Even if you can find a production model for what you're looking for, it doesn't mean it's going to fit the scale of the game you're trying to use it in

I've been 3d printing both resin and filament for a little over a year now. I can concur that is very much its own hobby. However, I had a lot of fun(and headaches) using it. Making things that I never would have had the ability or financial means to get it.

Very much enjoying watching you on your first steps in resin printing. It tickles me tbh because I started resin printing minis for my Etsy store - I've was FDM printing before that for many years and realised that I really enjoyed painting them even tho I'm not a gamer. That in turn led me to this channel and many of the other mini-painters and TTgamers here on youtube in an attempt to improve my painting skills. Now I'm sitting watching you guys gingerly dipping your toes (not literally!! 😂) into resin as I did with acrylic paint. Love it! I hope your 3D printing journey goes smoothly and that the printer gods smile upon your buildplate, but if you hit any snags, as is often the case at first when 3D printing, I'm sure there's dozens of people who got your back and can help you out and in turn when you document those highs and lows you'll be helping out a load of people who also want to branch out into printing their own models 🤩

I have now 1 year of 3D printing miniatures and I have to agreed the cost at the beginning is high (time, money) but as time pass and you learn more it actually became quite fun. And now my friends and I are not limited to whatever miniatures are available in the store, but we can create more personal versions of our RPTP characters and villains.

As someone who is also getting into the hobby of 3d printing and also very safety conscious, I would love to see/hear about your cleaning station process. I think that would be an insightful conversation for the community. Thanks!

Great video! More power to everyone that 3D prints. Glad you enjoy. However, I’m afraid I’d have the boat owners dilemma with a 3D printer: “the two best days are the day when you buy it and the day you sell it”.

The additional bonus of "Sticking it to the man" Priceless!

Amazing options for terrain and basing. Great for modifying or repairing commercial minis.

My son (6) loves 3D-printed minis for learning how to paint. As every father knows intrests in Kids fluctuate rapidly. If he wants to paint a dragon this week boom there you go. If he wants a Super Mario next week? No problem... finding new minis is a googlesearch

As someone who went to resin printing a year ago, it has absolutely paid for itself. Also, kitbashing through Blender, Meshmixer and even TinkerCad is not only super viable, but also very fun.

I’ve been doing 3D printing for a year, now, and it’s HARD. It’s a pain in the ass, but when it works you can make some REALLY COOL STUFF.

My biggest thing with 3d printing is that it lets me explore more games that I never would have otherwise played. Plus i print things that you wouldn't be able to find in a standard hobby store, like busts and statues.

For me it’s not really the price that is the determining factor, it’s storage space. Even with plastic boxes, magnetic sheets and magnets, armies still take up a lot of space. If I won the lottery and could buy a bigger house, absolutely I would get a printer to access the armies that I can’t buy from GW etc. But, I haven’t had any success with the lottery so far

3D printing is also pretty great for people who live in places where the hobby is not that big. Here in Brazil if you want to get into the hobby you will end up having to import stuff sooner or later, or buy from some shop who imported themselves and put a huge markup on price because of heavy taxation. (for example, the Recruit Edition Starter Set from 40k is more than 110 USD most of the time). On the other hand, a 2K 3D printer is actually cheaper than a Kill Team box set, so yeah, 3d printing is a no brainer here.

Uncle Atom- I believe the particular phrase you were getting at is economies of scale. It's the same principle that GW uses when they make a new mold for the miniatures they sell or when Ford builds a new factory to build cars. The more you utilize it, the less expensive it becomes for each separate unit produced.

Picked up a Saturn Ultra and took some heat at home for it. Pretty soon after our Dyson vacuum broke. Took me 5 mins to find an STL file for a new trigger on Thingiverse, an hour to print and swap it out. Basically saved $600 for a new vacuum and the printer became the hero.

It begins! Honestly resin printing can be as straight forward or as complex as you want it to be, and assuming the bed is level, your settings are dialed in, and the presupported files are good then you're gonna find printing minis as easy and trouble-free as making breakfast. Also to keep your bed level for essentially forever, and make post processing 1000x easier definitely pick up and install a wham bam flex plate.

One thing I think that's worth adding is that 3D printers are an absolutely phenomenal bargain if painting minis is a big part of the hobby for you, or even the primary part. I didn't get serious (or even halfway decent) about painting until I got into 3D printing. Why? Because I suddenly didn't have to care about my miniatures anymore. It was a lot more fun and less stressful when I knew I could reprint the same mini for pennies if I wasn't happy with my results. I could practice repeatedly on the same model and see where I was making progress and where I still needed to improve. It's also nice being able to pick up bizarre stuff solely for painting, or to experiment with different color schemes by just tossing some paint on a model and not worrying too much about the final result. Obviously plenty of people do it, but buying models just for painting practice or to mess around becomes cost-prohibitive very, very quickly. Meanwhile, I just pulled a build plate with 20 models that I'm going to speed paint and then probably forget about, and it cost me less than a dollar in resin to do it.

As someone into niche corners of an already niche market I love 3d printing for the weird and unusual. But mostly for terrain pieces.

Cool, would love to see your collection of weird minis. I'm still on the fence about printing, but see the potential you're describing. If you could keep the channel updated on what's coming up, brands, prices, etc, it would be awesome.

I got into 3D printing looking exactly for that freedom of being able to print whatever I wanted whenever I wanted it and it's been amazing. Another big big advantage for me is being able to, well, print things several times. Whenever I fail painting one miniature or I'm not happy with the result, or even if I want to train painting swords, I can just print it again. It probably only costed me 3-4hrs of printing time, 10mins of cleaning/curing and probably less than 1$ in material

3D printing is awesome. I just hope people continue to buy models from the games they like so the support keeps the game alive. Heres looking at Star Wars Legion and people who have never bought a model for the game because they have full 3D printed armies.

Great video as always Uncle Atom and the acting was phenomenal! LOL! My friendly neighborhood gaming store now does 3D printing on demand and their prices are so reasonable that I have gone a bit overboard with what they print for me! Oh the possibilities!

One Page Rules recommended printer settings 2022 are ideal if you don't want to go through the process of precisely dialling in your print settings. Also, as a last step before exporting your stl file to print, you should open it in the Windows 3D Builder app to check for errors and repair it. I don't know how it finds and repairs errors that the other apps don't but it has saved every file that previously failed to print for me including presupported models. Just be aware that the bigger the file the longer it will take to repair it (possibly hours for a full build plate) so leaving it running in the background and occasionally checking on its progress is best way to use it imo.

Resin and filament printing are their own masteries. I've loved learning these new hobbies and have actually earned commissions for people wanting armies. Now my hobby funds itself, in a way. Had a wargaming session where 100% of the terrain and models were printed on my printers, which felt massively fulfilling.

Right now I'm waiting in anticipation of the arrival of a Mars 2 Pro, my first 3d printer.

I'm in the "I don't need another hobby" camp. There are tons of display figures I would love to print and paint though. Those 8k printers are amazing as I recently bought an 8k print and was truly amazed. The digital kit bashing would be awesome as well. On the other hand most of the figures I buy come from over seas so add in the cost of shipping to the equation and printed minis come out ahead a bit more too. Maybe "someday" if more of my favorite European sculptors start selling STLs vs cast models. I am probably going to buy into a kickstarter on that front very soon.

I have 2 FDM printers and I just bought an Anycubic Mono SE which I got new for $149 Australian dollars. I can get 1 kg of resin for $20. To save money on buying a wash and cure I just purchased a UV lamp and a rotating stand which together cost me $25. I'll build my own enclosure for it. I'm actually going to be starting up a budget tabletop KZfaq channel to discuss things like this.

Here’s a good tip for you. For resin prints use resin and cure to attach parts instead of glue.

3D printing is still, at the moment, a hobby for most of use who don't do it industrially. Include the creativity of people who might not work for *Insert company name here* and the ability to print almost anything, not simply minis and terrain pieces. I've printed pieces for 40K, WHFantasy, Call of Cthulhu, D&D, as well as small sculptural pieces for my Mother and gifts for friends. About to invest in a mono, higher resolution screen plus upgraded board to cut my printing time in half while increasing the apparent quality of my minis - for about half what it would cost to buy a printer with those specs right now. Started 3d printing during Covid and love this extension to my hobby.

What are you doing in my house? I'm popping in to see my uncle, uncle atom

Great video. I thought this was going to be about $ and I was going to share my numbers as well for costs vs army size. It seems like we are entering Resin printing at roughly the same time. I look forward to seeing your progress as well and adding any tricks to my ever-expanding bag. One of the things I love about kit-bashing, and 3D printing in general, is I can now create my army that GW literally laughed me out of their store for when I was a kid. I started with Vampire Counts and I wanted to evolve it into a Dwarven VC army. Basically, a Slayer-led army going after the Count family that turned them.

I started less than 6 months ago with a resin printer and t took me only 4 print runs to get the settings right. I set up my prints at 0.03 for the layers (bang for buck in my opinion) and let it go over night. In the morning, I open the window and the room is aired out in a few minutes. I don't use a curing station; the sun was doing the trick just fine. Now that we are coming to winter, I have started using a UV lamp I bought for 10 euro. The savings have been massive for me.

Painting a mini you can reprint in a few hours is so insanely freeing if you have any hesitation painting something you spent a good chunk of money on. 3D printing has been one of the most satisfying hobbies I’ve gotten into. It’s got a learning curve for sure, but once it clicks and you get into the routine, it just goes. Hit print, go to work, come home, clean the print and let it dry, hit print, check 1st print UV if dry enough, clean 2nd print… easily print 2 plates a day without too much time management.

I look forward to the sequel.

FDM has been awesome for larger prints like terrain and vehicles. You may miss that super fine detail of but it's quite a savings for a $20 spool, a work day's worth of time while I'm gone and boom after shift its ready to be pulled off the bed. It's definitely got a good learning curb but the communities out there are amazing. If there isn't already a Discord or some other way to get the minions help, now would be the time Uncle Atom as we got plenty of fresh blood that will be putting 3D printers for the holidays. Be more than happy to help as best I can.

I got a phozen sonic mighty 4K, and it has already paid for itself. I now have a 2000pt tomb king proxy army (8th Ed) and a 1000pts of vampire counts, beyond all the other miscellaneous bits and bobs.

I’m new to the 3d printing world but have been having a blast with it the last month now. I didn’t even think about the possibilities of kit bashing since I now have access to print bits I might have and want to use! Excellent idea there!

I’ve got a out door hobby building….I play warmaster, decided I wanted to get into epic….star grave, space station zero, many other games….I need some minis? Search online, arrange plate….print, I can have a force/crew printed and painted by Sunday….I printed a full chaos warmaster army for literal cents, “discontinued” games 3D printing is a god send….

Still waiting on the robot squirrel knights, Atom. No more excuses!

Thanks for the video. I have been thinking along these lines, too. 3D printing is a hobby. It is transformative. I look forward to seeing more of what you produce.

The learning curve can be steep but the freedom and possibilities are well worth it.

So I won't say how much I have spent but I will mention ratios of how much I've spent in comparison to buying regular models. But, I've been keeping careful track of all the materials, files, and other stuff I need for 3d printing and how much ive spent. With my printers, wash and cure station, all the files, the material, and other nick nacks for 3d printing I've bought, I have spent about 5/7ths of what I wouldve spent if I had bought the actual models.

I think 3D printing and indie wargaming go hand in hand as well. You see a cool ruleset on wargames vault that uses a weird scale or needs specific things like ww2 ships or space fighters, or anything really, then 3D printing has you covered. I truly think that in the next few years we're going to get a whole bunch of exciting new games outside of the current dominant companies just because of this.

I never consider printing a large number of copyright infringing stuff. 3D printing is great for out of left field stuff though. Out of print sculpts, poses or equipment for certain minis, superior fan made sculpts for ugly official models and so on. For a TTRPG DM on the other hand 3D printing is stellar. You can find anything. Really. I‘m off to printing spooky kobolds for my halloween session, see you!

Even with the big upfront cost, Ive already printed two full armies for myself and a friend, omw to a 3rd and 4th next month. 1-2 bottles of resin (40-80$) and ive got a full 2k OPR army now and some more, dont regret this at all

I have a few printers, resin and fdm, they are great especially for new painters. Get to practice painting techniques on minis for next to nothing 👍 then if you want you can buy a model you like. For me I always hated the high cost of minis given how much you have to paint to get good.

The freedom is the most important aspect for me. I use my 3d printer for d&d: npcs, monsters and terrain, there isn't a single concept that I want in my campaign that I can't find fitting models for.

I just use the recommended settings that came with my Mars printer and have very very rarely had a problem.

Welcome to the 3D printing world. You make great points. When you find a Patreon you like and can subscribe to, those STL costs get even lower. $10 for a handful of models that you can print forever is a great price!

I've been 3D printing for over a year now and it's a great side-hobby. A positive to consider is you can scale your models up or down to make tiny-hammer or even mini-busts. Not to mention kitbashing right in your print software. A negative to consider though is you'll want to get cheap resin but pay extra to get some extra-tough or flexible resin for the final prints you want to paint. I started with cheap water washable resin and spent a lot of time, money, and effort printing and painting an army. I was heartbroken the first time a model slipped out of my fingers and shattered. Resin is brittle and the best models you're going to want to print have some of the most spindly little pieces. Once you learn and get your process down, start mixing resins and including some of the hard stuff so that your models can hold up to a fall.

The freedom you get is absolutley worth it. I bought my Resin printer when HH 2.0 came and because GW didtn do Dark Angel Heads for a reasonable Price, i simply bought some awesome helms of Cults. Then i found Squad Marking Shoulders with the Troop, Elite, etc symbol and added them to my minis, then i designed my own MK6 shoulders with studs and the DA logo. now i can make my army look how i want to, make my characters individual and i can print whatever i want in the quantity i need. And as a Board Game collector i can make my own organizers. Hell, i just started making my own nameplates for small bases and selling them for a few bucks in my gaming club, basicly financing my Resin and Isoprop.

Thabpnks for this video. The way you have explained the 3D printing thing has convinced me that it is the way of the future...Though I have a lifetime or two worth of models to build and paint my stash, the idea of being able to not only print things you can find at various sites, but to create your own designs, or as you say swap bits digitally between STLs, is staggering for the potential and really appeals to my creative urge. In my own case, it may be just the reason to finally learn computer skills and even perhaps buy one! Yes I am a dinosaur.....! Thanks again! A really thought provoking and in a way, exciting video!

An interesting breakdown of the barrier-to-entry cost vs economy-of-scale cost! Much like you, the big benefit to me from having a printer is supplementary products rather than replacement ones. Sure, I much prefer my STL orks to most of the official ones...but I have no qualms buying models I like, the 12 feet of shelf space full of boxes for Bolt Action stuff is no better testament to that. Stuff I can't get, and stuff that is prohibitively expensive though...ships for minis-agnostic fleet games, 'table centerpiece' terrain objects like castles, in-game units where there are no models made...or even scale changes to make display pieces from game pieces or the same amount of battle fit on less table, that's where having my printer really really shines. It's because of that I'm one of the rare few who thinks that both methods...manufactured and print-on-demand [be it at home or through a store] have a place in the future of wargaming.

The obvious slightly creepy joke would be “we are always in your house”. Really good information on 3d printing and it is another aspect of the hobby that will depend on your situation and the itch it will scratch.

This kind of videos always tends to forget about the most important part which is 3D printers don't just print minis. Just to use the bus vs bike analogy again, the bus will get you from bus stops to bus stops while your bike can drive you wherever you want. 3D printers can print minis, terrain, dices, tokens but also that little 80$ pièce of plastic that hold your new gadget to a wall, or an adapter for the battery of your drill, or a drilling template for installing hinge to a cabinet... To the question "do you need a 3D printer for your tabletop games?" the answer is "it depends", but if the question is "do you need a 3D printer as a maker?" the answer is a definite YES!

"What are you doing in my house?" Fun fact Adam! We live in your walls!

FREEDOM!! Two printers in our house since this summer and it’s an eye opening amount of exhilarating freedom! Wanted to for years and always was hesitant to pull the trigger since I play/paint mostly historical and there is not a lot out there for history people. But the terrain, and trays and buildings justify the purchases already! Yes there are the sink costs amortizing over time blah blah blah. There is also the ability to print fun stuff you would never plunk for otherwise. I feel like it increases the size of the sculptor community and takes economic casting decisions out of the way from you getting a a sculpt you like that others might not. Bravo for your take on this!

I have my resin 3D printer in a spare room with a window fan set up right behind them for ventilation. It was surprisingly not that bad for me there at least. I started with a Voxelab Proxima resin printer that I got on sale for like, $120 and i see them sell for about $160 now. it's a 2k resolution printer, but it was mainly for enemy mobs for things like D&D. Now I have an Anycubic Photon mono X 6K (though i won that thing in a painting competition, so cost doesn't really count on that) and honestly, with as many miniatures as I've printed, I've definitely spent a lot less than i would if i had bought equivalent models from hobby shops. Just from good old Uncle Adam's studios, I've printed up 3 cabals of demons for Reign in Hell, as well as a whole separate set of miniatures for each of the Oculus Spear campaign's enemies. I also have 2 ship crews made for Space Station Zero, as well as a whole assortment of various interesting and nasty looking mutants, aliens and robots for the enemies. Those games alone i've probably printed out nearly 60 miniatures and it only cost me as much as the bottle of resin now, and that's ONLY those. I have a full army for One Page Rules game of Grimdark Future, a crew and a whole ton of models for Five Parsecs from Home, countless D&D miniatures, assorted guns and armor that were glued onto Hot Wheels cars for Gaslands, the list definitely goes on and on and on. Sure, a 3D printer and supplies are a big initial investment, but you are definitely hitting the nail on the head about it being a lower cost overall. with the cost of the first printer i got and a bottle of resin, the ventilation fan and the wash and cure station, I probably dropped close to $400. But the number of miniatures i've made, if i bought equivalent stuff from my hobby shop? That would have to be several thousand dollars by this point.

My buddy and I bought a printer (and all the other stuff, obviously) after calculating the cost. We found out that we are too dumb to make the calculation accurate, but basically: The upfront costs are substantial, but if you print more than 3 armies (2000 points Warhammer, roughly) you are in the clear, fiscally. We already printed two in a couple of months.

Bought bought an anycubic mono and 3 bottles of resin for $250. 2 months later I have a 1500 pt khorne demon army that would've cost $550 from GW. Plus a few tanks and randoms for fun. Sooooo worth the initial investment.

I agree with you. I’m actually new to the war game world, long time RPG, but new to this. Played for the first time this year (Legion), taught myself 3D printing and 3D Design and Sculpting in the past 2-3 years. Just released my first set of 3D terrain on Gumroad. Due to a life changing accident I had to reinvent myself, and thanks to creators like you found a new purpose in life. I actually love designing and printing, and game when I physically can. I’m hoping to earn a living from this. Even if I don’t it’s therapeutic and fun. Big THANK YOU.