Best 3D Printing Type for RPG Players

Delineate What You Want to Print

It’s a tradeoff. You’re either getting superb resolution and quality or batching out a ton of material, for a lower cost/effort. The key point that defines the best 3D printing types for RPG players if defined by themselves. That is, figuring out what you’re going to print. 

Are you mostly interested in miniatures and small parts of a scenario, such as bushes, benches, animals? Standard miniatures have a 32 mm height (about 1¼ in), so the lower a resolution can get, the better. Some FDM printers under the right conditions can boast a 0.05mm layer height. Resin printers, however, can double that resolution with relatively less effort.

On the other hand, nobody might look at the scales under a giant dragon’s pinky or at the slightly misaligned window of the 4th floor on the second house in your campaign’s 3rd act scenario. Running an FDM printer takes a lot less effort and the build volume tends to be a lot bigger than a resin printer’s.

Siding With FDM

If you’re making big things and want less post-processing, FDM printers offer an interesting tradeoff by giving up some of the resolution for a great deal of efficiency. We’re talking scenery, props, statues, busts. The square-cube law becomes very scary, very quickly in terms of printing time and cost. A loss in resolution for a 2+ft tall miniature doesn’t matter much in face of how many seams must be dealt with if it were done in a resin printer. In fact, our props are done precisely this way, and they look great! Of course, models can be made in such a way that these seams are hidden, but then we’re not talking to beginners anymore. Not to say that these machines can’t offer highly detailed miniatures. There’s plenty of literature, podcasts and videos detailing how to get the most precision out of your machine.

Siding With Resin

On the other hand, these are made to be small. I paid for the best-looking most-detailed realistic depiction of a warrior in 32mm and gosh-dang it if I don’t want to cram as much information as possible in those meeleemeeters. A desire to have the absolute best looking figure to hold and contemplate is also a good reason to justify this type of 3D printing. You want to just try to make them look as good, as efficiently as possible just for the sake of it. That’s where a resin printer shines. If you’re dealing with parts up to 8 in tall, this can usually be some with minimal extra precautions on a resin printer.

It’s Up to You

As you suspected, every miniature of our bundles is made with a resin printer for the promotional pictures. In this scale, this is what looks best. There’s a steeper learning curve regarding resin printers, but it can be overcome. For example, when dealing with big prints, it’s always interesting to work with hollowed parts. That saves resin and printing time while looking almost completely the same. We have a guide on that, check it out here.

Loot Studios can help you print highly detailed minis, statues and props. Choose your favorite bundle from our previous releases or sign up for Fantasy or Sci-Fi to receive a new bundle every month. You can also check out some tips at our YouTube Channel.